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A fairly long post. Feel free to comment on or critique it.
I thought it might be useful for those looking to put together DVB card based systems to share the details of my setup and some of my initial observations of the software I've used.
I spent a couple of months trying to determine what the minimum I would need for good 422 and HD signal decoding (mainly sports feeds). My goal was to end up with a system that would be slaved to my Pansat 2500 and output via DVI @ 1080i to my Sony HDTV.
Picking the hardware was the most difficult part. Obviously one wants to spend a little as possible and still guarantee good performance. There are so many options and one could always find someone who had problems with it.
For Hardware what I ended up with was this:
DVB card : Skystar 2 (rev 2.6D)
PC : MSI Neo 4F motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1G PC3200 CL3 ram
Gigabyte nVidia 6600GT 128M, DVI, Svideo, Component out
Selection of the DVB card was not too difficult. I was torn between the Skystar 2 (popular in Europe) and the Twinhan 102g (popular here in NA). The European in me chose the Skystar. One of my issues was availability. At the time I could find no distributor locally for DVB cards, something that has changed recently (it is fairly obvious why), so I looked for a Canadian dealer. Unfortunately what I found was that I could order one from a supplier in Germany and have it cost 25% less, including shipping/taxes, than I could get it from a distributor in Canada!? Plus they took paypal which eliminated some US suppliers, including at least one sponsor of this site - they only take paypal or credit cards from US addresses ,very narrow minded in my opinion.
In general I think choosing between the two DVB cards is really a flip of the coin although I do notice that a few people in this forum are having support issues with the Twinhan. For me I think if this card fails the cost to send it back and the time spent waiting is not worth it. I would just buy a new one and now that I can get a 102g locally I would likely just get that (although still the same price as my shipped Skystar).
The selection of the PC was a bit more worrying. One can find people claiming they get great performance from a P4 2.4 to others having problems with P4 3.2. Just as important is the graphics card so, when I found a system that met my price point, had a graphics card that was designed to drive HDTV displays, and a processor that should be more than quick enough, I finally bought my system. The worry is that you never really know if it will all work until you see your first beautiful HD feed.
Software: I have only limited experience with the various DVB packages. I haven't had much time to play as I have a 1 year old daughter who recently learned how to walk and so takes up a lot of my free time (which I'm happy to give her). I have not done much in the way of tinkering with graphs and options yet so what I report here should be taken with a grain of salt or two.
Packages that I've tried are:
DVBViewer Technisat Edition - obviously comes with the card and I used it for my initial setup just to get things working. This version does not do 422 but does do HD. Works well but has an annoying error mesage that pops up when you can't lock a signal. Looks like it's designed for those having a fixed channel list and seemed clumsy to add channels or enter a wildfeed freq and symbol rate. Perhaps if I used it more I might be able to figure it out. But with no 422 I'm not interested in pursuing it.
ProgDVB (free)- a popular program, lots of people like it and I may try and spend some more time getting used to it. I find the user interface a bit clumsy and the program seems to be unrefined (but it's free....). Sometimes video does not come up and others the user interface doesn't respond for a few seconds. Initially I tried it out on a p4 1.7 with an SD signal and when I tried to stream over the network it brought the machine to its knees. I have not yet started playing with graphs but so far I've used it to play 422 and HD smoothly.
MTheatre ($40) - I really like the user interface. Seems very easy to add new sats/transponders. Seem to be some processor usage issues though. This morning it decided peg the processor at 100% cpu when I started it up on an SD channel (BVN-TV on IA5). I'll give a few examples of processor usage below.
TSReader($99)/VLC (free) - great combination. No screwing around with graphs. This seems to be a good combination for feed viewing but not as good for regular channels you might watch (i.e. my wife may not be able to operate it). I really like VLC a lot as it is also perfect for streaming, transcoding, and viewing on other machines on our mixed network. I may even try some low bitrate streaming over the internet to my work.
I've used VLC as a local viewer for MyTheatre as well.
Here are some processor usage values I've had for different stream types on MyTheatre and TSReader/VLC. Note that I haven't played with graphs or configurations so have lots of investigation to do.
Soon I will choose between purchasing MyTheatre or TSReader. I have some playing to do yet though. I also have yet to check out Alt-DVB and RitzDVB.
TSReader/VLC: HD (sports 1080i) 30%, 422 (sports) 20%, 420 5-10% (non sport).
MyTheatre(video off)/VLC: HD not tried, 422 20%, 420 5-10%.
MyTheatre(Video on): HD 80%!!!, 422 30%, 420 10-20%
VLC playback of MyTheatre recorded HD: 30%
All viewed fullscreen. HD is wonderful.....
