USB Free to air sat receiver (for PC)

eoinf

Hi

are there any usb sticks/boxes which i can use with my pc to watch and record Free to air channels?

I have one for DVB-T i was wondering if there is something similar for DVB-s

Rgds

Eoin

Apogee

USB satellite devices require an external power supply to power the LNBF.
http://www.technisat.com/indexeb44.html?nav=PC_products,en,76-1246563456759

watty

A PCI or PCIe card is better for Satellite as it needs a thick coax and up to 100mA (typically 25mA) of 13V / 18V to power and switch the LNB or LNBF at the dish.

Since a dish is not very portable, requires alignment if moved, there is very little demand for USB Laptop versions. Internal PCI or PCIe card are the norm.

mossym

might not be much call, but they do exist.

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_novasusb2.html

warning, not DVB-S2 though, no problem at the moment, but might limit you in the future

eoinf

i dont have a spare slot on my net-top for a card so need to go USB.

this is the one i was thinking of getting

http://www.dvbshop24.net/TT-Connect/TechnoTrend-Connect-S2-3600-HDTV-S2-USB-incl-TT-Viewer::24.html

About €62 delivered.

mossym

be careful, Some cards come with drivers that only work with the software supplied with the card, if you want them to integare to other programs they don’t work, typically BDA drivers are compatible, but there have been a few cases where this hasn’t worked. There is no mention of compatible drivers anywhere in this, that doesn’t mean they don’t work

eoinf

mossym wrote: »

be careful, Some cards come with drivers that only work with the software supplied with the card, if you want them to integare to other programs they don’t work, typically BDA drivers are compatible, but there have been a few cases where this hasn’t worked. There is no mention of compatible drivers anywhere in this, that doesn’t mean they don’t work

Cheers for that I will google a bit to see if there is drivers for win7

snaps

PCI cards are best and work with most DVB software. PCI cards can be got for as low as 28€.

Im finding altdvb and dvb dream are the best softwares out there.

eoinf

snaps wrote: »

PCI cards are best and work with most DVB software. PCI cards can be got for as low as 28€.

Im finding altdvb and dvb dream are the best softwares out there.

I know but i specifically want info about USB boxes/sticks/whatever.

I dont have a spare card slot.

mossym

eoinf wrote: »

i dont have a spare slot on my net-top for a card so need to go USB.

snaps wrote: »

PCI cards are best and work with most DVB software. PCI cards can be got for as low as 28€.

?? think you missed something:D

plus, there no reasons an externally powered USB won't work just as well as an internal PCI card.

in fact, unless he went PCI-E, i'd say the USB card is likely a more future proof solution than PCI, especially as most boards used for TV duties are m-ATX or equivalent size.

eoinf

mossym wrote: »

?? think you missed something:D

plus, there no reasons an externally powered USB won't work just as well as an internal PCI card.

in fact, unless he went PCI-E, i'd say the USB card is likely a more future proof solution than PCI, especially as most boards used for TV duties are m-ATX or equivalent size.

Exactly. Took a punt on the box I linked too above. Made sure it was the hd version. While most of the support sites are in Herman I am confident of getting it working. I'll report back about how I get on. It may not look the pretiest and the remote is apparently a price of crap.

I like a challenge anyway. It would be boring otherwise.

mossym

eoinf wrote: »

Exactly. Took a punt on the box I linked too above. Made sure it was the hd version. While most of the support sites are in Herman I am confident of getting it working. I'll report back about how I get on. It may not look the pretiest and the remote is apparently a price of crap.

I like a challenge anyway. It would be boring otherwise.

the technotrend stuff is pretty reliable, you should be fine

carbsy

eoinf wrote: »

Exactly. Took a punt on the box I linked too above. Made sure it was the hd version. While most of the support sites are in Herman I am confident of getting it working. I'll report back about how I get on. It may not look the pretiest and the remote is apparently a price of crap.

I like a challenge anyway. It would be boring otherwise.

That's the spirit. Do leave us know how you get on as I was looking at the SkyStar DVB-S2 USB model.Simply for tinkering around with on a laptop but I couldn't justify the price of it atm so... The one you bought could suit me perfectly.

Apogee

eoinf wrote: »

i
this is the one i was thinking of getting

http://www.dvbshop24.net/TT-Connect/TechnoTrend-Connect-S2-3600-HDTV-S2-USB-incl-TT-Viewer::24.html

About €62 delivered.

