Best card for Linux use

[14karat]

Title explains it all... opinions, experience, anything new I should wait for?
Also, has anyone ran two cards parallel?
Read ACRadio's review of the Technotrend s2-3200, but I'm guessing that was with Windows?
Just ordered a Biostar TA790GX motherboard with AMD Phenom X4 9500 + 4GB RAM, so the cards are next...
Help me out!

 

[colbec]

I have a Geniatech 103g and a Skystar 2. Can't speak for any others. Both can sit in the same Linux box and be recognized by the kernel and idenfitied severally (device0, device1) in Kaffeine. Both tune up strong transponders no problem. Occasonally a standalone box will find a TP that the cards do not see, which may be due to a variation in reported params or simply the signal is too weak or bad SNR. I have a very underpowered box so HD works but is quite a challenge, and I have never tried to run them in parallel (if by that you mean both operating and outputting at the same time) since that would bring the processor to its knees. I'm sure it would try but the result would be unwatchable.

 

[starman345]

The Dvbworld devices, at least some of them have Linux drivers, mac as well I think, you can have a look at their web page. I have a couple of their devices but have never tried them in Linux so can't tell you anything useful about them in that environment. Also, DigitalEverywhere has the Firedtv and Floppydtv with Linux and Mac drivers, they are higher priced and only available from Europe.
I have run two devices simultaneously in windows and it seesm to work ok, I never really tried to stress them with high bit rate streams. I've found the newer codecs like Cyberlink that allow dxva in mpeg4 streams and ati cards that take advantage of it, will allow you to get along with much less of a computer. The specs on your machine will allow you to run anything

 

[14karat]

Thanks - I'll check on these.
I've got some time before I'll be ordering anything... I'm on a limited budget so I can't afford a wrong move... I'd rather pay a little more for the right one than to have to go through all the motions and end up with something I can't use...
I will ask this... if I were to write to an iSCSI target across a network, what would the MAX data stream rate be? Curious if 10Gb ethernet could handle the load of 2 streams...

 

[Smith P.]

Easy. 100 Mbps hold a couple HD streams.

 

[B.J.]

Easy. 100 Mbps hold a couple HD streams.

100mbps might hold a couple low to mid bitrate streams, but if you're looking at the higher bitrate streams, my opinion is that it will only hold one.

I use a 100mbps LAN to stream to my Roku, and/or to other computers, and that works fine for most applications. I also have one of those ~57mbps wireless networks, and I cannot get anything other than SD or very low bitrate HD to go over that.

Also, it seems to depend a bit on how the transfers are performed, and I don't fully understand why.
To play video on my Roku (which is a Linux system), I have video files on a network computer, and if I map smb directories on the network computer on the Roku, and play them by having the Roku PULL the data from the computer, it won't work on high bitrate HD, even over the 100mbps LAN. However if I initiate the streaming at the remote computer, and have the Roku receive the stream, then it works.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, that I used a network sniffer to watch the data transfers, and I can't figure out why these two methods are different, as the actual network traffic looks almost the same both ways. /endedit/

Anyway, 100mbps is fast enough for one HD stream, but might not be enough for two.

 

[Smith P.]

Yes, it's depend of source; full fledge DVD works OK, Blu-Ray could be just one stream, but satellite providers crumming up to 8 HD (!) into one mux of 40 Mbps.

 

[gillham]

I will ask this... if I were to write to an iSCSI target across a network, what would the MAX data stream rate be? Curious if 10Gb ethernet could handle the load of 2 streams...

I use a Geniatech Digistar with mythtv and it works. Even can move the dish with mythtv. I also just picked up a Twinhan 1020a but I've been running TSReader almost non stop so no chance to really test it under Linux.

The S2API stuff is getting there and you *might* have some luck with the S2-3200, but research required.

I have used an ATSC (DVB driver) and DVB-S card in the same mythtv box and it just works, once you hard code the device names so they stop moving around on reboots..

On the networking question, as Smith, P. points out you can get plenty of HD through a 100 meg ethernet link. Two 40 meg streams should be easy, assuming your ethernet card is quality. I would recommend getting gigabit and an inexpensive switch as it is about the same cost anyway and you're ready for whatever.

The Intel NICs have traditionally been better quality than the Realtek or other random "Fry's specials", but most gig NICs will work well enough.

As far as iSCSI, all I can ask is why? It is *block level* and cannot be shared unless you run OCFS2 on Linux boxes. So you won't even be able to mount the file system on another system, or access the recordings without going through the Linux box with the iSCSI mount. The "efficiency" gain of iSCSI versus NFS is easily outweighed by the complexity and inaccessibility of the data, especially for something like MPEG video that would be really nice to access from anything.

