Hey guys,
I am located in Ireland and will be getting rid of Sky TV soon. I want to move over to a combination of both Freesat for the UK satellite channels & Freeview for the national free TV channels (Saorview in Ireland). I have a Sky dish that I believe I can use, and I will also be looking to install an aerial such as this one with RG6 cable on my roof soon enough. This way I can utilise both DVB-T/T2 Freeview and DVB-S/S2 Freesat sources on whatever device I get right?
Ideally I want to purchase a receiver/tuner device that can use both of these sources, and can also be added to Plex so that all devices in my home can get TV using the Plex app. I know there might be some complication with using TVHeadend or TVHproxy but I can definitely go that route if needs be. Realistically only 1/2 TVs will be watching channels at a time, and there might be 1 recording going on the odd time, so I think that means I need a device with at least 2 x tuners on both the DBS-S and DVB-T sources?
I was wondering what device you might recommend for this purpose, and how many cables I will need from the satellite/aerial? I know there are some tuners that connect to the network only, and then some that connect to a TV via HDMI and also the network. I thought I just needed to switch out the Sky dish LNB for a basic LNB and run a single cable to some sort of basic tuner or receiver, but I came across things like Unicable, FBC tuners and extra tuner cards which confused matters a bit more. I just want to make sure I get something decent and somewhat future proof.
My current equipment/setup is as follows:
- Sky Satellite Dish (currently being used for Sky Q) - I believe this has either a Wideband or Hybrid LNB but I am not 100% sure. There's 4 connectors on it, and 2 are being used currently by Sky Q.
- Double cable which runs from the dish (2 connections) into the back of the Sky Q box (uses both cables). I would love to be able to use a single cable from the satellite, and use the other cable for the aerial if possible (which would mean no extra drilling holes and running new cable).
- UnRaid server running Plex Media Server in a Docker container (I have a lifetime Plex pass)
- Nvidia Shield TV boxes that access media from the Unraid server.
From looking online it seems these devices might be the best fit for me, as they offer direct HDMI to a 'main' TV, have inputs for satellite & aerial and can also pass on the channels via the network so maybe Plex can use them that way?
But I also saw things like Hauppauge, HDHomerun, Vbox, Amiko, Edison etc. so I am a bit confused as to which way to go. I just want to make sure that whatever I get can work with both Freesat & Freeview within the same TV guide screen, and also connect to Plex running on my Unraid machine so that other machines besides the TV hooked up to the receiver can get TV channels. It doesn't need any bells n whistles or advanced features, just a box for Freesat/Freeview with enough tuners and that has network capabilities. The Zgemma line of products seem significantly cheaper, so not sure if I need anything more!
As you can see I am a bit confused, so any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks