Boost
30th September 2003, 10:43
I am thinking of getting a DVB card for my PC. I've been watching with a settopbox for some years now. The Nokia box is going to be replaced but I don't know what path to take. I'm not a complete newbie at this but may have mixed up some stuff.
I want to be able to watch TV and zap channels much like I do today but at the same time I'd like to get the streams into my computer so that I can transcode or otherwise save them for future viewing. If one could have "timeshifting"/pause live TV that would be a plus but it's not required.
Now from what I have gathered there are two ways to accomplish this.
1. Get another settopbox which can record and where you can extract the stream from it's harddrive. I've seen projects which have done this with the Nokia 990x boxes. That has the advantage of viewing is easy but transfer to PC requires the harddrive to be moved and connected to the PC.
2. Get a DVB card which can save the DVB stream or extracted MPEG data to disk while at the same time offer good viewing capabilities.
I have an ATI AIW 8500DV card which offer good video-out for me. I'd like to have the video go that way instead of a video-out directly from the DVB card. I don't know what requirements this has. DirectShow or something, I don't know.
The DVB card seems to be in favor here. But since I want to watch encrypted material I need a CI slot, and since I will watch programs from two networks with different systems I need two slots. Now a card with two slots (I don't want to switch CI/CA module/cards everytime I switch network) seems very expencive. I found some DVB software that supported "SoftCIs". From what I understand this is a all-software CI. That seem to be a good solution as I don't have to buy a card with a CI slot and get the approperiate CI modules (for Conax and Viaccess), thus saving some money. Should I get a card, slots, modules (conax+viaccess), that would be quite expencive just for the extra benefit of enabling the streams to be saved to the PC when a settopbox for just viewing is available for about 250 euros.
My questions are:
1. Which card offer the best bang-for-the-buck and is stable (some cards have been reported to have buggy drivers etc)?
About the softCIs.
2. Are they legal?
3. If they are legal, how can one transfer my subscribercards for use with these softCIs?
4. Which cards/software works with softCIs.
I want to be able to watch TV and zap channels much like I do today but at the same time I'd like to get the streams into my computer so that I can transcode or otherwise save them for future viewing. If one could have "timeshifting"/pause live TV that would be a plus but it's not required.
Now from what I have gathered there are two ways to accomplish this.
1. Get another settopbox which can record and where you can extract the stream from it's harddrive. I've seen projects which have done this with the Nokia 990x boxes. That has the advantage of viewing is easy but transfer to PC requires the harddrive to be moved and connected to the PC.
2. Get a DVB card which can save the DVB stream or extracted MPEG data to disk while at the same time offer good viewing capabilities.
I have an ATI AIW 8500DV card which offer good video-out for me. I'd like to have the video go that way instead of a video-out directly from the DVB card. I don't know what requirements this has. DirectShow or something, I don't know.
The DVB card seems to be in favor here. But since I want to watch encrypted material I need a CI slot, and since I will watch programs from two networks with different systems I need two slots. Now a card with two slots (I don't want to switch CI/CA module/cards everytime I switch network) seems very expencive. I found some DVB software that supported "SoftCIs". From what I understand this is a all-software CI. That seem to be a good solution as I don't have to buy a card with a CI slot and get the approperiate CI modules (for Conax and Viaccess), thus saving some money. Should I get a card, slots, modules (conax+viaccess), that would be quite expencive just for the extra benefit of enabling the streams to be saved to the PC when a settopbox for just viewing is available for about 250 euros.
My questions are:
1. Which card offer the best bang-for-the-buck and is stable (some cards have been reported to have buggy drivers etc)?
About the softCIs.
2. Are they legal?
3. If they are legal, how can one transfer my subscribercards for use with these softCIs?
4. Which cards/software works with softCIs.