Computer Tuner Card?

[Scott Greczkowski]

So it is my birthday on the 30th... my wife wanted to get me an iPad Pro 9.7" for my birthday and I told her no. I have an iPad Mini and I never use it, so an iPad Pro would be a waste...

Anyways with all of these radio channels now available to me on 107 (since 139 is too low for me to see) I have been playing with my C Band dish for the first time in almost a year. I am a radio nut and enjoy getting these feeds, especially some of the shows that don't air here in CT.

I was thinking about getting another A3 as I gave mine away to Trip from RabbitEars for a wedding gift. I was thinking of it because it displays the info on all the audio channels, while my microHD does not. But then in thinking back to when I had an A3, I got to admit I didn't like it much, the FTA interface was clunky and many of the apps I wanted to use on it wouldn't work correctly and then there were the software updates that seemed to make things worse. or wiped out what I had working. (I believe many of these issues were because of ME not the box, unfortunately I don't have the time I once did to really learn the box.)

Anyways I am now considering a computer based solution. Since I am mainly after audio stations this will be great for me, plus using Teamviewer I can play with the setup anywhere and can also stream the audio to myself anywhere..

I saw Brian (Titanium) mention that he likes the TBS6983. card. I searched on Amazon and found one and not sure if it is the correct card or not. It is listed as a 6903 but at the end of the description it says TBS6983 so I am not sure if they came out with different models.

Amazon product ASIN B00PRTE7LM
I notice its dual tuner, does this mean I can hook up my C Band dish to one input and my KU band dish to the second input?

What kind of software do people recommend? And will this software give me the audio channel information I am looking for (ie Lex and Terry instead of CH-4)

Anything else I should know? Thanks!

 

[TRG]

Scott, I've purchased from this company in the past and can highly recommend them. http://www.buydvb.net/tbs6983-professional-dvbs2-dual-tuner-pcie-card-p-116.html Keep in mind that they are overseas (Taiwan if I remember correctly) so your board might take a while to get here.

BTW I share your enthusiasm for radio. This weekend, if time permits, I'm going to swing my dish over to 107 and scan the transponders on my USB tuner card (TBS5980).

Not sure about software to recommend as I use Linux and I assume you are using Windows. Brian mentioned VLC which is a general purpose, do everything program that you probably already have installed. I've also heard TS Reader mentioned. Hopefully someone will jump in and give more advice.

 

[Psikic]

I use EBSpro almost exclusively with my TBS5980 card in Windows. http://ebspro.net/ It has a slight learning curve, but it is very powerful. I especially like it when aligning my dish because I can start it up on my PC, do a blind scan, choose a transponder, and then use the companion Android app on my phone to see singal, quality, ber, snr, and even view the channels via VLC for Android.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

So it is my birthday on the 30th... my wife wanted to get me an iPad Pro 9.7" for my birthday and I told her no. I have an iPad Mini and I never use it, so an iPad Pro would be a waste...

She can always send it to me if you don't want it.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

I saw Brian (Titanium) mention that he likes the TBS6983. card. I searched on Amazon and found one and not sure if it is the correct card or not. It is listed as a 6903 but at the end of the description it says TBS6983 so I am not sure if they came out with different models.

Looks like the right card to me. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...as=aps&field-keywords=TBS6983&tag=satell01-20

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Well I just ordered the one from Amazon since the one from buydvb was sold out. Look like it will be here next week.

Now if I could only find someone in CT to come tweak my dish for best performance.

 

[Cham]

I have a TBS 5980 and have been having trouble with it hardware-wise. There seems to have been a few bad ones, many have not had trouble so a local seller (NA) might be ok for these. The 6983 is a PCIe card which is different from the USB interface of the 5980, and likely a better fit for free-to-air reception. I would like to get one as well.

For software I have been using CrazyCat blind-scanner software and also SmartDVB for scanning and rendering as well, so far these are my favourites. I have also tried DVBDream, EBSPro, and the various TBS software that comes on a disk packed in the gift box. I don't use the TBS software at all, I find it's very limited and clunky to use.

Codecs are important with the different video formats. Also a good video card and lots of processor are a must for UHD / H265 compression formats.

Regretfully my 5980 only runs for a few minutes at a time so I can't record or spend a lot of time playing with it/software, but it is really good for blind-scanning and finding feeds (before it crashes)! :|

-C.