I have not looked at processor usage on ProgDVB. Obviously there are some configuration issues with MyTheatre I will need to sort out.
In general I'm very happy with the performance of this system.
I hope all this info is of use to someone. I've certiainly learned lots from reading the posts of others.
I thought it might be useful for those looking to put together DVB card based systems to share the details of my setup and some of my initial observations of the software I've used.
I spent a couple of months trying to determine what the minimum I would need for good 422 and HD signal decoding (mainly sports feeds). My goal was to end up with a system that would be slaved to my Pansat 2500 and output via DVI @ 1080i to my Sony HDTV.
Picking the hardware was the most difficult part. Obviously one wants to spend a little as possible and still guarantee good performance. There are so many options and one could always find someone who had problems with it.
For Hardware what I ended up with was this:
DVB card : Skystar 2 (rev 2.6D)
PC : MSI Neo 4F motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1G PC3200 CL3 ram
Gigabyte nVidia 6600GT 128M, DVI, Svideo, Component out
Selection of the DVB card was not too difficult. I was torn between the Skystar 2 (popular in Europe) and the Twinhan 102g (popular here in NA). The European in me chose the Skystar. One of my issues was availability. At the time I could find no distributor locally for DVB cards, something that has changed recently (it is fairly obvious why), so I looked for a Canadian dealer. Unfortunately what I found was that I could order one from a supplier in Germany and have it cost 25% less, including shipping/taxes, than I could get it from a distributor in Canada!? Plus they took paypal which eliminated some US suppliers, including at least one sponsor of this site - they only take paypal or credit cards from US addresses ,very narrow minded in my opinion.
In general I think choosing between the two DVB cards is really a flip of the coin although I do notice that a few people in this forum are having support issues with the Twinhan. For me I think if this card fails the cost to send it back and the time spent waiting is not worth it. I would just buy a new one and now that I can get a 102g locally I would likely just get that (although still the same price as my shipped Skystar).
The selection of the PC was a bit more worrying. One can find people claiming they get great performance from a P4 2.4 to others having problems with P4 3.2. Just as important is the graphics card so, when I found a system that met my price point, had a graphics card that was designed to drive HDTV displays, and a processor that should be more than quick enough, I finally bought my system. The worry is that you never really know if it will all work until you see your first beautiful HD feed.
Software: I have only limited experience with the various DVB packages. I haven't had much time to play as I have a 1 year old daughter who recently learned how to walk and so takes up a lot of my free time (which I'm happy to give her). I have not done much in the way of tinkering with graphs and options yet so what I report here should be taken with a grain of salt or two.
Packages that I've tried are:
DVBViewer Technisat Edition - obviously comes with the card and I used it for my initial setup just to get things working. This version does not do 422 but does do HD. Works well but has an annoying error mesage that pops up when you can't lock a signal. Looks like it's designed for those having a fixed channel list and seemed clumsy to add channels or enter a wildfeed freq and symbol rate. Perhaps if I used it more I might be able to figure it out. But with no 422 I'm not interested in pursuing it.
ProgDVB (free)- a popular program, lots of people like it and I may try and spend some more time getting used to it. I find the user interface a bit clumsy and the program seems to be unrefined (but it's free....). Sometimes video does not come up and others the user interface doesn't respond for a few seconds. Initially I tried it out on a p4 1.7 with an SD signal and when I tried to stream over the network it brought the machine to its knees. I have not yet started playing with graphs but so far I've used it to play 422 and HD smoothly.
MTheatre ($40) - I really like the user interface. Seems very easy to add new sats/transponders. Seem to be some processor usage issues though. This morning it decided peg the processor at 100% cpu when I started it up on an SD channel (BVN-TV on IA5). I'll give a few examples of processor usage below.
TSReader($99)/VLC (free) - great combination. No screwing around with graphs. This seems to be a good combination for feed viewing but not as good for regular channels you might watch (i.e. my wife may not be able to operate it). I really like VLC a lot as it is also perfect for streaming, transcoding, and viewing on other machines on our mixed network. I may even try some low bitrate streaming over the internet to my work.
I've used VLC as a local viewer for MyTheatre as well.
Here are some processor usage values I've had for different stream types on MyTheatre and TSReader/VLC. Note that I haven't played with graphs or configurations so have lots of investigation to do.
Soon I will choose between purchasing MyTheatre or TSReader. I have some playing to do yet though. I also have yet to check out Alt-DVB and RitzDVB.
TSReader/VLC: HD (sports 1080i) 30%, 422 (sports) 20%, 420 5-10% (non sport).
MyTheatre(video off)/VLC: HD not tried, 422 20%, 420 5-10%.
MyTheatre(Video on): HD 80%!!!, 422 30%, 420 10-20%
VLC playback of MyTheatre recorded HD: 30%
All viewed fullscreen. HD is wonderful.....
