Several newbie DVB-S questions

[Ookami]

Hello.

After I saw some samples of DVB i was positively surprised. Now, I'm trying to get as much infos as possible. After that I'm maybe going to buy a DVB system (don't have any money, but such unimportant things don't stop me :-D ), as I'm fed up with the whole ghost pictures et al in the normal TV broadcasts; and the multitude of available program for free have pushed me even further into the "let's buy a DVB system" direction :) .

I've searched the web, asked Swan some questions, read almost all DVB threads on this board, but I have still many questions unanswered...

Now, first let's talk about what I want and what hardware I own.

My main interested are watching of movies (to the 90's, after that it get's more and more sporadic ;-) ), sports and music programs (also, more interested in old spots and good live performances than the latest "let's show how our plastic surgeon does his job" spot). I hate dubbed movies (I have only watched one dub that was, IMO, better than the original and that's Sledge Hammer on the german TV, all others were worse, and I've listened to german, english, croatian, hungarian, french and many more dubs (not that I've understood all of these ;-) ), so this is a big "no no" too. From my talks with Swan I've gathered that there are channels that can enable/disable subs, but I forgot to ask if there are channels where you can choose between different audio streams.

Erm, I have a PC (cough, cough) and a DV based capture card (ADVC 100). I don't want to buy a PCI DVB card as it's my working PC and I don't want to have hardware problems with it, frankly, it has enough problems already. So, I would buy either a USB based PC DVB card or a standalone receiver. I would capture from the standalone receiver with a S-Video cable, if I remember correctly, even distinguished members like Herske, are doing the same thing... But, I still have my doubts... Hmm... IIRC, the Nokia Mediamaster are the only receivers that can be hacked and where the streams can be copied 1:1, or is that info nowadays obsolete? I saw that there are even receivers with a build in HD, has anyone more infos about them?

I have watched the prices here, and it's very expensive (the receivers, I mean) and most of the infos are confusing me. Examples:

Antenna set, 2 satellites. So that means you can watch the programs from 2 different satellites at the same time (no motors on the plate like on the old analog systems?)? Is the satellite choosing the same as in the analog system?

SAMSUNG 9500 VIACI "Fastest receiver on the world - (...) 2 build in viaccess readers... We provide it with software for watching 5 systems without additional decoders. (...)"

So, what does this mean? Fastest? What speed difference? What's that with the viaccess readers and the software? I understand that Viaacces is a scrambling standard, but I don't understand the text from above. Does that mean the above is a illegal hack?

What is the situation with buying legal access to programs? I've read that e.g. UK programs cannot be bought legally anywhere else, is that the same situation with all scrambled programs (they can only be bought in the country of origin)?

And as a last question, I would love to hear your experiences with DVB-S standalones vs. DVB-S PC cards. etc. and anything else that you can be bothered with. The more and longer replies, the more happier I'll be :) .

So, I guess this would be my first set of questions, thanks in advance and sorry if some questions are already answered somewhere else, right now I have so many infos that I can't sort in the right way...

Thanks in advance to all contributors!

Cheers,

Mijo.

[symonjfox]

Originally posted by Ookami
And as a last question, I would love to hear your experiences with DVB-S standalones vs. DVB-S PC cards. etc. and anything else that you can be bothered with. The more and longer replies, the more happier I'll be :)
I've both a standalone and a DVB card. Well, standalone is extremely easy to use and configure, gives very few problems and the only one bad thing is that isn't very fast to scroll the whole channels (while if you have a list on the screen and a mouse ... it's easyer).
My DVB card (Vision Plus 1030) is known as been one of the entry level DVB cards. I spent 150€ for it + 100€ for a CAM (that you must have if you want to legally see encrypted channels). Has some troubles with software and drivers, so when recording it will make many errors. On error, DS.jar or Pvastrumento will cut a GOP (so many frames); so you understand: the more errors, the worse the encoding.
I heard many people that is very satisfied from its DVB board, I'm not. When I'll find someone that wants it, I'll buy a Skystar 1 or 2. They costs a lot, but drivers are stable and recordings have few errors.

Yes, connecting a Composite to a capturing card should be easy and gives pretty good results, but keep in mind that Digital-Analog-Digital conversions will make a lot of noise and bad quality.
A digital-digital conversion is faster, requires less hard disk space and you can work with your computer while recording (give an higher priority to capture).

