Record from multiple tuners?

[cyzfitz]

Is it possible to use BTV to record from multiple tuners (2, 3+) installed on the same box? Will this cause processing issues on the PC? Specifically I am looking for the best solutions to record multiple channels at the same time.

Thanks!

[mcowger]

That feature will come in BTV 3.5, which is in public beta now.

[Eric3a]

Let me expand a little on this.
Indeed 3.5 will support "multi-tuners", ie 2 or more. The max number is really up to your machine, number of PCI slots, USB connectors but most importantly how much data you can pump simultunaeously to the HDs.

The best setup is obviously to have the multiple tuners being hardware decoders.
Multiple software decoder will really get messy, especially because of the audio and the need for as many audio cards as tuners. And your CPU might get seriously bogged down!
Mixing hard and soft tuners can work, but you better have a powerful and well setup machine for that. I expect that because of the potential problems, this will work but support will be minimal, leaving us users to help each other.

I expect that when 3.5 comes out the recommended and officially supported setup for multi tuners will be hardware only.

So if you are at that stage and thinking of purchasing new tuners for multi tuners, go hardware only.
Eric

[Terminal]

Since you asked about 3+ tuners. I have heard that BTV will allow 2 tuners out of the box, any number of tuners beyond that will require a purchase of additional licenses. Just FYI.

[edit]This is not an official statement, I don't think these types of things have all been ironed out yet.[/edit]