I have not looked at processor usage on ProgDVB. Obviously there are some configuration issues with MyTheatre I will need to sort out.
In general I'm very happy with the performance of this system.
I hope all this info is of use to someone. I've certiainly learned lots from reading the posts of others.
5 Replies
·
3438 views
On some HD broadcasts I was recording them and then letting MyHD play them back later. I decided to take the plunge and put in a AGP 6600GT DDR3-128 card. Love the card, uses the silent pipe technology so there's no added fan. I hooked up the DVI cable and it instantly detected the TV and few seconds later I had a desktop fit to my 57 inch screen. I fired up VLC and played a few 1080i broadcasts from MyHD and they played perfectly with around 40-50% CPU usage. I was stoked! That evening I moved the Twinhan card to the PC in hopes of Nascar being FTA the next day. Next thing I had to figure out was how to hook up all the dolby digital cables and other high def components to the TV & Receiver. XBox, Fortec, Dish811, MyHD, digital sound from QAM tuner in the TV, and now the DVI from the 6600GT. 
I found the HD feed of the race the next day. I fired of TSReader and let it kick off VLC, but the video was choppy as all can be. VLC was hitting 100% usage. So I moved the Twinhan card back to other PC and decided to stream the HD across the network. The framerate picked up a bit but was still choppy. VLC was again at 100%. I have no problems streaming the PBS HD FTA feed across the network, I guess the PC can't handle the high bit rate of 26000 vs the 14000 or so. This is running on a P4/2.6ghz PC with 512mb or RAM.
I then tried the Twinhan back in the HTPC with MyTheatre with the elecard codecs for 4:2:2. The playback was a little better but the colors were all off. Not sure where to go at this point. With Xmas coming up I don't have the money to splurge for a new 3.2ghz PC, then I bet my AGP card don't fit on the new MB then I'm stuck buying another video card. This HD/FTA addiction is getting expensive!!
I found the HD feed of the race the next day. I fired of TSReader and let it kick off VLC, but the video was choppy as all can be. VLC was hitting 100% usage. So I moved the Twinhan card back to other PC and decided to stream the HD across the network. The framerate picked up a bit but was still choppy. VLC was again at 100%. I have no problems streaming the PBS HD FTA feed across the network, I guess the PC can't handle the high bit rate of 26000 vs the 14000 or so. This is running on a P4/2.6ghz PC with 512mb or RAM.
I then tried the Twinhan back in the HTPC with MyTheatre with the elecard codecs for 4:2:2. The playback was a little better but the colors were all off. Not sure where to go at this point. With Xmas coming up I don't have the money to splurge for a new 3.2ghz PC, then I bet my AGP card don't fit on the new MB then I'm stuck buying another video card. This HD/FTA addiction is getting expensive!!
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Much better than the critics would want you to believe. Only problem, the last guy was pretty obvious a couple of episodes in.
4 Replies
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1303 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Amazon Sets 'The Lord of the Rings' TV Series In Mega Deal With Multi-Season Commitment
$250 Million just for the rights to make something
The LOTR original series, a prequel to Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, will be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust; HarperCollins; and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which produced the hugely successful LOTR movie franchise.
Set in Middle Earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring.
$250 Million just for the rights to make something
The LOTR original series, a prequel to Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, will be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust; HarperCollins; and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which produced the hugely successful LOTR movie franchise.
Set in Middle Earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring.
13 Replies
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1723 views
For some reason, the satelliteguys.us site is loading a lot slower than usual on both Chrome on my Asus laptop and Safari on my iPhone.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
548 Replies
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18878 views
I saw that, wasn't sure if PHP was employed by XenForo or not.
arstechnica.com
PHP warns it plans to release 2 emergency patches imminently
Unconfirmed report claims PHP2Shell exploit remotely executes code on PHP sites.
arstechnica.com
Yup thats what xenforo is written in, php.
But all patched now.
But all patched now.
More specifically, these:
A more scholarly story is here:
www.bleepingcomputer.com
A more scholarly story is here:
PHP warns admins of two critical flaws, emergency patches coming tomorrow
The PHP security team is warning administrators to prepare for emergency security updates tomorrow to address two critical vulnerabilities, as information about the flaws has reportedly leaked ahead of their scheduled disclosure.
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
I'm surprised Walmart hasn't banned this guy from all of their stores. He has been on their CASE the past few months.
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f3zr37ekgKM?feature=share
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f3zr37ekgKM?feature=share
10 Replies
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87 views
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Cutting Edge
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68563 Replies
·
2675241 views
For quite a while now, people with a VIP211k have been losing their recordings on their activated external HDDs... even when there's nothing physically wrong with HDD. I believe this is an intentional and underhanded tactic that Dish is pulling in an attempt to force users away from the VIP211k.
