So I've finally decided to ditch the ageing SD television in favour of a spanky new HD 32" job and now I'm ready to enter the world of broadcast HD TV. Problem is that I'm not really sure the best way to do this.

I currently have a Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-TD-Stick which is a dual DVB-T tuner USB dongle. I ditched the remote and bought an MCE one instead. Works like a charm.

My flat has a big satellite dish on it, so I can use Freesat (DVB-S2) or Freeview HD (DVB-T2):

1. DVB-T2 would seem to be the best route, but no-one seems to be making a USB dual tuner dongle yet.
2. DVB-S2 would seem to be there next best route, but I get the impression that you don't get EPG guide data for Freesat and therefore you have to fork out extra money for a replacement EPG (BigScreen EPG) and potentially a subscription to Digiguide if the Radio Times one isn't good enough for you. Oh and the scraper that you need to use with Digiguide isn't officially endorsed by them so could break at any time.
   

(1) is annoying and (2) just seems to be an pain in the backside to set up, adds a lot of hidden extra costs and has the potential to break at any point in time.

Can anyone please advise on the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get BBC1 HD and ITV 1 HD onto my Media Center?

Thanks.

As far as I know there are no dvb-t2 pc tuners expected anytime soon.

dvb-s is probably your best bet.

The missing epg data problem on freesat is limited to some of the movie/music/shopping channels, all 'mainstream' channels get full 14day listings.

The only hoop you will need to jump through is the itv1 hd hack from Alban.

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/p/87779/448741.aspx

All freesat channels are currently dvb-s rather than dvb-s2 so it's up to you whether you go for a dvb-s2 tuner in case freesat moves to -s2 in the future.

I think most if not all usb sat tuners are dvb-s only anyway.

Post back if want any more info.

Thanks for the information, DVB-S it is.

Do you (or anyone else) have recommendations on what dual tuner DVB-S USB dongles will happily work with W7MC and co-exist with my Hauppauge one?

There is, obviously, the WinTV-NOVA-S-USB2 but it's quite expensive for a single tuner device which only gets me 2 HD channels!

 Slightly OT but hey HB got a avermedia usb tuner for DVB-T off ebay and switching of freeview channels is a dream compared to the pinnacle and back on topic theres quite a few usb dvbs usb dongles kicking about from the likes of avermedia, kworld and compro.

Regards

mrsilver

Do you (or anyone else) have recommendations on what dual tuner DVB-S USB dongles will happily work with W7MC and co-exist with my Hauppauge one?

I've never used usb dvb-s so I can't offer much help there.

I don't think I've ever seen a dual usb dvb-s tuner.

I think there is / was an issue with installing multiple Nova-S-USB2 tuners also, so you would probably have to look elsewhere for a 2nd tuner.

There are pci / pcie cards - it depends what slots you have available if any?

Chuzzwuzza

hey HB got a avermedia usb tuner for DVB-T off ebay and switching of freeview channels is a dream compared to the pinnacle

Hi Chuzz, good to know, how's standby/resume working? I rarely watch dvb-t live so it's not an issue for me at the moment.

I can probably live with a single DVB-S tuner but sadly it has to be USB based as my Media Centre is a Nettop (Eee Box EB1012).

Thanks for the heads-up about multiple Nova USB tuners, will make sure I avoid them.

I got a Hauppauge WinTV, NOVA-HD-S2, Satellite Card for 56 pounds on ebay that gets BBC and ITV HD perfectly from my existing sky Dish ( I dont use sky anymore)

 Assuming you already have a dish lined up to Astra/Eurobird

The compro Videomate S350 is the cheapest pci card for DVBs about £25.00 works out of the box and is supported by windows update you will also probably need to read this thread as there have been issues with ITV HD and 7

Thanks for this, however the S350 is a PCI card which cannot fit inside my Nettop :(

I saw the Compro VideoMate S500 which is a (very well priced) USB version but according to several of the commenter's on eBuyer it is not compatible with Windows 7 and they (Compro) don't have any plans to make it compatible.

A quick check on the Compro website shows that it's only compatible with XP and Visa SP1 - which would indicate it's a forgotten line. Sadly.

Seems the Tevii S660 is Win7 and MCE compatible.