I recommend an NFS mount if you have some backend NAS or other box with a ton of disk space. You can share the file-system with NFS/SMB/AFP/FTP/WWW and hit your content from anything, anywhere, without double routing it through the Linux box which is presumably busy recording anyway.

 

[14karat]

So if I read right, 40Mb will be the max per stream, so that gives me a baseline.
At work, we typically base the maximum rate at 70% of the connection speed and that has worked for us up thru 1Gb. (My experience with 10Gb has only been at around 60%...)
So I'll plan on 1Gb...
As far as iSCSI, Gillham had my thoughts with OCFS2 - that's what we're running in our work lab (we're an Oracle shop) with iSCSI as the SAN using dual 10Gb connections... we've managed to maintain a 6Gb/sec throughput using a SAS array for the target... but it seems that will be plenty overkill for home... all the talk about the enormous bitrates of the streams had me thinking this way so you guys have definitely relieved those fears... looks like NFS it is!
I hope to have enough speed to be able to record 2 streams while also watching 2 streams... the same as I can do with the current E* 522 that I will be replacing... (the streams may be coming from the FTA cards or a separate receiver (4Dtv, FTA stb, or OTA)... as long as I can hold 2 at a time and keep it stable, I'll be happy...

 

[Sadie]

I've had no problems with a old Twinhan 102g (I believe the 1020 is the same) and Ubuntu.
Kaffeine works great with minor modes to the sat conf. files for AMC21, MythTV has been a real pain with some NA satellites although I don't believe that has anything to do with the card.
Diseqc and motor control work fine.

 

[gillham]

So if I read right, 40Mb will be the max per stream, so that gives me a baseline.

I think you only run into higher rates if you try to record an entire DVB-S2 mux.

... all the talk about the enormous bitrates of the streams had me thinking this way so you guys have definitely relieved those fears... looks like NFS it is!
I hope to have enough speed to be able to record 2 streams while also watching 2 streams... the same as I can do with the current E* 522 that I will be replacing... (the streams may be coming from the FTA cards or a separate receiver (4Dtv, FTA stb, or OTA)... as long as I can hold 2 at a time and keep it stable, I'll be happy...

A couple local SATA drives on a 3Ware or similar should keep up with anything. A high performance NFS server should as well, but it sounds like you're familiar with this area already.

Playing back two HD streams *on the same box* isn't practical. The E* 522 has hardware decoders and is designed as a dual head device. The typical Linux box is not. Of course mythtv makes it easy to have multiple frontend / backend systems.

I think you might want to pickup a cheap DVB-S PCI card and experiment with it in an existing system. Once you're happy with what you can get from it, then you can design the full FTA/OTA/OTI system.

 

[SpiffWilkie]

Title explains it all... opinions, experience, anything new I should wait for?
Also, has anyone ran two cards parallel?
Read ACRadio's review of the Technotrend s2-3200, but I'm guessing that was with Windows?
Just ordered a Biostar TA790GX motherboard with AMD Phenom X4 9500 + 4GB RAM, so the cards are next...
Help me out!

I quit building PCs a few years ago when I stopped playing games with super high requirements so I'm a little out of touch with today's processing requirements (If I can run Photoshop and Office, I'm good to go), but I've been looking at building an HTPC. What would a setup like the one mentioned above set me back. Also, what's a good place for these pc cards mentioned in the thread? I've found a few sources via google but some look a bit shady.

 

[14karat]

What would a setup like the one mentioned above set me back

This is right off my order details:
Biostar TA790GX 128M AMD 790GX Socket AM2+ MB $108.28
AMD Phenom X4 9500 4M 95W Socket AM2 CPU (heatsink & fan was included) $96.71
OCZ SLI 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz (2x2048MB) $44.99

If I had known sooner, I could have got a Phenom 9550 for $20 more...
Already have a case and hard drives for all of this.
I still have to look at dual-head options and the sat cards... I'm still getting started on that...
I do have a BLSA on the way (Thanks Smitty!) and I 'assume' (yeah, I know) that it will still work as a sat card (right?) so I'll have something to experiment with while I'm determining where to go from here...

 

[Smith P.]

Just for gig only - as Rod mentioned at his site COOL.STF the card is a bitch - hardware limited to 8 PIDs. Probably for check SL/SQ or if your SR/FEC are correct to lock to that tpn and most valuble feature - watch SL/SQ while you're aiming/fine tuning a dish/LNBF position.