So i recently decided to stop using my Zgemma H2 and H2s boxes because i wanted to have TV inside Kodi as well as everything else, although the H2 and H2s supported the Enigma2 Kodi Addon it just didn’t work that great. I had 2x DVBSky S952 which i bought awhile ago which i used back in the Windows 7 Media Centre days worked great until Microsoft changed there EPG Provider so was rendered useless as no working EPG Guide means no Record etc. Then i decided to throw both of the DVB-S952 in a Linux and built the firmware from scratch and did testing with Tvheadend as well as MythTV i got both cards working in both Tvheadend and MythTV i prefer Tvheadend as its plain easy to setup but has issues with DVB-S/S2 EPG Guide listings without the Freesat Home Transponder. MythTV works okay but you have to setup a MySQL Database as well all the setup for MythTV itself it has much better EIT than Tvheadend, EIT meaning Over the Air EPG but its TV Channel management sucks unlike Tvheadend. I choose to go with Tvheadend along with the 2x DVBSky S92 cards and had quad tuners setup with a fully working EPG Guide Listings when i added the Freesat Home Transponder.

Freesat decided that they wanted to remove a few channels from there EPG Service, remember Freesat is a EPG Service not a TV Service like Sky or Virgin so i decided to think things through as its kinda dumb to have BBC One HD, BBC Two HD, ITV HD, Channel 5 HD oh wait wheres Channel 4HD gone? thats right its been removed so no EPG Guide Listings at this point i was kinda stuck as i had no EPG for Channel 4HD but i got EPG listenings for everything else, only problem with Satellite is that if there’s a channel removed or added another working channel can either stop working or change to another channel due to a frequency change, i was then looking round for alternatives because it was annoying to have a full setup working but then needing to re-scan it every time a channel was added to the 28.2E Astra Satellite.

I looked at the HDhomerun twin and Quad Tuners, if you didnt know HDHomerun only supports DVB-T/T2 Tuners which is Terrestrial which works with UK and Ireland Freeview but the price is quite expensive also has a good implementation with Kodi in Linux and Android also Windows and macOS, decided to look around more on the Internet for a supported PCI-E DVB-T/T2 Tuner Card and came across the Hauppauge QuadHD Card which is a Quad DVB-T/T2 Tuners also supports DVB-C/C2 which is Cable and would work with Virgin so best of both worlds although i was only interested in the DVB/T/T2 Tuners for Freeview. This card supports Linux and has its own ppa so that means native updates and firmware updates once the ppa is added although there are USB Tuners which works well in Linux but to install inside a full production App Server i wouldnt recommend a USB Tuner it also needs to be stable because being in a full production server thats used for a Mail and Web Server along with Storage Servers Services for clients and family it needs to be stable cannot have the down time.

I decided to buy the QuadHD Card over the HDHomerun not just because of the native support but for the price the Homerun costs a lot more well too much for what a Tuner that just sits on the local network and acts as a Networked Tuner, so i ordered the Card and put the card inside a test linux box that i dual booted with Ubuntu Server as well as Ubuntu Desktop and did some testing and i must say its easy to setup and it just works backed up the Tvheadend Config from the test rig then I then installed the Card inside Velvet my App Server which had the other two DVB-Sky S952 Cards i removed one of the cards and replaced the one i removed with the new QuadHD Card added the ppa and installed the media-tree along with the firmware and copied the working config from the test rig and worked great actually its running alongside the DVBSky S952 Twin Card so have the best of both worlds as well as have the Channel 4HD back in its place finally even with a working EPG despite of buying another tuner i acutally got Channel 4+1HD and few more channels which is great.

Kodi and Tvheadend works great switching from one channel to another is no problem also recording on each tuner even switching from Freeview to Freesat or from Freesat to Freeview is no problem neither Tvheadend handles it perfect and works on any device that has the Tvheadend PVR Addon, Tvheadend is also used outside the local network for family and friends.

Overall im impressed with the Card and works great in a full production App Server.