This is my experience.

[Ookami]

@symonjfox

Thanks a lot for your answer. Really appreciate it!

I'm aware that the digital-analog-digital (connecting a standalone DVB with a capture card) is way from ideal, but I don't want to use a PCI DVB card in this PC, maybe I'll use my old PC for that, but that's another story, and questionable, anyway (slow TB 800).

And, AFAIK, there are very few (I only know one), USB DVB cards and they're for free channels only.

Ok, thanks and waiting for more comments :) .

Cheers,

Mijo.

[Zhnujm]

Your TB800 would be surely enough for a Skystar 1 board, it runs perfectly on my P3-700.
Biggest Problem imho would be that you have to swap your Pay-TV card between your receiver and the DVB-Board.
So in your case it may be better to use only the Digital-Receiver.

As for "Speed" and "Fast" regarding to Digital Receivers it can only mean the Speed between channel switching as this is sometimes very slow comparing to a analog switching.

[pr0nandy]

You mentioned the Nokia Mediamaster (The 9600 SCSI i assume)
I've got one of those, using the OS that enables streamcapturing via the scsi output connected to a PC.
I love the reciever, BUT, the only negative thing sofar is that it only got 1 CA module slot while if you buy a DVB-PCI board you can watch free tv using software to emulate codes etc...
And for subtitles, i can enable them on channels that broadcast teletext, but, they freeze/won't go away when noone speaks. Kinda irritating. And i haven't figured out how to capture/streamdump with subtitles either...
I would rather buy a PCI-DVBcard today rather than having the box, since the author of the OS that you need to run stopped his developement longime ago =/

[kastro68]

if you buy a DVB-PCI board you can watch free tv using software to emulate codes etc...

Are you referring to encrypted shows that can be decrypted via software??? That is, watching pay channels for free.

Or are you talking about FTA(free to air) DTH(direct to home)

[Ookami]

Thanks for the replies, will answer when I digest them ;) .

Cheers,

Mijo.

[Leolo]

Hi,

kastro68, I suppose he's referring to softcam plugins like Yankse.

However, even though these plugins are often used to watch pay channels for free, they also have other "legitimate" uses.

For example, I'm a legal subscriber of pay-tv channels, and I'm paying the monthly fee. But I need the Yankse softcam to watch those channels in my PC because my provider refuses to lend me another smartcard.

Currently there's no way to share the smartcard between my PC and my set-top box, so I'm forced to resort to those softcam plugins.

Cheers.

[Swan]

After consulting with an expert, I have corrected many of the errors in this post.
The errors mainly concern dishes, LNB's and DiSEqc-switches and thr Samsung receiver.

My main interested are watching of movies (to the 90's, after that it get's more and more sporadic ;-) ), sports and music programs (also, more interested in old spots and good live performances than the latest "let's show how our plastic surgeon does his job" spot). I hate dubbed movies (I have only watched one dub that was, IMO, better than the original and that's
I hope you won't be offended if I "point out the bloody obvious), that is, tell you stuff you already know. ;)
I have a standalone receiver, so I won't be able to answer any of your questions about a DVB PCI card. But as kastro68 wrote, there are two types of DVB broadcasts; Free-To-Air and subscription channels which are encrypted. There are very few interesting Free-To-Air channels in my view, at least if your main interest are English-language channels and programs. Many, many German stations are Free-To-Air and they overdub the original voices which makes watching non-German programs uninteresting. But if you speak or understand German, they have good series of German origin. But all English sitcoms, films, etc is overdubbed with German voices.
I find German stations very interesting even though I don't speak German because they show a lot of music concerts, oldies shows and so on, material which has never been shown here in Sweden. Free to air DVB receivers are also pretty cheap. At the moment, I am watching these stations, on Astra and Hotbird satellite, via an analog receiver, but progress is being made on buying a new DVB receiver and connect 2 dishes to that one DVB receiver.;)

BBC World and CNN are among the few English free-to-air stations I can think of. So, to get the yummie stuff, you need to find out what DVB providers you have in your country.
Here in Sweden, there are only two, Viasat and Canal Digital.
Check out what channels the providers in your country offer, what packages they have. Usually, there's a package with the more expensive movie channels, and one without, and usually you can also add channels of your own choice that is not included in the non-movie package.
Then you need to have a DVB receiver with the right type of decryption/decoding inside. Canal Digital encrypts their channels with a system called Conax, so the receiver must be able to decrypt Conax, Viasat uses another system called Viaccess. There are many other encryption techniques, such as VideoGuard, (which Viasat is about to change over to because Viaccess has been hacked). VideoGuard is used by BSkyB in the U.K. Viaccess is a very common encryption system, used by many channels and providers, especially in the south of Europe, I've heard.

