Tuners that I got to work with BYOB IceBox

[IanL-S]

I have got XBOX ONE USB tuner to work with my BYOB IceBox; also got the Sony PlayTV Dual USB tuner to work. Tuners that work with my Beyonwiz also appear to work.

Update - more detailed information

USB Tuners
IceTV Dual USB [Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD] (Silicon Labs Si2168)
XBOX ONE (Panasonic MN88472)
Sony PlayTV dual tuner (DiBcom 7000PC)
Tuner from Beyonwiz (Afatech AF9033)
Generic USB tuner (Realtek RTL2832)

PCIe Tuners
Hauppauge PCIe card: HVR-QuadHD PCIe (?)

Update 2: Some USB tuners are less reliable than others. The Beyonwiz tuners can be flakey (as they are, in my experience, on the T2). Also potentially problematic are Generic USB tuner mentioned above - the problem is with the way it connects to the recorder, not the chipset itself; the same would go for the Beyonwiz tuner.

Update 3: Tuner support in the current beta firmware seems to have improved, particularly with generic tuners.


Ian

[NBOSTI]

Hi Ian-sl, how is the software working so far?
I understand that this is in Beta, but are there any issues pertaining to this that are not already covered or discussed in the icebox forum? Particular to BYOB itself? Tuner compatibility itself aside.
As a free download I was thinking of trying to set this up on a Mac Mini using an Elgato Diversity stick over the Easter long weekend.
 It will probably occupy a great deal of that time. But if anything I am persistent and will try to make it work.
If successful, it will be more of stubborn persistence over technical know-how.
but might be useful for others.

[IanL-S]

There are some software issues that have been discussed on the forum, including the inability to get closed caption/subtitles to work on playback. At this stage, avoid using repeat tag in you device settings as TVHeadend (the addon that manages the PVR functions can get confused). Fortunately few uses activate repeat tags. I have had one crash when using the release version; it may well be related to the repeat flag issue. The IceTV addon is updated frequently at the moment, and updates without user intervention. The update process  does not require the user to go through the installation wizard

It is surprisingly easy to create a BYOB IcBox. The process us outlined on the IceTV online help.

At present only PCs with Intel/AMD CPUs are supported. Uncertain if you will be able to load it on a MAC mini (there could be driver problems).

One inexplicable potential problem has been that on some NUC style PCs (using Celeron CPUs) you need to attach the HDMI cable to HDMI Port 2, as Port 1 does not activate hardware assisted decoding (only impact playback). This seems to be either a BIOS or chipset drive issue.

Ian

[MD]

I tried my Elgato Diversity tuners having reused my ten years old i3 Win7 MCE media centre for BYOB and found each was only recognised as a single tuner as Kodi doesn't have the drivers to use them in Diversity mode. Nevertheless they worked fine but I have swapped them for our IceTV ones to get four tuners. One week in and 100% stable.

[NBOSTI]

Thanks IanL-S and MD.
All helpful info, especially regarding the Diversity tuner.
After looking at the possibility of installing on a Mac Mini further and weighing up the time and effort it would take me (limited knowledge on such things), if possible at all. I will ditch that plan.
The Icebox as a complete package would be a better plan for me. A lot of settings and customising options to keep me interested/occupied for some time.
Cheers.

[NBOSTI]

As a long time user of EyeTV, (of which I will continue to use, and I know it is contentious with others. But the system I have been running for many years works with no flaws) for my regular recordings, I will miss the built-in ability to edit recordings, remove padding of unwanted pre and post recordings in order to watch the desired show itself.
Commercial channels are notorious for running late, or not starting on time and that feature works so well within Eyetv software (my system) I edit them and have no need to long press FF in order to watch from the start of each.
Is that editing feature available on the Icebox without having to export the file first and use a third party editing tool?

[NBOSTI]

Sorry, I should have posted this in the Icebox General Help section.

[vader1111]

As a long time user of EyeTV, (of which I will continue to use, and I know it is contentious with others. But the system I have been running for many years works with no flaws) for my regular recordings, I will miss the built-in ability to edit recordings, remove padding of unwanted pre and post recordings in order to watch the desired show itself.
Commercial channels are notorious for running late, or not starting on time and that feature works so well within Eyetv software (my system) I edit them and have no need to long press FF in order to watch from the start of each.
Is that editing feature available on the Icebox without having to export the file first and use a third party editing tool?

I use VideoRedo TVSuite to edit my recordings, exactly as you describe.

I copy the files from the IceBox, to my PC, over my home network.  This is much faster than it was with my Beyonwiz T2, as the IceBox has a Gigabit ethernet connection (compared to the 100Mbps ethernet in the T2).  I then process the files using VideoRedo TVSuite, sending the edited files to my NAS.

You can get VideoRedo TVSuite here: https://www.videoredo.com/en/Products_TVSuite_V6.html

[IanL-S]

I also use VideoRedo.

However a quick search resulted in the following potentially interesting articles:

Edit Decision List
LibreElec + VDR : How to edit the records ?

[NBOSTI]

VideoRedo looks the goods, but it is no longer available.
It is also only supported on PC's, I am a Mac household so wouldn't suit me.
I remember that I had used other editing tools in the past, and searching through my old files have come across a few that might do the same thing.
I will have to wait and see once I have decided to purchase the Icebox.
Thanks for all suggestions.