PCTV 461e

If like us you got fed up paying sky for 80% free satellite channels and need a solution, this is a really good choice. I will describe our setup in case you want to do something similar. Our setup Raspberry pi 2 running kodi/openelec and also with that install you get tv server software called tvheadend A tv with a minix android box primarily running kodi A Tv with an Intel nuc with Ubuntu /kodi A laptop with Ubuntu running kodi A couple of iPads The TV server --raspberry pi and tvheadend Tvheadend is open source software now automatically included in openelec (also free) running kodi. This is a super easy install, honestly about 10 to 15 minutes to get it running on the pi. Then you unscrew the satellite cable from your sky box (power it off first). You connect this usb stick to the pi, plug the usb stick in with the supplied plug as your sat dish needs 12v to work which is supplied via the satellite cable just like any sat receiver. You screw the satellite cable in the other end. Now comes the really only vaguely tricky bit. Your pi needs to be on your local network. Using a browser you connect to the pi and configure it as all tvheadend setup is via a browser, if anyone needs some info here, fell free to reply and I will hunt out what I did. I used a YouTube video and website to help on setting up tvheadend. It looks tricky but after about an hour maybe 2 I had it working and that's because I had to look after 2 kids at the same time ( if you are in social services, I'm just kidding, was totally focussed on the kids..)The menu system to do this looks far worse than it is, watch a setup video a few times before you start, I didn't and had a few restarts. One of the steps is to perform a scan to identify the free channels and these are presented by the usb stick to tvheadend. You are done. I also activated the guide option (from memory you click in tvheadend to activate the guide, it's that easy) and that is populated in tvheadend on the pi and therefore all the clients have the to guide as well. If I choose to record , it is currently using the sd card on the pi so my next upgrade will be to add a 120GB hard drive for recordings. The clients (minix, nuc and laptops) Here is the real benefit. The little raspberry pi is now a tv server. It has an IP address (my only issue to date is I need to fix that as currently it can change on a reboot but that just because I am lazy). On each client go to kodi, enable the tv option, download a free add on for tvheadend client and enable it, put in the ip of raspberry pi in this add on and one reboot later..bingo, you have on every client all over the house --satellite tv with guides and record and play options. One really nice feature is that if I record a programme, as I mentioned it's actually the pi recording it and these recordings can be played by any one of the clients in our house. Personally I find it a little funny sky are now advertising something similar as part of their fluid viewing package. The stick The picture and sound quality is honestly flawless. It is very fast to switch. HD is perfect. Some gotchas (well more like some notes) Does the raspberry pi needs to be on all the time; well yes if you want to record but I don't know any product that can do this without power. Honestly the raspberry pi is one of the most amazing pieces of kit ever and costs a tiny amount to run. As a side note, I bought 2 things for the pi that I thought I needed and didn't. I bought a powered hub, that is not needed for this stick, it has a power supply, I bought the MPEG code from the raspberry pi foundation, that is not needed either, I have not activated mine and I have not met a free channel I cannot watch. Either way, I think it like 5 euro, so it's not exactly going to crash the finances if I am wrong. You can as far as I am aware only watch one channel and record one channel at a time. I guess you could also get another usb stick and repeat the process, although I have not tried that so that's a guess. This is my second stick, the first failed but to be fair they handed the return very well, I had intended to reduce a star but I am very happy with it, hence the 5. I use a wired network so performance is better, I have not tried this via wifi. Also apparently I could watch tv using an iPad (we use PLEX for this in our house) but again have not tried this, if I do this I will update here. Obviously it's only free channels (bbc, channel 4 etc) not encrypted channels, so no sky sports for example. Considering we were spending 60 euro per month on sky for what was very few paid channels, it simply didn't make sense to us for channels we rarely watched. By my calculation by month 3 this has paid for itself. I had prepared for this to be awful on setup. The info I had read beforehand all pointed to that, my experience is the opposite. Sure, you will need to engage your brain a little beforehand and would need some basic skills but honestly it really isn't difficult to do. Also I have been running continuously for I guess a month now and I have not had to reboot once which would imply to me it's fairly robust (a side benefit of Linux I guess). Another benefit is I have the old sky dish, the old satellite cable just reconnected, that's all and without running cable everywhere, I get it via the lan. Overall, we are delighted with this.its family friendly , the kids are familiar with kodi, the record feature is simple, the replay is simple...I am just annoyed I believed all the horror setup stories from a year back and didn't do this sooner. Hopefully this post will give you the incentive to give it a go if you are in the same boat.

