Try same or different?

[ratata]

Hello.
- I decided a while ago to purchase two new cards to replace our indeed very good TBS 6618's. We decided to give 6590 a try, a single card but with dual tuners on it. I liked the idea of saving a PCI-e lane but mostly I like the multi-standard because we don't know what kind of signal we soon will recieve due to a major change in the neighbourhood. But we got dissappointed when we got our new TBS 6590. Virtually everything was better with our old 6618 cards. Except for the multistandard feature of course. A little later, one of the tuners started to behave badly. It hacked, gave up several minutes in a row and other strange things. So, this brings me to the question; cards developed for the end consumer in mind, are two single cards generaly better than a single card that holds dual tuners? Was this just bad luck or shall I give the dual tuner single card a new chance?

AND, I was not sure in what fora this question should be posted in, so please have it moved into approprieate forum. Thank you.

ratat

[satesco]

I hope it's not bad luck in choosing tbs6590 card,because both tuners work fine,regardless of whether you choose to see a satellite tv program and one on cable or terrestrial at the same time.Or you can simultaneously watch two tv programs from two satellites without any problem.But for this,as you may know,you need to initialize both tuners with the help of TBS6590ChangeToolMode utility.
Besides the fact that this card has two tuners that you can use simultaneously,it is also equipped with the S2X extension for receiving frequencies transmitted in this mode.
If you want,you can read a review about this card,here.

[ratata]

Hi!

oh no Satesco, you got me wrong. I didn't say it was bad luck buying a TBS6590 card, I ment it was bad luck to buy particuraly that very card.
I tell you why. It was probably the first card that was made an early monday morning after a very wet weekend with several holiday parties on a row. My card is THAT kind of card. Hence my use of 'bad luck'.

See, I currently have two TBS6618. They are fast, reliable, reads the incoming signal real well, signal strenght and signal quality is almost at the highest possible level.

I purchased my TBS6590 due to an announced change of the delivery of the signal in our community. No one was sure but rumours said that S/S2 would replace C/C2 and leave T/T2 for those who wouldn't care.

And this is what happened when I compared the 6618 to my new 6590:


Tuner no. 1: The readings of the strength and signal quality are almost the half (1/2) of what the 6618 normally performs. A channel swap is a little slower if compared to 6618.

Tuner no. 2: The readings of the strength and signal quality are down to a fourth (1/4) of what the 6618 normally performs. A channel swap is noticeable longer when compared to 6618.
Tuner no. 2 also likes to totally freeze every now and then, anything from a few seconds up to several minutes. These freeze-ups happens while watching, time-shifting or recording. Channel changes or similar isn't affected.

As you can see from above, my new TBS6690 is made on an early monday morning.


My question later didn't have anything to do with the 6618 or 6690 as models, just what differences one can expect inbetween the two approaches meaning 2 tuners fitted on a single card in a single lane versus 1 tuner fitted on a single card also in a single lane? Another question could be if a multiband tuner affects characteristics in any way a single tuner doesn't?

Those were my questions.


Best regards
ratata
Sweden