I know someone who has one of these and it works fine - has BDA drivers too.

watty

You need an DVB-S2 though. basic DVB-S is now obsolete with mainstream channels on HD from October and Irish FTA TV on 9E (DVB-S2 + ka LNBF only!) maybe Feb to May startup...

All my PCI sat gear (5 cards of different generations) is all Technotrend designs. I like Prog DVB and Core AVC for MPEG4 Codec best.

eoinf

watty wrote: »

You need an DVB-S2 though. basic DVB-S is now obsolete with mainstream channels on HD from October and Irish FTA TV on 9E (DVB-S2 + ka LNBF only!) maybe Feb to May startup...

All my PCI sat gear (5 cards of different generations) is all Technotrend designs. I like Prog DVB and Core AVC for MPEG4 Codec best.

The model number suggests s2 but what specifically do I need to look for?

watty

DVB-S2, which it seems to do
Everything else is the Application(s)
From http://www.dvbshop24.net/TT-Connect/TechnoTrend-Connect-S2-3600-HDTV-S2-USB-incl-TT-Viewer::24.html
For DVB-S2
• SCPC/MCPC support up to 30 Msymbols/s
• QPSK and 8PSK with supported rates
• 1/4, 1/3, 2/5, 1/2, 3/5, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, 8/9
• LDPC and BCH decoder as per DVB-S2 requirements
• Digital Nyquist root filter with 0.20, 0.25, 0.35 roll-off factors
• Up to 90 Mbps channel bit rate
Functionality
• HDTV support; AC3 5.1 Software decoder
• TV, Radio and data services on notebooks or PC via USB 2.0 interface
• Representation, Record (incl. Timer) and Playback of TV and Radio services
• Operation System support: Windows XP (SP2)
• Time shift features and record timer / Extended EPG functionality /Teletext support
• Automatic Channel Setup using IP multicast group address
• IP-Unicast Transport using dynamic IP address to MAC address mapping
• Support MAC Address Filtering
• Use of up to 255 PID filters
• Download MPEG-2 PES speed up to 90 Mbit/s
• Download speed for Unicast/Multicast traffic (TCP/IP) up to 90 Mbit/s

As with ANYTHING to do with Windows or LINUX always install 32bit OS and never 64Bit OS if you want broadest range of driver and application compatibility. 64Bit OS should only be used if a single application absolutely needs more than 3GByte or is so specialist that it needs 64bits. For most applications 64Bits uses 50% more RAM to load code and runs slower.

Apogee

watty wrote: »

You need an DVB-S2 though.

It is DVB-S2.

Apogee

eoinf wrote: »

The model number suggests s2 but what specifically do I need to look for?

Nothing. It's fine.

eoinf

Thank for the comments and help. I paid for carrier pidgin postage as I don't need it too soon. Will report back once I have it setup.

snaps

mossym wrote: »

?? think you missed something:D

plus, there no reasons an externally powered USB won't work just as well as an internal PCI card.

in fact, unless he went PCI-E, i'd say the USB card is likely a more future proof solution than PCI, especially as most boards used for TV duties are m-ATX or equivalent size.

Any of the dvb-s usb devices ive seen have been awfull troublesome yokes.

mossym

snaps wrote: »

Any of the dvb-s usb devices ive seen have been awfull troublesome yokes.

there are some poor ones, but i've seen as many poor pci cards...i've had a HTPC in some form for about 8 years now, and gone through a fisr whack of different cards, never found usb any more troublesome than pci, in fact biggest problems were with pci cards that failed to allow any pc they were in to boot, back and forth to the manufacturer 3 times who maintained every time that they tested and they worked fine, but we couldn't get to work in any of about 10 pcs we tried


the usb ones were problematic around the time of the usb 1.1/usb 2.0 switchover, but not really had any problems since. (I am on a pci hauppauge card now, but i have had a usb dvb-s and it worked fine, and had experience with a few more)

cluttrell

eoinf wrote: »

Thank for the comments and help. I paid for carrier pidgin postage as I don't need it too soon. Will report back once I have it setup.

Eoin, I wondered how did you get on with this (if it arrived yet) ? Does it work ok and how did you get the EPG to load all of the channels in Media centre?

I'm looking at buying an external Combi set top box but want to rule out using my media center pc first - I could add a DVB-S2 USB stick but it may come with complications... You're help would be much appreciated.