I wanna watch satellite TV on my PC

[Cov]

Have never looked into it properly.

Bought about 1 month ago a Hauppauge hybrid card (WinTV-HVR-3000), where you can receive DVB(T) and DVB(S) ... well, and radio too.
Was pretty excited to watch TV on my PC, but then sooo very disappointed.
It looked so modern on the package and after the software installation, I noticed how old fashion and user unfriendly the UI actually was.
A scan took ages I remember, more than an hour, it found lots of channels (I never heard of before!) but at one point it just froze.

Tried a few times but then took it back the next day.

Now I wanna give it another try, so does anyone have experiences with these Satellite and / or DVB(T) cards ?
A friend of mine uses a seperate receiver for his TV and it only receives the signal via a tiny antenna.
I think that's pretty cool cause the picture quality is excellent.
Where I live, we have a satellite dish on the roof and the living room has a socket for that.

So either way, satellite or DVB(T) ... or hybrid again, but please no Haupauge.

Oh, what about HD, can we receive High Definition too ?

Please hit me with a suggestion

Thank you !

[colmo]

This is what you're looking for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-S2

I think you have a choice of USB, PCI and PCI-E adapters to choose from, and you may want a dual tuner (to allow recording one channel while watching/recording another). I can't recommend any specific devices as I haven't used any, but at least I can point you in the right direction.

AVForums would be the primary community source of information on this.

[Cov]

Awesome !! ... Tnhak ouy, I mean Tanhhk yuo ... hmm, no wait ! ...



That's better !

[Elspuddy]

try here and try this software http://www.dvbviewer.com/en/index.php

[Cov]

Alright, thought I update this thread with my findings.

First I thought about getting the TERRATEC Cinergy S2 PCI HD, but found later that it derived from the Technisat & Twinhan/Azurewave Design.
Meaning, it is not developed by Teratec themselves and has been said to have hardware compatibility issues sometimes.

At the moment the card of my choice which apparently has full compatibility with Vista x86 / x64 is the Mystique SatTix-S2 DVB-S2 HD.



I will update this thread should I find anything else or, if I got this card, to tell you how it performs.


DVB-T = Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (T2 = HD)
DVB-S = Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite (S2 = HD)
DVB-C = Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable

DVB-S2 offers better picture quality in general and more channels

[Funkstar]

Two of the best DVB-S cards are the Twinhan and the FloppyDTV/FireDTV

The FireDTV is quite expensive, but i've heard it is a really good card, and as it is a Firewire card, it has less compatability issues compaired to PCI and USB hardware.

I just wish someone would release a Dual Tuner PCIe DVB-S2 card. There is a reference chipset thats been floating about for the past couple of years, but no-one is producing any cards!

[format]

This thread is relevant to my interests, please keep it coming Cov!
Also, do I need a TV license to use one of these?

[Funkstar]

Yes. You do.

[Cov]

Short answer: yes, you do need a TV license. Even if you watch TV only on your PC. TV Licensing and the law

But do you really believe they have time to build your PC case apart ?

[mehmeh]

This thread is relevant to my interests, please keep it coming Cov!
Also, do I need a TV license to use one of these?

I second that, have wondered about doing similar for ages. Didnt think it was this involved though, figured any old card and some decent software would do.

AFIAK if you have equipment capable of recieving BBC channels (TV, Sky, Virgin or computer card) your liable for the license fee.

[Funkstar]

Whether they can tell you are using a DVB-S card isn't the point.

Watching broadcast TV in the UK without a license is illegal. If you want to do it thats up to you, doesn't change the rules though.

[Cov]

Two of the best DVB-S cards are the Twinhan and the FloppyDTV/FireDTV.

I have just spoken with Mr Hundt from www.DVBShop.net who are in the DVB business since 1998.
He said that they had taken out the Twinhan from their range of products due to 20 to 25 % returns.
The RMAs were because of hardware incompatibility problems.

They also sell the FloppyDTV/FireDTV, which has the advantage of bypassing PCI & USB connection, avoiding any incompatibility issues, but is cost about double.
As he recommendet the Mystique over the Digital Everywhere (FloppyDTV), I have ordered now the Mystique SaTiX DVB-S2 HDTV/MPEG4/H.264 for Euro 79.90 and will let you know how it goes soon.

