PVR/Tuner cards

Live TV, PVR & Radio Contents
PVR main page 1. Tuner Cards 2. Backends 3. Setup 4. Live TV Artwork
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PVR

Tuner cards

Introduction

A Tuner Card is a device that allows connecting a coaxial cable from a household TV antenna connection or set top box to your computer to view and stream TV and radio channels to your PC and other devices.

Consider the following when selecting a tuner card:

• Check the card is compatible with the computer and operating system it will be installed on
• Check the card is compatible with the backend you have chosen
• Check the card supports the terrestrial streams in your country. See... Broadcast Standards by Country

For a proper Live TV and PVR experience the computer you install it on will need to run continuously.

Three main types of tuner cards are commonly available:

Internal Card

The internal TV tuner card is designed to be fitted inside a PC and is perfect for a dedicated HTPC setup. The coaxial cable is then plugged into the rear of the PC. Drivers will be provided. Basic PVR software may also be provided.

USB Dongle

The USB tuner dongle can be plugged into the USB port of your computer and the coaxial cable is plugged into the rear of the USB dongle. Drivers will be provided. Basic PVR software may also be provided. If using a Raspberry Pi to host the backend software, a USB Dongle TV tuner is required. Ensure the RPi can cope with power requirements of the dongle. Also confirm that it works with both Linux OS and the Raspberry Pi hardware.

Network Attached Device

If you do not have a suitable computer for the previous two cards, then a network attached tuner card might be suitable, assuming you do have a network available. The device is plugged into the network via a regular RJ45 ethernet port and the coaxial cable is plugged into the device. Your other devices on the network can then access the TV and radio channel streams. A wifi based network is not recommended and may not be supported on the device. Some of these devices require a paid subscription to the manufacturer to access all its features.

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