Linux

In my experience the whole DVB driver situation on Linux is really messed up. Seems to be partly because of difficult communication with the linux kernel maintainers and partly because of lazyness of hardware manufacturers (they don't care). Another problem is that DVB really runs out of favor. It is not "cool anymore" as everyone uses streaming services nowadays and so less and less "spare time developers" still care about "TV". This even seems to be visible in less and less DVB hardware still developed.

I would just give up on the idea to still run a tuner directly on a PC. Get yourself a "SAT>IP" tuner, add it to your network and stream your TV programs over your home network.

Edit: It is even possible to set up your own Sat>IP server with "minisatip". So you could get a mini PC, plug the tuner(s) you already have, only care about getting them working there and bury this dedicated TV streaming server somewhere in the house.

I got myself a Hauppage PCIe digital tuner and installed it in one of my servers that's on all the time. Using TVHeadend, you can easily stream it to any device on your network, or use something like Wireguard or Tailscale if you want to use it outside your network.

It doesn't require a custom kernel, but Hauppage recommends using theirs for quicker updates.

Can you use something like a rtl-sdr for its original intended purpose of decoding digital tv?

I used DVB-S/S2 cards and DVB-T sticks for many years with VDR, but a few years ago I gave up and got a separate tuner box (Octagon SF8008). I was fed up with the kernel module compilation, and the DVB cards or USB boxes only lasted a few years until they died. Every time I wanted to record something, the desktop PC had to run. All the time I used the PC the cards were powered and that probably didn't help with their longevity.

I'm not sure exactly what you're hooking it up to, but I had good success with this Hauppauge USB tuner hooked up to one of those flat antennas. I used it on Ubuntu Server 20.04 if I recall correctly, and they have a PPA as well as fairly helpful Linux instructions. Some of their other products might do the satellite and cable channels as well as over the air, but I have no experience with it, so your mileage may vary.

Sounds familiar.

I'm using TBS octa DVB-T(2)/DVB-C tuner card, which is streaming the channels to my LAN (by using Tvheadend, Mumudvb, or Astra), but I was also frustrated about compiling the driver for it whenever there was a kernel update (https://github.com/tbsdtv/linux_media). Eventually I created a Debian virtual machine and configured the tuner device available for it by using AMD IOMMU and Qemu/KVM PCI pass through. It has worked very well, and there's no need to update the kernel if you don't care about the security and vulnerabilities ;D

The card I'm using: Multimedia controller [0480]: TBS Technologies DVB-S2 4 Tuner PCIe Card [544d:6178]

I'm using cards from https://www.digital-devices.eu/; a Cine S2 v6.5 from 2015 and a DuoFlex S2 v4 from 2017 for 4 DVB-S2 tuners total. I've found them to be of high quality and the upstream kernel supports them.

Unfortunately, it seems the modular hardware I'm using is no longer sold. The cheapest currently available product is an expensive 8 tuner card.