The Technotrend S2-1600 DVB-S2 cards are now out finally. The delay was caused by Technotrend being purchased by another company called CityCom Communication Systems who's part of the Kathrein group. Now that the transition is complete they have starting releasing new products again. The new official technotrend website is http://www.tt-pc.de (http://www.tt-pc.de/)

CyberEstore has the S2-1600 (http://www.cyberestore.com/satellite/dvb-s-pc-receiver-cards/technotrend-s2-1600-mpeg4-dvb-s2-pci-satellite-tuner-.html) in stock for $89.95 for people not needing the CI interface this should be a great alternative for a quality DVB-S2 card without having to spend the extra for the S2-3200 (http://www.cyberestore.com/satellite/dvb-s-pc-receiver-cards/technotrend-s2-3200-mpeg4-dvb-s2-satellite-tuner.html).

Kind Regards,
Ralph

Looks cheap; still PCI, not PCIe interface ...

What do those things that have to do with anything?

usually it will 'bite' you after installing, when you couldn't make it work properly with front-end application, graphs, filters, etc

Have you had bad experiences with TT products in that way Smith? Based on their standing in the hardware community, I always thought they were pretty well designed and supported. I've never had one to mess with, so I cant remark on such things either way. If design and support are good, you cant beat the price for an S2 setup.
You are right about the Express bus. In the newest gen computers, it is doing to PCI and AGP what they did to ISA. I wouldnt be surprized to find out that some MBs have dropped PCI slots altogether. If not, I have no doubt it will come to pass.

Sort of - dissatisfied with TT-3200 in reception sensitivity of DVB-S2 tpns.

Sort of - dissatisfied with TT-3200 in reception sensitivity of DVB-S2 tpns.
Do you think is could be characteristic, or maybe you got a dud. I've not really seen much on them, especially the S2 receiption/performance. I suspect you have read much more on issues others may be having than I've come across.
An informal comparison/review on known S2 capable equipment could be useful, especially the PCI/USB stuff. Maybe you've come across such a thing in your travels? Happysat has quite a bit of info but gleaning out info, especially current and relevant stuff is quite a chore.
I read a comment on "A review of the AZBox over at Stelliteguys....." post that said, paraphrased "The guy seemed very impressed. I think he would marry the thing if he could".....lol

Not my words Stogie, I read that over on another board!(not Happysat) I see you get around too. Maybe you've come across it as well.

No DSS support?

No DSS support?
Yeah ! :down :D

On Windows my TT-3200 shows a lower SQ on the same DVB/DVB-S2 feeds when compared to DVB World 2104s, but they both lock/lose lock under similar conditions. When I check on the bench spectrum analyzer, it looks like they're both performing reasonably relative to Cramer-Rao. SQ scaling is arbitrary anyway. I've learned a lot about 2104s on Linux by poking at the driver. Someday I hope to do something similar with the TT-3200, but currently it's too busy operationally.

Sort of - dissatisfied with TT-3200 in reception sensitivity of DVB-S2 tpns.

I agree and have had the same experience. After being dissapointed by both the tt-3600 and the tt-3200, there's no way I'd recommend another technotrend product to anyone.



Based on their standing in the hardware community, I always thought they were pretty well designed and supported.

I think they were just first. The technotrends products I mentioned above were the first dvb-s2 products you could get in the US, and generally this involved ordering from a shop in germany. Anyway, I was one of those early adopters and at the time when it was the only product we could get, those of us who bought these products learned to live with their limitations and shortcomings, but now there are better products available. At this point I'd recommend looking at the Dvbworld products and the TBS8920 cards and forgetting about the Technotrends junk.

Thanks for the all the input guys. I value the experience of the hardware testing pioneers for running point for the rest of us. If it wasnt for you guys, there would be a lot of us with lots of regrets. I'm quite the novice when it comes to stepping off the (familiar and comparitively easy) SD platform and into the HD world and all it's technology subdivisions. So much add'l info to get processed and keep straight.

I would not recommend the DVBworld PCI-e card. So far I returned it to the manufacturer twice. When I first received the card it did not work, and after they repaired it, the card only lasted a week. While waiting for my DVBworld PCI-e card to be repaired I purchased a TBS pci-e 6920 and no problems so far. The TBS card works flawless.

While waiting for my DVBworld PCI-e card to be repaired I purchased a TBS pci-e 6920 and no problems so far. The TBS card works flawless.

I have the 8920 (regular PCI) and so far I've been quite pleased with it. One of the features of it is it can be used with Tsreader though it only works in a round about kind of way. To use it with Tsreader, you have to also have DVBdream installed along with a special driver for it. You also must first launch DVBdream and have it tune to the transponder you wish to receive before launching Tsreader. It's kind of annoying to have to do it this way, but at least it works and it's not deaf like the TT3200 and doesn't have a data rate bottleneck like the TT3600.

Besides PC buss type, what feature differences are there between the 8920 and 6920 models?

Regarding these statements -

Stefan wrote
.............. Dvbworld products and the TBS8920 cards.............



3dOptics wrote
................I would not recommend the DVBworld PCI-e card................
................I purchased a TBS pci-e 6920 and no problems so far............

Are the products from two different mfgrs? Both having TBS prefix in their model number implys they are related, but of course, that isnt a hard fast rule.

Besides PC buss type, what feature differences are there between the 8920 and 6920 models?

The only differences on the company's spec sheets are PCI versus PCIe. Their site is here: TBS Technologies|Q-Box|DVB-S2|DVB-S|PCI-E (http://www.tbsdtv.com)

I have the PCI model and have been mostly using it with TSReader (via DVBDream) so far. I need to move it to my MythTV box and test it under Linux.

How has the testing under Mythtv been going?

Thanks for the info. I am beta testing a CaptiveWorks LMC-4000HD and Technotrend S2-1600 is one of the cards test supported.

Anyone know where I can find a Technotrend S2-1600 in the US
thanks

There are alot better cards out there now then this, probably easier to find too.

Any specific reason you need this card in particular over another ?

I'm guessing to receive DVB-S2 with a CW3K or CW4K.

Jim

is the CW3k/4k using proprietary software that restricts you to specific hardware ?

the Prof line of cards as well as the newer dvbworld line offer much better performance then the old technotrend cards.

Well, talking about not older cards, but TT S2-1600 (ST STV6110A), it's a PCI card that uses exact same demod as Prof-7301, but a newer ST STV6110A tuner, different Phillips made PCI Bridge, and extra LNB voltage stabilizers improving DVB-S2 reception by reducing noise in the reception circle that powers LNBs. There were reports that while STV6110A has an advantage of being a low power "green" chipset allowing to design cool sat cards, it may add some extra noise to the received signal. On the other hand, there is a clear trend across several card brands using STMicro chipsets, to transition to this newer tuner, and it's gone already through several revisions improving specs. As new card generations are introduced, we'll see all STM chipset based cards using this tuner. So I wonder, if anyone has up-to-date 2011 data comparing older STV6100 tuner to current STV6110 (http://www.st.com/stonline/stappl/productcatalog/app?page=productSelector) rev. performance? What's interesting, if anyone can list any NORTH AMERICAN TV channels that they can't receive with a card using STV6110A tuner, but are able to stably get with a similar card using STV6100 tuner? :)

Where can I buy a Technotrend S2-1600 in the USA.
I have a CW 4000 HD I would like to install one in.
Please help thanks

They only compiled the modules for those cards/chipsets. It's supposed to be open source but they made things difficult with some of the tricks they added to their compiled java menu system. I'm waiting for xbmc to get live streaming working well enough to migrate.

Jim