You can of course buy a receiver that has built.in card readers for the encryption systems you need to decrypt, or make sure the DVB receiver has slots for Conditional Access Modules (CAM), where you insert a CAM that can hold the card for a different encryption system than the card readers on the receiver.

that there are channels that can enable/disable subs, but I forgot to ask if there are channels where you can choose between different audio streams
Technically it is possible, as far as I know. But I have not seen it on any channels here. I can however turn off subs or change between Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norweigan. The enable/disable subs is only available on some channels, not all. It's up to the channel to send the subs in a stream of its own rather than embed it in the video.

a USB based PC DVB card or a standalone receiver. I would capture from the standalone receiver with a S-Video cable, if I remember correctly, even distinguished members like Herske, are doing the same thing... But, I still have my doubts... Hmm...
I would not go for a PCI card myself. I tend to buy more and more external stuff for the PC as I think it minimizes problems. But maybe that's just me. :)

Antenna set, 2 satellites. So that means you can watch the programs from 2 different satellites at the same time (no motors on the plate like on the old analog systems?)? Is the satellite choosing the same as in the analog system?

You don't always need one dish per satellite, normally you have one dish and a LNB each for two satellites you want to watch (if the satellites are stationed so that they are positioned close to each other).
You also need something called a DiSEqc-switch, which switches between the LNBs (between the satellites).
You can plug in for example two dishes or more (with two or more LNBs on each dish) to one receiver, using a DiSEqc-switch.
It is a bit more difficult to get a perfect reception when using more than one LNB per dish, if you're trying to receive signals from a satellite that is not optimized for your country, so the signals are weak to start with. But it is common to use two LNBs per dish. The size of the dish also affects reception. The bigger the dish, the bigger the amplification.

I have two "Universal-LNBs" on one dish, one pointed at Sirius and one at Thor (the 2 satellites Viasat and Canal Digital Sweden broadcasts from).

You can normally not watch 2 programs from one satellite at the same time, because the DVB receiver can only decode one station at a time. At least that's how mine works. Likewise, you cannot watch one station and record another. I've heard that there is one advanced DVB receiver on the market now that can decode two stations at a time, so you can watch one and for example, record from another. Those in the know tells me this feature will become more common in the future DVB receivers.

SAMSUNG 9500 VIACI "Fastest receiver on the world - (...) 2 build in viaccess readers... We provide it with software for watching 5 systems without additional decoders. (...)"

Samsung makes a whole bunch of receivers with a close similarity between the names, so it's hard to pick the right one. The one you're mentioned here is most likely one of the patched ones, BTW (see below).
"2 build in viaccess readers" means the receiver has two built-in Viaccess card readers.
"We provide it with software for watching 5 systems without additional decoders" most likely means it has been patched, so you can insert something other than a Viaccess card in the card readers, for example a Conax card. This is why the receiver is patched, normally you should only be able to insert Viaccess cards in the card readers, but since it is patched, you can insert cards with other encryption systems too.

The receiver also has slots for Conditional Access Module (CAM), probably something like Conax, Seca/Mediaguard och Nagravision. The slots is where you insert a CAM and then you insert the card into the CAM.

It is also probably a receiver that cannot be updated. If you update it (update the firmware and software on a DVB receiver is usually done by going a certain channel and following the on-screen instructions so new software is downloaded and installed), reverts the receiver back to only being able to decode Viaccess.
It cannot handle for example Conax after an update.

This is of course a bit scary. If I can't update my receiver, then if there are bugs in the software, what can one do? The Nokia I have has been updated twice and it took one update at least for it to work as advertised. Many DVB receiver manufacturers release their products on the market with buggy software.

