My old FTA receiver (Diamond 9000HD) recently died, and since I currently have a MythTV backend running on a repurposed Mac Mini (using Mythbuntu Linux as the OS, NOT OS X) and a HDHomeRun Dual that does a pretty good job of receiving and recording OTA programs, I am thinking about extending it to have FTA satellite reception capability. The problem is my satellite system is rather old (for example, the dish is an old 10' Winegard with the square pole, and the feedhorn has both C and Ku LNB's and the blue polorotor to switch polarities, etc. We're talking technology at least a decade old here, maybe more).
So my thought was to upgrade, but there are two criteria:
1. The Mac Mini doesn't have card slots, so I can't use any card based tuners.
2. I am an old fart cheapskate and damn proud of it, so I'm not going out and spending money with wild abandon on this project. In other words, NO I won't buy another computer so I can use a PCI card.
I mention #2 because when I read past threads this forum I notice that some people like to tell others how to spend their money and imply they're cheapskates if they don't use the best available. If you call me a cheapskate I'll take it as a complement and I still won't buy the most expensive part! But I might be willing to spend a few bucks extra to get significantly better quality, or to get something that won't die on me in the first year or two. Even I understand false economy.
So here is what I am thinking of doing (though probably not until the weather gets a bit warmer - mid-January is just not the time to do this sort of thing where I live):
- Using a TBS Technologies TBS5922 to get the satellite signals into my MythTV backend. The only thing that stops me is I cannot find a comprehensive review of this device anywhere. On the flip side I don't find any complaints, so I guess that counts for something, but I'd sure like to hear from someone who is actually using one of these, particularly if using it with Linux.
- Getting rid of my old analog receiver that I use to move the dish (is ANYTHING still in analog anymore?), and using a DiSEqC controlled dish mover such as the GBox V3000 Satellite Position/Controller, which has a great review on your site but Sadoun seems to be out of stock on them, or maybe a VBox 7 DiSEqC Positioner which Sadoun has in stock, but which I don't see reviewed.
- I'm also guessing it's time for a new feedhorn and would probably get a C/Ku unit like one of these for that purpose and use a 22KHz tone switch to switch between inputs. That way I don't have to deal with the polorotor anymore, plus I would imagine that LNB technology has improved quite a bit over the years.
But before I lay out that kind of money — and that is a significant amount for me — I'd like to know if there are any flaws in this plan. The biggest thing that concerns me is the TBS5922, because I have never used something like that before. They say it is compatible with MythTV so in theory it should work, but as we all know, what manufacturers claim and the reality of the situation is often somewhat different. I'm just kind of surprised that no one has reviewed it in the hardware reviews section because I would have thought there would be an interest in something like that.
For those that don't get why I'm interested in this, the beauty is that you can set up a MythTV backend system near where your signals come into a home or building, and then run the MythTV frontend software on any other computer on the local network (including a home theater PC that feeds your TV) and watch the received signals there. So as long as you have a connection to your local network, and assuming that your router (and switches, if any) are not ancient (and slow), you are not limited to watching TV only in the places where you have run coaxial cable. I've always found it's a lot easier to run networking cable than coax, and once the signal is converted to TCP/IP there is no further signal loss. It makes it possible to watch TV in places where that would have formerly have been impractical, plus MythTV has PVR capability built in. It just opens up a lot of interesting possibilities that did not exist heretofore.
So my thought was to upgrade, but there are two criteria:
1. The Mac Mini doesn't have card slots, so I can't use any card based tuners.
2. I am an old fart cheapskate and damn proud of it, so I'm not going out and spending money with wild abandon on this project. In other words, NO I won't buy another computer so I can use a PCI card.
I mention #2 because when I read past threads this forum I notice that some people like to tell others how to spend their money and imply they're cheapskates if they don't use the best available. If you call me a cheapskate I'll take it as a complement and I still won't buy the most expensive part! But I might be willing to spend a few bucks extra to get significantly better quality, or to get something that won't die on me in the first year or two. Even I understand false economy.
So here is what I am thinking of doing (though probably not until the weather gets a bit warmer - mid-January is just not the time to do this sort of thing where I live):
- Using a TBS Technologies TBS5922 to get the satellite signals into my MythTV backend. The only thing that stops me is I cannot find a comprehensive review of this device anywhere. On the flip side I don't find any complaints, so I guess that counts for something, but I'd sure like to hear from someone who is actually using one of these, particularly if using it with Linux.
- Getting rid of my old analog receiver that I use to move the dish (is ANYTHING still in analog anymore?), and using a DiSEqC controlled dish mover such as the GBox V3000 Satellite Position/Controller, which has a great review on your site but Sadoun seems to be out of stock on them, or maybe a VBox 7 DiSEqC Positioner which Sadoun has in stock, but which I don't see reviewed.
- I'm also guessing it's time for a new feedhorn and would probably get a C/Ku unit like one of these for that purpose and use a 22KHz tone switch to switch between inputs. That way I don't have to deal with the polorotor anymore, plus I would imagine that LNB technology has improved quite a bit over the years.
But before I lay out that kind of money — and that is a significant amount for me — I'd like to know if there are any flaws in this plan. The biggest thing that concerns me is the TBS5922, because I have never used something like that before. They say it is compatible with MythTV so in theory it should work, but as we all know, what manufacturers claim and the reality of the situation is often somewhat different. I'm just kind of surprised that no one has reviewed it in the hardware reviews section because I would have thought there would be an interest in something like that.
For those that don't get why I'm interested in this, the beauty is that you can set up a MythTV backend system near where your signals come into a home or building, and then run the MythTV frontend software on any other computer on the local network (including a home theater PC that feeds your TV) and watch the received signals there. So as long as you have a connection to your local network, and assuming that your router (and switches, if any) are not ancient (and slow), you are not limited to watching TV only in the places where you have run coaxial cable. I've always found it's a lot easier to run networking cable than coax, and once the signal is converted to TCP/IP there is no further signal loss. It makes it possible to watch TV in places where that would have formerly have been impractical, plus MythTV has PVR capability built in. It just opens up a lot of interesting possibilities that did not exist heretofore.
