Satellite Tuner Card?

P. Breathnach

[I hope I am not repeating a question that is often asked here, but I tried a search and found nothing relevant to my needs.]

I might end up with a spare satellite dish pointed at Astra, and a standard aerial connection close to my PC.

I gather that there are cards available which would allow me to tune in FTA transmissions on my PC. I checked with my local suppliers, but they don't have anything like that, and the staff are not particularly knowledgeable. Has anybody here got any experience of such cards, or knowledge about them?

byte

Yes, these should be easily obtained. I'd have thought most PC shops would stock them, but perhaps not.

One of the cheaper and common ones is the SkyStar 2. It's a very basic satellite card, and you do need a relatively powerful PC to run it, as it relies on PC resources. Probably cost under €100.

Then there are more expensive cards that do most of the decoding work themselves.

Zaphod

http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=PC+Satellite+Cards

watty

The link recently posted by Zaphod for TeleSatellite Magsine has a review of new technotrend DVB-S2. You would want an ATI X1800 or similar or better or PC won't play HDTV well.

www.technotrend.de

Skystar2 is also called the Nova and the Tecnotrend Budget. I have two running in XP pro (not MCE) and very nice PVR they make with ProgDVB and Winlirc and Technotrend app for the other card. Digiguide as the EPG

Ghost Train

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr3000.html

I got one of these today(from pixmania), need to do some cabling before i can test the satellite tuner. The digital and analog tuners seem fine so far.

hopefully it won't be obsolite in a few months the way things could be going mpeg2->mpeg4

P. Breathnach

Thanks, folks, for the answers. It all seems a bit more challenging than I imagined. Maybe I should say a bit more about where I am coming from, and somebody might be able to make things simpler for me.

I already have satellite TV with PVR and stuff in another room, so I don't need high-performance kit. What happened was that I had satellite broadband (okay, pseudo-broadband) which has now been discontinued and the dish is still there, unused. So I thought I might get some use from it. I was hoping for something not too expensive, say under €100 including VAT and delivery.

I am not very technical, and I don't want a big adventure. I can plug in a card and install well-behaved software, and that is what I hoped to be able to do. I have followed links here and done some googling, and for the most part I can't make much sense of it (my inability to read German is one problem!).

Can we make it simple? Can I just buy the Skystar, plug it in, install software, and tell it to find all the FTA channels? I would like it to find radio stations too, as I use radio a lot more than I use TV, and radio reception is poor enough where I live.

ladgie353

I've just done that (installed skystar2 in Win XP PC and SW installed) and as soon as I get a cable from the LNB to the card input (the tricky bit), I'll let you know how easy it is to get FTA TV with the setup.

watty

Well you can get "Skystar2" type card under €80 maybe. Setting up two in a PC no harder than one.

FTA is easy on it as long as the dish is aligned correctly.

P. Breathnach wrote:

Can we make it simple? Can I just buy the Skystar, plug it in, install software, and tell it to find all the FTA channels? I would like it to find radio stations too, as I use radio a lot more than I use TV, and radio reception is poor enough where I live.

The supplied Technotrend SW works well (and can be downloaded free for any Skystar2) and you just select 28.2 Astra / Eurobird and scan. It finds all the FTA TV and Radio. Comes on CD with the budget card (=skystar2) from technotrend.

Later you can experiemnt with PVR functions, ProgDVB, Media streaming (like Slingbox), WinLirc IR Remote etc if you want.

c ashelmore

Being about to order a Pci sat card I found that very informative especially the bytelive link.It seems that the premium -ss1- cards are best if you do not have a fast computer or want to be able to add a ci module later.Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems only the WinTV-HVR-3000 mentioned will do analogue as well(from an aerial) or could one run it through a vcr to the av input on say a Technotrend Premium S2300?

P. Breathnach

Maybe Laurent and I should work together: I have the satellite to PC bit, and he has the PC setup.

Watty confirms that what I want seems possible. Following up on earlier postings in this thread gave me the impression that I would probably get a better deal buying online from Germany or France. I won't be in a position to do anything about it for a couple of weeks, then I'll act on things, and report back on how things go.

I'm still open to suggestions about suppliers.

Thanks, everybody.

watty

The SkyStar1 type card will work on a p133MHz. It is really an entire receiver system, including TV and Audio out.

Any computer able to run Win2000/WinXp properly can manage the Skystar2 type card. It is just a tuner, the PC does everything including TV / Audio out.

byte

P Breathnach, you say you had satellite "broadband". Was it one-way? If so, what sort of PCI card have you inserted at the moment? The reason I ask, is because many oneway sat-bb ISP's used to provide a Skystar2 as their data card.

I got a Skystar2 card from Netsystem, and another from Europe Online, during my Sat-bb days!

Ghost Train

the satellite tuner part of the hvr-3000 won't work at all for me, i can get signal and video, but crashes when you change channel or try to tune in the channels. Tried it in two machines and I get the same result. if i cant get it working i'll be sending it back, definitely wouldn't recommend it at the moment

P. Breathnach

byte wrote:

P Breathnach, you say you had satellite "broadband". Was it one-way? If so, what sort of PCI card have you inserted at the moment? The reason I ask, is because many oneway sat-bb ISP's used to provide a Skystar2 as their data card.

I got a Skystar2 card from Netsystem, and another from Europe Online, during my Sat-bb days!

It was one-way -- so much so that it felt very one-way indeed, with lousy download performance, which is why it has been retired. No card installed, but a box with an ethernet connection -- no name, no description, no manual, just "F-10" stencilled on it. If there is any magic stuff in the box, I don't know how to use it, because I have no documentation and can find no software installed to support it. Anyway, the box is not mine, as I have agreed to return it as part of cancelling my arrangement.

Padraig

byte

Ah right, don't think it's of much use to you so. Best send it back to your ex-ISP!

ladgie353

I finally got to connect the card and the dish and it works.
I can get all the FTA channels from ASTRA (19.sth E) on the PC under Windows.
Works with the SW bundled with the card and with ProgDVB though the latter is a bit flaky.

Next step, moving the card to the linux box.