The first M88DS3103 supported by the kernel. The devices below all use the Montage M88DS3103 demodulator and M88TS2102 tuner. What is common with the DVB-S/S2 devices is that all of them require an external power supply as the USB bus is not able to provide enough juice for the LNB handling. I have one of these RTL2832U based devices. Just get yourself a cheap DVB-T stick from eBay. Supported since kernel 3.18 / OpenELEC 5.0. It is a bulkier device than the previous three and has its own power supply. TechnoTrend TT-connect CT2-4650 CI is currently almost the only option. If you need a CI slot for conditional access module (CAM) your options are rather limited. This device is also supported in OpenELEC 5.0 and newer. The original CT2-4400 is supported in Linux kernel 3.17 and the newer CT2-4400v2 is supported since version 3.19. The TechnoTrend TT-TVStick CT2-4400 is the device I use in my NUC every day for receiving DVB-T2 and DVB-T broadcasts. In case you are running OpenELEC, the device is supported since OpenELEC 4.2. The 292e is supported since Linux kernel 3.16. The looks aside, they’re very different devices inside. PCTV 292e is the successor of that device. The original PCTV 290e was the first DVB-T2 supported by Linux. I have written a separate article about this.
Linux kernel support for these devices has been improving quite a bit lately, so if you’re not running a recent kernel (such as Linux 3.18), you might consider compiling the media_build that enables you to use the new drivers with older kernels. Having a flexible device like that is an advantage, in case you need to move from a cable-TV location to a terrestrial-TV only location. There are expections though.Īll the products I have listed below are capable of receiving DVB-T, DVB-T2 and DVB-C broadcasts. Generally speaking it is DVB standards in Europe, Asia (except China and Japan), Australia and Africa, ATSC/ClearQAM in the North America and ISDB-T in South America. Before buying a tuner, you will need to find out what is the television broadcasting standard you want to receive. I’ve split the article based on the broadcasting standard. There are several supported devices that are not available on the market any more, so it does not make sense to list them there. This article tries to list recommended USB tuners Linux supports and that are available for purchase. I’ve been working a while with TV tuners in Linux environment. For a NUC or similar computer, you will need one that is connected via USB bus.
If you want to watch live TV on your PC or media center you will need a TV tuner. However, the article is written from a Linux user’s perspective. Note: All of the products below work on Windows as well.