The best thing for you is to first find out what the DVB provider you will get your subscription card from uses, the pick a receiver, based on what you need the receiver to be able to decode.


So, what does this mean? Fastest? What speed difference? What's that with the viaccess readers and the software? I understand that Viaacces is a scrambling standard, but I don't understand the text from above. Does that mean the above is a illegal hack?
By fastest, they mean that the Samsung quickly changes channels when you zap between channels. And it is lightning fast at finding new channels, I've heard from someone I trust. The model my friend checked out can auto-search and find new channels. Not all DVB receivers can do that, on some you have to enter the information on what satellite, frequency and so on manually. I'd never buy a receiver that can't scan for new stations when I want it to.

What is the situation with buying legal access to programs? I've read that e.g. UK programs cannot be bought legally anywhere else, is that the same situation with all scrambled programs (they can only be bought in the country of origin)?

Yes. I am fairly sure you need to find a provider in your country.

Hope you had any use of this. :)
I am by no means an expert at this and I may be wrong on some things.
But I'm sure some knowledgeable DVB enthusiast will step in and correct me where I have been wrong.

/Maria

[maxwell3]

Very interesting information thanks to everyone . Im new to dvb capture . Ive been using my direct tv reciever(south east US )and cpturing thru a raedon 7500 pci card . Results were not bad . Now that I know theres a better way Im willing to give it a try . Im going to check some prices and see what I can afford . Once again thanks

[kastro68]

You might want to check out http://www.lyngsat.com/

to check which satellites and tv programs are accessible from your region. It also provides useful info for dish pointing and has a thorough listing of channels, both FTA and encrypted and lists the type of encryption used too.

[Cross]

Hi, i have a DVB card, one from Hauppauge, and as far as I know, there are only a few manufacturers of such equipment, mine and a lot of others are based on the TechnoTrend (TT) chipset and technlogy. And usually the same crappy software. The one I own is one of the "entry" boards, with the Common Interface module (that is a normal PCMCIA slot, at least i think) and a CAM inserted. The only difference from the premium models, IIRC is the MPEG-2 hardware decoding and composite output. But if you have a PC at least a bit powerful, you should not have any problem. I tried some captures and had various results. First of all, while you record you shouldn't do much else, at least if you dont have an HD only for recording and a powerful PC, but just to be sure i usually dont tuch anything, as i fear that this wonderful OS i run goes looking around in my files :mad: and maybe screw up my recording. I remember one time I got a little jump in a movie I recorded. Well, I thought i did something with the pc and messed up the recording or that the drivers did something strange and the recording was broken in that point, but surprise, the channel gave the movie again and the error was another time there just watching and not recording at all. I waited for another replica and another time the same error.
Given this, you will never be sure that the error in your recording is from your system or your provider providing bad :) and that's nasty. Furthermore, the channels usually have different bandwidth based from several parameters and usually the free ones at least IMHO doesn't deserve any interest, at least if you want good quality recording. I got also wonderful error-free MP2 files a lot of times. The last time I tried using it was trying to record indiana jones in a FTA channel. They switched off the channel and only gave the movie via normal terrestrial signal :scared: . I was so disappointed that now I use it only for watching tv and little else. Also because the software I have dont even display EPG like it should! (BTW, it dont let me switch audio streams, but maybe it's something in my system, but I dont think so). Sorry if a lot of those info are present in other posts, I just wanted to share my little experience.
As for the multiple decoders, I have a standalone too, and only one card. And I must take it back and forth or get another subscription.
And that's it and I dont think it will never change, at least here in hell... ehm Italy. You could even put three or four PCI DVB cards and 10 USB external in your network of PCs and record all the channels you want 24/24 7/7 but you should have one subscription (and one card) every decoder. (Or record FTA channels) Standalones usually have only one decoder and so you can handle only one signal at a time.

Ok, that's enough for one post, balancing positive and negative aspects of this little toy, I am happy to have it. Period.
If I had linux installed, I could be even happier, at least as far as I know there are a lot of useful and well-made softwares for linux and DVB.

Bye

Cross

[ronnylov]

I have a DVB-C card that I use on cable TV in Sweden. It is a PCI card of the type "Hauppage DVB-C 2.1". It is wery important that it has got an own not shared IRQ, otherwise it won't work so good. I solved this by disabling the USB ports and an unused COM port. I have two PC's and one of them is primary for TV capturing.