[Funkstar]

I have just spoken with Mr Hundt from www.DVBShop.net who are in the DVB business since 1998.
He said that they had taken out the Twinhan from their range of products due to 20 to 25 % returns.
The RMAs were because of hardware incompatibility problems.

Hmmm, oh well. They are highly regarded by users and developers on the MediaPortal forums.

For the Mystique to be comparable to the FireDTV, you have to add a CI interface, adding 36,90 EUR. This also takes a PCI slot and a 3.5" bay.

[Cov]

OK, time for an update ...

I have received the Mystique SaTiX DVB-S2 HDTV/MPEG4/H.264 on Thursday, 26th March 2009.
After installation of drivers and Mystique TV player, first thing I've done was a complete scan ...



Have to say that compared to other software players, this one looks and feels very good ... if it was just working.

And here is my "Channel list" after the scan ...



1) Astra 19.2 East was part of the scan. This satellite supposed to have a lot of german channels but where are they ?

2) There are a lot of channels showing a black screen only, can I filter these channels as they're probably restricted anyway ?

3) Why are there multiple times the same channels listed ? Like Arte HD (ger) 10 times ?

4) Why isn't there a manual existing ? Some kind of guide ...











5) The video recording does work nicely, but half an hour recording takes about 4 GB of space (TS file) ... is that normal ?










6) Why is it not possible to resize the windows in order to avoid having to scroll ?






7) Worst thing that can happen is the error showing above. If that happens, nothing works anymore, what is the reason for that ?


I have written an eMail to DVB-Shop regarding another phenomena I noticed. After watching TV for a while, it suddenly starts to stutter.
Mr Hundt wrote back to me the following answer:

Hallo,

das Problem ist bekannt, aber nicht von der Karte bzw. PC abhängig.

Auch wenn Ihr Receiver hier einwandfreien Ton und Bild liefert, so brauchen
generell alle TV-Karten ein ausreichendes Signal, um Bild und Ton darzustellen.

Ist der MPEG-Stream grenzwertig und ggfls. noch mit Fehlern(raten) behaftet,
steigt der Softwaredecoder aus und es kommt zu besagten Dropouts. Letztlich ist
es die Justierung der Schüssel, die sich im Laufe der Zeit "verstellt" hat und
dieses Problem seitens der Receiver noch nicht entdeckt wurde.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Axel Hundt

8) Heißt das, das DVB-Karten grundsätzlich eine schwächere Signalempfindlichkeit haben als normale Receiver ?
Wie sonst kommt es dann, daß die anderen 7 Parteien im Haus kein Empfangsprobleme haben ?


9) The vast majority of channels are restricted, like ...

• The complete folder "unknown" with 42 channels
  The complete folder Digital+ with 36 channels
  Another Digital+ folder with 8 channels
  The complete CPC3 folder with 8 channels
  The complete CPC2 folder with 8 channels
  The complete CPC1 folder with 8 channels
  The complete PLAYDC folder with 4 channels
  The complete DCH1 folder with 4 channels
  The complete FL folder with 4 channels
  The complete UPC Direct folder with 80 channels ... except one travel channel.
  The complete Globe Cast France folder with 96 channels
  The complete Globe Cast folder with 8 channels
  The complete Globe Cast France with 8 channels
  The complete GLOBE CAST folder with 8 channels
  The complete Premiere folder with 51 channels

In fact, I can only receive the following channels:

Beta Digital folder with 22 channels: Anixe HD / Astra HD+
ZDF Vision folder with 10 channels: Arte HD (ger) and Arte HD (fra)
IRT folder with 20 channels: Simul SD/HD (seems like a demo looping over and over)

We're talking about 3 or 4 channels only which actually do work. That wouldn't be worth the Euro 80 for the card I think.


Have posted the questions above in their dedicated forum dvbnetwork.

The hardware makes a good impression to me in general, but their support hasn't been very forthcoming so far.

Will update you with their reply, if they do reply this time.