They are obviously regretting that they ever let users have a "non-dvr" dvr in the first place. You would think they would be happy charging you a $40 one time fee... and then be happy letting the customer be the one responsible for HDD failures.
Dish clearly hates the 211k bitter-clingers. This recording deletion problem is intentional (IMO), and I think it is just one more tool that they are using. Hopper and a 2-year agreement... that's what they want you to have. Think about that... a 2-year agreement... with a company $30 Billion in debt (that's with a B). What happens when all that debt causes them to drop the channel that may have been your whole reason for having Dish in the first place? Guess who's stuck with a service that no longer suits their needs... for the remainder of the 2-year agreement.
On top of that, they don't want you to install it yourself. I purchased and installed all my equipment myself. That used to be common. Now, they lie to me and tell me that my dish must be updated to use a Hopper. Funny thing is... they don't even know what dish I have because they didn't install it, and I didn't tell them. If you ask what type of dish/LNBs the hopper needs... good luck getting an answer. All they know is that whatever you have needs to be upgraded by an installer.
It is quite apparent to me that they care much more about staying in their box, than they do working with the customer. That's too bad, because it hasn't always been that way. It's like they are totally unaware of the current business environment that they are trying to compete in.
I have been a customer since 2010. I will be cancelling my service before the next period. Yeah, I know, my $1,200 a year won't make a difference to them. It just seems like they have forgotten who needs who, especially when you consider the competition in today's streaming world. But hey, they will have succeed in forcing me off the 211k.
They are obviously regretting that they ever let users have a "non-dvr" dvr in the first place. You would think they would be happy charging you a $40 one time fee... and then be happy letting the customer be the one responsible for HDD failures.
Dish clearly hates the 211k bitter-clingers. This recording deletion problem is intentional (IMO), and I think it is just one more tool that they are using. Hopper and a 2-year agreement... that's what they want you to have. Think about that... a 2-year agreement... with a company $30 Billion in debt (that's with a B). What happens when all that debt causes them to drop the channel that may have been your whole reason for having Dish in the first place? Guess who's stuck with a service that no longer suits their needs... for the remainder of the 2-year agreement.
On top of that, they don't want you to install it yourself. I purchased and installed all my equipment myself. That used to be common. Now, they lie to me and tell me that my dish must be updated to use a Hopper. Funny thing is... they don't even know what dish I have because they didn't install it, and I didn't tell them. If you ask what type of dish/LNBs the hopper needs... good luck getting an answer. All they know is that whatever you have needs to be upgraded by an installer.
It is quite apparent to me that they care much more about staying in their box, than they do working with the customer. That's too bad, because it hasn't always been that way. It's like they are totally unaware of the current business environment that they are trying to compete in.
I have been a customer since 2010. I will be cancelling my service before the next period. Yeah, I know, my $1,200 a year won't make a difference to them. It just seems like they have forgotten who needs who, especially when you consider the competition in today's streaming world. But hey, they will have succeed in forcing me off the 211k.
169 Replies
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7752 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDlKhq4TMbc
Direct YouTube Link - Windows Weekly 1006
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDlKhq4TMbc
Direct YouTube Link - Windows Weekly 1006
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
·
8 views
Every time my Dish contract comes up I weigh the options of keeping Dish or switch to streaming. Right now I can watch/record the OTA channels vis my HDHomerun. I also can stream CBS and NBC via the Paramount+ and Peacock apps. What I would need to find is how to watch the Food Network, HGTV, Syfy, USA, Hallmark channels, Great American Family, Lifetime channels plus a few more with an app or two. My current Dish bill is $118, so I should be able to get a few apps for a lot less.
Any suggestions? I would want the best picture quality and audio quality I could get.
Any suggestions? I would want the best picture quality and audio quality I could get.
1 Replies
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75 views
USA and SyFy content is on Peacock, you can receive the rest of those channels via Philo, only $25 a month.
Philo - Stream Live and On-Demand TV
Why pay more for TV? Start your Philo free trial and enjoy live TV plus on-demand content starting at just $25/month. Stream hit shows, movies, and more.
www.philo.com
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Stumbled across this ... http://www.gaspricewatch.com/USGas_ZipSearch.asp
I found no local prices, although it did show stations at my location...
Added these to this post...
USA National Gas Temperature Map
State By State Gasoline Taxes
Gas Buddy
Ethanol Free Stations
I found no local prices, although it did show stations at my location...
Added these to this post...
USA National Gas Temperature Map
State By State Gasoline Taxes
Gas Buddy
Ethanol Free Stations
5561 Replies
·
461039 views