A very nice thing is the quality I get from some of the channels like the Swedish national channels SVT1 and SVT2 and also from Canal+ movie channels. But some channels seems "reencoded" like Discovery channels and TV1000 movie channels and the quality is not as good but still not bad.

I like the possibility to record the stream directly in digital form. I don't have many errors on the recordings, maybe one or two per hour maximum. The reeors is fixed by the program PVAStrumento that cuts out GOPs with errors so each error causes at least half a second dropout of the video and audio. I can record teletext subtitles as srt format on some channels. This is done with ProgDVB with teletext module or by DVBControl. This is alternative TV software that works with the DVB cards that uses the Technotrend drivers.

One problem I have found is when recording with subtitles is when there is errors in the stream that are fixed by PVAStrumento. PVAStrumento does not (yet) fix synch subtytles so I'll get unsynched subs that I must manually synch. Perhaps a future version of PVAs will fix this. PVAs can demux the recorded stream into mpv and mpa format and for those channels that send with a DVD compatible resolution I can use the streams directly as source in DVD Authoring.

I don't regret buying a PCI DVB-C card because the quality of the recordings is very good and they don't require the huge disc space as analogue capturing do. If I had a satellite dish I would probably buy a skystar1 DVB-S PCI card. I still use my analogue ATI All-In-Wonder to capture the channels that are not sent in digital form or from VHS and it is installed in the same computer so they can work together without causing conflicts.

[Ookami]

Thank you all for your great postings, I hope I'll find the time, to ask a few more questions in this thread :) .

Thanks alot and keep it coming.

Cheers,

Mijo.

[mrchisholm]

Swan & ronnylov

Do you know if this new system that Viasat will use in the future has any CAMs that we will be able to use in our PCI DVB cards? (I live in Sweden too ;)) i also have a legal subscription of VIasat & Canal Digital..

Another question: I just ordered a DVB-card (Hauppauge-Nexus) and a CI-module, is there any CAM where u can use both Conax and Viaccess cards?

Also do you know what bitrade CD and Viasat uses? I watch TV4+ alot on our CD Box, quality is disgusting at times, i don't know if this is our box that is broken or whatever but it's very blocky :(

(svårt att skriva engelska till någon man vet kan svenska :D )

Regards,
Mattias

[Koke]

Originally posted by symonjfox

My DVB card (Vision Plus 1030) is known as been one of the entry level DVB cards. I spent 150€ for it + 100€ for a CAM (that you must When I'll find someone that wants it, I'll buy a Skystar 1 or 2. They costs a lot, but drivers are stable and recordings have few errors.

This is my experience.

Hi symonjfox!
I have just bought one (ss2 - or skystar2) here in Croatia.
Payed 70 EUR (with postage expences). Still have to buy me a dish :(.
At first I was looking for Netsystem offer for sat internet.
They offer a 3 month subscription + ss2 card = 49 EUR.
I have called them in Italy but they do not deliver cards here in Croatia.
So it is not an expencive one, isn`t it? :)

Koke

[ronnylov]

Originally posted by mrchisholm
Swan & ronnylov

Do you know if this new system that Viasat will use in the future has any CAMs that we will be able to use in our PCI DVB cards? (I live in Sweden too ;)) i also have a legal subscription of VIasat & Canal Digital..

Another question: I just ordered a DVB-card (Hauppauge-Nexus) and a CI-module, is there any CAM where u can use both Conax and Viaccess cards?

Also do you know what bitrade CD and Viasat uses? I watch TV4+ alot on our CD Box, quality is disgusting at times, i don't know if this is our box that is broken or whatever but it's very blocky :(

(svårt att skriva engelska till någon man vet kan svenska :D )

Regards,
Mattias

I think that you need a Viaccess module to watch Viasat and a Conax module to watch Canal digital. Don't know if there are any combined CAM's, don't think so. I have comhem cable myself which use viaccess on all channels for the moment but they will also change system so I don't know if or how it will work in the future. The new cards will probably work in the old CAM but you never know.

