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If you want to watch four streams at once then you will need 4 inputs. So you would need two of them cards. You could also get a tuner for freeview which will enable you to get the few extra free channels like dave and quest plus a few more. That way you can set your own epg and have them set out like sky for instance. It just depends how far you want to go and how much you want to spend.
I will eventually be getting 4 of each tuner. Which in theory will give me 8 streams of some channels but 4 of others.
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prae5
Team-XBMC Forum Moderator
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It depends.....
If you want to guarantee that each xbmc instance can watch a different channel, then you may need 4 inputs. However (and this depends on the per backend), most pvr backends will allow multiple clients to access the same channel using one tuner. Likewise, you should be able to access other channels on the same transponder using a single tuner.
In my setup DVBSky S952 (dual tuner) card in my backend and I've recently added a Sony PlayTV (dual dvb-t) which gives me access to channels not available on freesat.
90% of the time, the dvb-s card was covered recording duties and 2 or three clients around the house without any issues. I only added the dvb-t to get a few channels you don't get on freesat.
Personally I would say start with one card, see how you get on and then add more as you need it, rather than buying multiple cards you may not use.