Recommendation for ATSC TV tuner that works out of the box with PI4?

harry_fine · December 19, 2020 at 8:46 PM

I've been struggling with stuttering and buffering for live TV as you may have seen n other threads. I've trouble shot every part of the scenario, going to try and replace my Haupaggue WinTV Dual 1959 tuner. But I wanted to get some suggestions from people who have actually installed an NTSC TV tuner in a PI4 with the latest version of LE, and who get solid, high-quality local over the air TV out of the box.

Thanks all.

**CvH** · December 20, 2020 at 9:41 AM Official Post

Likewise a recent Hauppauge ATSC USB tuner should do it, they had put a lot work in getting their drivers to the kernel (so it works at every linux). But to be honest our general experience with ATSC is rather thin

gedakc · December 20, 2020 at 8:41 PM

First let me state that I do not have an RPi4, nor do I have any experience with the RPi4.

I have had good experience using a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Connect network dual tuner on RPi3 in Canada. Note that this is NOT a USB tuner, it works over a TCP/IP network. I wrote a tutorial on my experience: Build a Cheap PVR using Raspberry Pi 3, LibreELEC, Kodi, Tvheadend, & HDHomeRun.

**steveslim** · December 20, 2020 at 11:22 PM

Hello harry_fine,

I have a 4GB Pi4 and just purchased a Hauppauge WinTV-dual HD USB dongle (Hauppauge | WinTV-dualHD Dual TV Tuner). According to the box, this device works on both over the air ATSC signals (which I use it for), and clear QAM signals from a cable provider (which I have no experience with). I am running LibreElec 9.2.6 for the Pi4 along with TVHeadend Server and TVHeadEnd HTSP Client and I do not suffer from stuttering, nor buffering now.

I say now because after my initial install of TVHeadEnd Server, I was suffering from large amounts of stuttering and buffering. The TVHeadend Server addon downloaded and installed by using the LibreElec Add-On's/Install from repository/All repositories/Services/TVHeadEnd Server 4.2 menus did not work well for me.

My issue was solved by installing TVHeadEnd Server from CvH's TVHeadend Nightly Builds here: Tvheadend nightly builds for LibreELEC. This site is mentioned in other threads in this forum (like this one: Tvheadend nightly builds for LE), so this addon site is perfectly legitimate as far as I can see. My thanks go out to CvH for providing these nightlies because they made my TV watching experience on LibreElec wonderful! All signs of stuttering and buffering went away with the install of this addon and I did not have to make any configuration changes to my LibreElec setup at all.

Edit: It looks like you already found the nightly I mentioned since you've posted in that thread as well, so perhaps this message is unnecessary now

I was able to use the TVHeadend HTSP Client Addon available on the LibreElec Addons/Install from repository/ etc., along with the TVHeadend Server nightly from CvH's site, and my TV watching experience has been perfect since. Your experience may vary, but is perhaps worth a shot?

If you haven't tried a TVHeadend Server nightly, I recommend that you do so with your current TV dongle as it may make a great deal of difference in your experience. I am currently using the "RPi4-service-tvheadend42-4.3-1906.zip" which I manually installed using the Add-Ons/Install from zip file menu choices.

I apologize if this does not help you. Good Luck!

harry_fine · December 21, 2020 at 2:01 PM

Great great info, thank you.