I don't know about the satellite channel bitrates. My cable channels send at maximum 5 Mbit/s but not often above 4.2 Mbit/s. Some channels send at lower resolution at lower bitrates like the pay per view film that use 2.5 Mbit/s and 352x576 resolution. SVT1, SVT2 and the Canal+ channels are on full resolution (720x576 or 704x576). Sometimes it is letterboxed and sometimes in widescreen format.

TV4+ on comhem uses 480x576 resolution but I'm not sure what bitrate, maybe it's not sufficient high bitrate if it's blocky. I don't watch TV4+ much, almost never.

[symonjfox]

Originally posted by Koke
Hi symonjfox!
I have just bought one (ss2 - or skystar2) here in Croatia.
Payed 70 EUR (with postage expences). Still have to buy me a dish :(.
At first I was looking for Netsystem offer for sat internet.
They offer a 3 month subscription + ss2 card = 49 EUR.
I have called them in Italy but they do not deliver cards here in Croatia.
So it is not an expencive one, isn`t it? :)
Koke
NetSystem is a good Provider, but you must be connected to your normal Modem to use it (because you can just RECIVE from satellite, not uploading your requests).
I really don't know how to do it, because I have NO info about Netsystem & Co. I just know that I installed a Normal Dish, with a normal LBA connected with a normal coaxial cable to my TH 1030 and everything works fine. I never use it for internet, since I've a DSL connection.

I'm sorry to NOT being useful :(
cheers

[Koke]

Originally posted by symonjfox
NetSystem is a good Provider, but you must be connected to your normal Modem to use it (because you can just RECIVE from satellite, not uploading your requests).
I really don't know how to do it, because I have NO info about Netsystem & Co. I just know that I installed a Normal Dish, with a normal LBA connected with a normal coaxial cable to my TH 1030 and everything works fine. I never use it for internet, since I've a DSL connection.

I'm sorry to NOT being useful :(
cheers

:)
Im sorry for not being clear enough!
I meant that you dont have to pay much for
skystar2. See here:
http://www.netsystem.com/eng/satadslpci.asp
and they say there:

*******************************************************
Incredible trial offer available until July 31st
16.50 € x 3 = 49.50 € (rounded off to 49 €)

3 months of SAT ADSL * + Sat Modem PCI FREE = 49 €

* The contract renewal will be only 49 €
*******************************************************

So, what I mean is:
You dont have to use sat internet!
You just use your card for sat TV.
They dont say which card they deliver, but I checked
and rechecked - it is a skystar2 and it is not locked.

You can browse through
http://forums.dvbnetwork.com
and find some more info (I saw you there, BTW :))

Final line:

SS2 is not an expencive one.
Buy it through Netsystem offer (you still have 6 days)
for sat internet. Don`t use it for internet.
Download Technisat`s drivers and have fun...

[symonjfox]

I don't understand why you shoud subscrive to netsystem if you only want to watch Sat TV. Or maybe you want both ...

If you only buy a SS2 and no subscrition to anything, you can watch FTA channels. Else you can subscribe to a TV provider (such as SKY) and use it.

[mrchisholm]

Originally posted by ronnylov
I think that you need a Viaccess module to watch Viasat and a Conax module to watch Canal digital. Don't know if there are any combined CAM's, don't think so. I have comhem cable myself which use viaccess on all channels for the moment but they will also change system so I don't know if or how it will work in the future. The new cards will probably work in the old CAM but you never know.

I don't know about the satellite channel bitrates. My cable channels send at maximum 5 Mbit/s but not often above 4.2 Mbit/s. Some channels send at lower resolution at lower bitrates like the pay per view film that use 2.5 Mbit/s and 352x576 resolution. SVT1, SVT2 and the Canal+ channels are on full resolution (720x576 or 704x576). Sometimes it is letterboxed and sometimes in widescreen format.

TV4+ on comhem uses 480x576 resolution but I'm not sure what bitrate, maybe it's not sufficient high bitrate if it's blocky. I don't watch TV4+ much, almost never.

Ok thanks for the reply, i think i will go with CD, they have better channels then Viasat do :cool: maybe in the future i'll have both.
The card should come today or on monday, fingers crossed :)

[Koke]

Originally posted by symonjfox
I don't understand why you shoud subscrive to netsystem if you only want to watch Sat TV. Or maybe you want both ...

