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Cielplus - PC control of Digibox via USB port

  • 28-12-2006 7:18pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,733 ✭✭✭


    http://www.satcure.com/reviews/cielplus.htm
    http://www.cielplus.com/


    The SatCure Review Supplement # 99a

    Cielplus : a useful Sky Digibox-to-PC interface

    I recently had the good fortune to be able to try out a simple to use gadget that allows you to connect a UK Sky Digibox to a PC via the USB port.

    With the right PC software this allows timed recordings of programmes via the EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) as well as detailed analysis of the multiplex being received, including data rates of individual channels, network information and streaming channels to other PCs.

    It works with Amstrad boxes and some Pace models ; I borrowed an Amstrad DRX-100 for the purpose.

    Now you might be thinking "how does this work" because these Sky satellite receivers don't have a USB port themselves ; the answer is that there is an unused internal connector, accessible by simply removing a blanking plate on the rear panel of the digibox and the Cielplus interface board slides into this, accessing the MPEG transport stream and converting it into USB form. Because of the data rates involved in MPEG transport, USB2 is necessary; a USB 1.1 PC port simply couldn't handle the resulting data rate. Conveniently the PC supplies the power to the interface card so I didn't even need to switch on the soldering iron.

    Included with the Cielplus is a small remote control extender unit. This allows the Cielplus card to send remote control commands to the satellite receiver - enabling scheduled recording of programs via scripts run from the PC with suitable software.

    TSReader

    So what is this "suitable software"? The software I am referring to is called TSreader, a program I have myself been using for various purposes for several years. It isn't written specifically for Cielplus. With the appropriate driver TSReader carries out MPEG transport stream analysis on a PC, recording individual channels, statistical analysis of channel bitrates, errors and much more.
    TSreader can be downloaded from http://www.coolstf.com/tsreader.

    It can communicate or cooperate with VLC Media Player from Videolan ( http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ ); VLC lets you play or see a selected program on your PC but also can act as a video server allowing you to stream video (and audio) over a network as long as the network has sufficient bandwidth for the data rates involved. VLC is free software.

    TsReader itself comes in 3 flavours :

    TSReader Lite, freeware, TSReader Standard and TSreader Professional.

    The full recording and videoserver functionality comes with TSReader Standard which costs $99 whilst the Lite version does the full TS decoding but won't record to disk or allow recording from the EPG nor can it be run from a command line interface; it is basically just a decoder / multiplex examination tool. TSReader Professional is intended for broadcast professionals in that multiple instances of it can be run simultaneously, the entire received MUX can be unicasted via UDP, up to 64 programs (PIDs) can be recorded etc. - a real professionals' tool - hence the $399 price. To see an implementation of the Pro version as used by broadcasters go to http://www.zanalyzer.com .


    Setting it up

    The package consisted of the Cielplus card, UHF remote control dongle with its cable, USB lead, a CD and an A4 instruction leaflet.

    Since the unit appears to be of UK origin, the instructions are in easily understood, plain English - a refreshing change from what generally passes for instructions in equipment sourced from south east Asia.
    The UHF remote control dongle is matchbox sized and has a trailing lead with a jack plug on it that plugs into a mating socket on the Cielplus card; the box has standard IEC ("Belling Lee" for the old fashioned) aerial connectors at each end and simply plugs into an antenna (RF2) socket at the rear of your digibox. It allows you to issue remote control commands from your PC - e.g. channel changes when you are using TSReader to setup & schedule TV recordings onto your computer's hard drive.

    A remote control screen appears on the PC when TSreader is started up with the Cielplus driver thus allowing all the usual Sky digibox R/C functions.

    It was simple enough to follow the connection and installation instructions and everything did indeed work first time. Users who do not already use TSreader obviously need to download and install this before they can either examine the transport stream or make recordings.

    In Use

    (If you click on the blue underlined links, below, you'll see screenshots from the actual software. I apologise for the poor quality. Chris sent me good quality images but I had to reduce them in size and compress them to let them load quickly and reduce the load on the server).

    It is quite interesting to see what bitrates are being used on the various channels and relate that to the poor picture quality evident on certain channels as well as to see the effects of statistical multiplexing confirmed in practice. My own suspicions regarding certain non-Sky derived soccer transmissions were confirmed by doing this. (These weren't BBC channels so you may be able to guess their provider)

    I have heard quite a few complaints from people considering purchasing a SkyPlus hard drive based PVR (Personal Video Recorder) to the effect that they object to having to pay a monthly additional subscription (currently 10 UK pounds) to use it ; this fee doesn't apply if you are already taking a premium subscription package from Sky but not everyone feels that they can afford the higher end channel bundles.

    As far as I am aware, the Cielplus used with a PC with a reasonable amount of spare hard disk space, is currently the only way to get similar functionality without either subscribing to a premium Sky package (or paying Sky a monthly Sky+ activation fee) along with paying for a Sky+ PVR. That is to say, I know of no other method of automating and scheduling recording using the convenience of the Sky EPG.

    Another point about the Cielplus is that it provides the only normal way of getting Sky channels onto a PC. Standard PCI satellite tuner cards don't have a method of unscrambling Sky's Videoguard encryption system ; with the Cielplus a normal Sky digibox and official Sky (or Freesat) card is used. Sky cannot be unscrambled with a PCI tuner card and CAM (Conditional Access Module) because Sky uses an embedded encryption system that is not CI (Common Interface) compatible. It is possible to use a modified "TyRex" or "Dragon" CAM after some software changes but in that case, as well as needing an official Sky viewing card, the card needs to be inserted into a genuine Sky digibox every 2 or 3 weeks for refreshing - eventually ceasing to function unless this is done. This relatively involved procedure means that that the satellite card/CAM solution is really only suitable for the more technically minded as too many hoops have to be jumped through to achieve a continuously working solution.


    I found the whole system (Sky digibox, Cielplus and PC running TSReader) easy to use and trouble free in operation. I did also record some BBC high definition footage and this played back acceptably on a 3 GHz Pentium PC with 1 GigaByte of RAM. However, lower end PCs will probably find that a little challenging because a lot of PC horsepower is needed for software decoding of high definition MPEG2 video - and even more is required for H264/MPEG4 encoded transmissions as used by the BBC.

    You will also notice that higher bitrate transmissions fill your hard disk more quickly and this is certainly true for HD material.

    Conclusion

    I really enjoyed setting up and using the Cielplus. It did "what it said on the tin" for me with no technical issues. I let my 25 year old son have a play with the PC interface and he also found it pretty intuitive and (unlike myself) he is no technogeek.

    I also got a personal kick out of doing something that, although perfectly legal, might upset the management and bean counters at Sky :-) They would obviously prefer that people simply forked out their hard-earned cash for a genuine Sky+ box, installation and, where applicable, activation fee.

    My son and daughter (25 and 22 years old) reckoned they would be ok with using the CielPlus themselves; my wife (who has never used a PC) told me that she would not attempt to get her head around it.

    For those who wish to investigate further, the Cielplus website is at http://www.cielplus.com.

    The TSReader website can be found at http://www.coolstf.com/tsreader.

    Chris Muriel, G3ZDM


Comments

  • Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 19,166 Mod ✭✭✭✭byte
    byte


    Interesting device, tis a pity it's only guaranteed to work on the Amstrads (most of which are rare in these parts) and the old unreliable Pace 2200.

    Maybe after time, they can get it to work on newer Paces, and theres still plenty of Panasonics on the go.


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