Fabulous bit of kit, works beautifully and doesn't need the power supply connected when running from an amplified distribution system as you typically find in blocks of flats. Tip: The official Windows 461e drivers on the PCTV website aren't compatible with the latest version of this device. You need the drivers for the " WinTV-soloHD/WinTV-dualHD " ( Driver Version 36278 ) from the Hauppauge ... or ... the drivers that are installed with the WinTV 8.5 software for which an activation code is bundled with the latest 461e devices although you don't have to install the whole program if you don't want to, the drivers are installed before the installer gets to the activation code entry window ;).

This arrived with a 2 prong European power supply that does not work in the UK, No idea why amazon would be sending out this item out to UK customers with the wrong power adapter , had to return it

For its concept, its a great but of kit, it works well and functions okay but if it decides to be temperamental and doesn't want to work, it won't! I have regular issues going from SD channels to HD channels and back again. It crashes every single time and i have to force it to stop in task manager so i can restart it. It has crashed and frozen on channels alot and as i type this, i tried to watch rerun of the latest Celeb Juice on ITV2, but it couldn't be bothered to display the channels output, it just crashed, again! It will sometimes decided to playup as you're recording something so you come to find the recording is stuttery and unwatchable. When it works, its absolutely brilliant and does what you want of it but if it wants to be a pain, then expect hell and i recommend you go find a different device as this isn't really much cop. It needs a proper software overhaul and it needs some work doing to make it properly useable. In its current form, its quite poor!

I'm using this with OpenElec / tvheadend / Kodi on a Raspberry PI. Works well, able to tune most DVB-S / -S2 transponders on Astra 28.2E. Only annoyance is relatively minor - I don't like the DC power connector...

Plug and play (after copying firmware) on a raspberry pi, runs very well using TvHeadend

Works like a charm in Windows 8 or 10. The bundled software EPG is a little restrictive, but many alternative free DVR programs happily support this device. Note for Linux users - yes I know it says on certain forums that you can get this working in Linux, but I could not. Top marks for the seller for also emailing me a "sorry it's been delayed..." message - a better level of service than I have got from some bigger companies recently.

The problem with this is that my one was supplied with the WRONG POWER SUPPLY ADAPTER! I was supposed to power this TV tuner with the usual 3-pin UK plug, but instead it only had one with a 2-pin plug! As a result, I COULDN'T WATCH TV with this TV tuner! The best it can achieve was some unclear, breaking-up images from the Sky Intro channel! I believe that S&O imported my one from an EU country. The kind people from the Hauppauge support team tried their best to help me; I guess they even wanted me to keep this product, but what's the point of keeping a product THAT DOESN'T WORK! (So I had to get my money back). Therefore I would advise you not to buy USB TV tuners from S&O. I also think that this product is best purchased directly from the manufacturer, and not from Amazon! Anyway, I would suggest a better alternative. If you have a Windows computer that still runs Windows Media Center; I recommend you get the "AVerTV HD Volar Entertainment Pack" by AVerMedia AVERMEDIA AVerTV HD Volar Entertainment Pack A867R + 2 YEARS WARRANTY . This TV tuner won't give you satellite or HD channels, because its a DVB-T tuner; Therefore you should get most if not all the Freeview channels in your local region. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to set it up! You don't even need to plug it in to a power supply! All you have to do is go to the "Set Up TV Signal" setting in WMC; enter your country and then your postcode; connect the mini-antenna to the tuner, to enable WMC to detect a signal; and finally WMC will scan for channels, so you can watch TV. Easy! My one only cost me £25, bargain!!!