If you only buy a SS2 and no subscrition to anything, you can watch FTA channels. Else you can subscribe to a TV provider (such as SKY) and use it.

a) You subscribe to get ss2 (great price) and dont care about internet.
b) You don`t have to watch just FTA :)

I understood you want to buy ss2, but you have found it is expencive.

>When I'll find someone that wants it (Visionplus), I'll buy a >Skystar 1 or 2.
>They costs a lot,...

I am trying to explain that there is a way to get a cheap one.
That is all to it.
:)

[symonjfox]

I understood now :) finally ;)

Yes, yes yes yes. I didn't recept what you meant.

Ok, thanks for the info. I think I will keep my VP 1030 until next year or more. I've another life to go on outside the computer and video editing ... it's no priority :cool:

[killingspree]

hi,
this thread is actually pretty much the same as I was planning to open, so i'm goint to hijack it a bit instead ;)

I'm currently planning on buying a DVB-s card for an existing satelite connection. The satelite is the Astra satelite which is pretty much available in all of europe. Basically I'm interested in two things:
a) capture music clips and concerts off MTV, MTV 2 (pop), Viva and Viva Plus. along with some old movies that are not available on DVD. These mostly involve german stations as Pro7, Sat1, Kabel 1, RTL (2, VOX, ARD, ZDF etc...

b) my second goal is to somehow get Skynews and BBC to work. Both channels are mapped on my satelite and reciever but scrambled and for both there is no legal way to recieve.

Now what i'm wondering about: what card do you guys recommend i get with my rather limited budget (let's say max of € 150-200)
i've been looking at a Hauppauge DVB-s PCI card for about 190€ or a DVB-s USB external adapter that is somewhat cheaper. Now what i'm worried about is that, if I get the USB and connect it to my USB 1.1 slots, does this suffice for decent capture quality?

Apart from that my system specs should suffice:
PIV 2.0 GHz
1024 MB DDR Ram
80 Gig 5400 rpm disk (OS)
120 Gig 7200 rpm 8 MB cache disk for DVD ripping and capture
Audigy II Soundcard
Geforce 4 Mx 460 64 MB DDR
Sony DRU 500 ULX DVD burner ...

anyway, I do fear that i am missing something obvious what i then discover after i've bought the card, so i hope i can find any flaws in my 'plan' before spending any money!

thanks for any advice,
steVe

[symonjfox]

Originally posted by killingspree
b) my second goal is to somehow get Skynews and BBC to work. Both channels are mapped on my satelite and reciever but scrambled and for both there is no legal way to recieve.
mmm, you should try some dll for Multidec, ProgDVB or others. I know that satellite protection is changed, so nowadays there are very few decryptable channels (if you don't have a Legal subscription). Keep in mind: YOU CAN USE THOSE PROGRAMS ONLY IF YOU HAVE A LEGAL SUBSCRIPTION FOR THEM.
Now what i'm wondering about: what card do you guys recommend i get with my rather limited budget (let's say max of € 150-200)
i've been looking at a Hauppauge DVB-s PCI card for about 190€ or a DVB-s USB external adapter that is somewhat cheaper. Now what i'm worried about is that, if I get the USB and connect it to my USB 1.1 slots, does this suffice for decent capture quality?
Yes, hauppage is a nice card. If I'm not wrong it should be Skystar 2. Else you should try other manufacturers or chipset (don't buy TwinHan like me ... if they won't fix their drivers, it's a bad card for capturing). I don't know about USB devices. They should work correctly, but I'm afraid of USB 1.1 bandwidht that maybe is not enough for some channels. IMHO an internal PCI board is better so you have no external hardware by the computer.

Apart from that my system specs should suffice:
PIV 2.0 GHz
1024 MB DDR Ram
80 Gig 5400 rpm disk (OS)
120 Gig 7200 rpm 8 MB cache disk for DVD ripping and capture
Audigy II Soundcard
Geforce 4 Mx 460 64 MB DDR
Sony DRU 500 ULX DVD burner ...

Much more than suffcient ! :D

[Nag]

Hello,

I am a TV-Tuner card newbie. I am looking for DVB-S PCI card with Phillips SAA713X decoder chip. Can anyone suggest me card pleasee?

-Nag