Running tuner cards under ESXi

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OrakelJos

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Apr 29, 2009
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Has any body experience using (multiple) tuner cards in a virtual machine running under ESXi?
I am planning to build a new workstation running ESXi with W2K8R2 server, WHS and Vista or XP. The last virtual machine should be able to make recording with four tuners (2x HVR-2200) using pass through for the PCI-e slots.
 
I know that hyper-v supports pci pass through. I have done a wmc with vmware products with USB tuners without issue. Don't have hardware to test esxi.
 
When I asked about this awhile back the answer was no. I'm not sure if anything changed with ESXi 4 though. From using ESX 3.5 at work I can say that I haven't found a way to pass PCI devices to guest systems.

I'm hoping this will change in the future so I can built a virtual HTPC client on a server to do all my TV recording, without using USB tuners...
 
i have seen hyper-v server running Guest OS of W7 that was using direct disk access and USB tuners. I would try that for PCI tuners also
 
ESXi4 supports pass through for PCI and PCIe devices. That is not the problem. The question is: does it also do a proper pass through on tuner cards or is it limited to raid controllers, certain graphic cards etc.
 
Adidas4275 said:
i have seen hyper-v server running Guest OS of W7 that was using direct disk access and USB tuners. I would try that for PCI tuners also
Click to expand...

I think am going to order an Intel DQ45CB which supports VT-d. I think that is the only way to find out.
 
My board arrived and I have installed ESXi on the DQ45CB.
In the host configuration I have set my HVR-2200 to passthrough. In a VM running XP I could add the card to the hardware. GBPVR was able te see AND use the card. Made a couple of recordings and those were o.k. and could be played back normaly.
So for anybody who wants to run a PVR in a virtual machine with ESXi: with a Intel motherboard DQ45CB this realy works!
 
Hey that's cool! Thx for the info. Can you do USB passthrough as well? I could theoretically add my Hauppauge 2250 and 2 ATI DCT's to my server to consolidate to 1 PC for all home theater duties.
 
Yes that is possible but I did not try that. USB passthrough works for all host connected usb devices.
 
I love this ideal and have been waiting for it. What I would like to do is load up a VM server with Video cards. then make my VM Win 7 unit and dedicate it to a video card and have that be my HTPC. So I have one box that is my " HTPC" for all my TVs and I just run HDMI out to them instead of having a box at every TV threw out the house. To do this is there a particular card I would have to get to pull this off? I would have to send the audio along with it as well. But I fig that would be taken care of from the video card it self. Any ideals? :confused:
 
GPU passthrough in ESXi is terrible. If you're serious about it, you should go with Xen.
 
You can't use a Ceton under ESXi. It will pass thru, but the ethernet driver won't work correctly. I tried and eventually gave up and returned the card. You could get away with using a network tuner such as a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun.
 
I heard one person do it successfully. I also got it to work once. But in the end, I got a network tuner.
 
RyC said:
I heard one person do it successfully. I also got it to work once. But in the end, I got a network tuner.
Click to expand...

I got it somewhat working once, but would have tuner errors. After that one time, I was unable to even get their software to recognize the tuner. Ceton support told me VMs were unsupported, and I got tired of fighting with it so I returned it.
 
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