DVB-S/S2 and ATSC Combo Cards

[linuxman]

I regularily use the Twinhan and Nexus-s to record programs at the same time using one instance of Mytheatre. When trying to set it up for the Fusion card, the third device I had all sorts of problems and ended up just installing Mytheatre in another directory to use the Fusion card. All three cards can record at the same time. I think that using separate card(n) profiles, you can have more than 2 cards active with one instance of Mytheatre, but that was quite some time ago so I could be wrong. I just found installing two instances of Mytheatre worked fine for me.
My TwinHan drivers are version 2.4.1.1 (WDM).

Thanks Larry,
I was using the WDM drivers of the same version in MT 3.8, but they won't work in the 4.0 beta, nor will they work in DVBViewer. You need the BDA drivers for those.

 

[starman345]

Well I discovered the Transedit program won't power the LNBs by itself. I have the Diamond, Coolsat 5000 and Twinhan all hooked up to a 4x1 diode steered power passing Hi-Freq splitter which then runs to a powered-multiswitch.

DVBViewer turns on the power by itself ok, but Transedit won't. It sends the signal to the GBox and turns it on, but I have to turn on the Diamond or CS to get Transedit see signals. Don't know what that's all about, but I can work around it for now. It doesn't matter what polarity the STBs are on, but they have to be turned on and not just on standby.

I switched things around to mirror your setup and Transedit powers the lnbs here I have the c-band coax coming from the dish into the Gbox, then looped out to the twinhan 1020a..nothing looped out from the Twinhan. Both Dvbviewer and Transedit work fine when I start them up, Gbox lights up, and scanning works in both programs. I have "use standard interface" checked in the Transedit settings-hardware menu. I checked with the Dvbworld 2104 and it works fine this way also. Have you tried it direct without going through the power divider and power multiswitch?

 

[linuxman]

I switched things around to mirror your setup and Transedit powers the lnbs here I have the c-band coax coming from the dish into the Gbox, then looped out to the twinhan 1020a..nothing looped out from the Twinhan. Both Dvbviewer and Transedit work fine when I start them up, Gbox lights up, and scanning works in both programs. I have "use standard interface" checked in the Transedit settings-hardware menu. I checked with the Dvbworld 2104 and it works fine this way also. Have you tried it direct without going through the power divider and power multiswitch?

I can route it directly without going through the power divider, but the powered multi-switch is on the roof and right now I can't go up there to try it directly.

I'll give that a shot.

On a brighter note, I got the MT 4.0 beta 3 to get sound by installing the NVidia Pure Video and sound codec, but no sound on AC3 channels and some video won't work with some of my video codecs.

Seems like a driver issue to me.

 

[linuxman]

By-passed the Hi-Freq splitter, and still no dice.

I have the settings in TransEdit the same as you do.

I was mistaken before, I have to have the Diamond or CS on a H channels to get the Horizontals to scan, and on a V to get the verticals to scan.

What I don't understand is that the DVBViewer program itself works fine and will scan both polarities simply using the channel editor. Same card, same wire, same hook-up. Transedit is sending everything because when I turn it on to scan something, the GBox lights up, and I lose signal on the Diamond. However the signal just does not come back through. I even tried a little older version and the same.

I might try posting in the DVBViewer forum, but those guys are like wolves. They eat posters with questions about anything that doesn't work for breakfast.

 

[linuxman]

Did a complete uninstall of DVBViewer including manually taking everything out of the registry.

Rebooted, and deleted old directories left behind by the uninstall.

Rebooted, and re-installed the latest version of DVBViewer, got it all setup up correctly, now won't scan in the main program either.

It will display channels manually entered without assistance, but the only way to get it to scan in the main program or Transedit is with the Diamond turned on and set to either H or V whichever polarity you want to scan.

Once the channels are scanned in, the program displays, changes polarities and channels with no problems, but can't see the information and signal for scanning without assistance.

I know, it doesn't make sense, but that is the way it is.

This same card works perfectly in MT 3.8 using the same wiring setup with WDM drivers and or the BDA drivers, and is now partially working in the new beta using the BDA drivers.

I will pose the problem on the DVBViewer forum and see what answers I get.

 

[starman345]

I will pose the problem on the DVBViewer forum and see what answers I get.

I read your post there, you might want to add your support.zip file, chances are they won't even look at your question without it. Do a search on the forum for "support tool"

 

[linuxman]

I read your post there, you might want to add your support.zip file, chances are they won't even look at your question without it. Do a search on the forum for "support tool"

I just found several links to the tool itself, but they all point to a different server where the link is broken so I can't access the tool.

I'll add that to the post.

Thanks!

 

[starman345]

I just sent it to your email address.

 

[linuxman]

I just sent it to your email address.

Thanks a bunch!

Got caught up doing some other things this afternoon. I'll run it now and post the zip file.

BTW, I ran the scanner in MT beta 3 and it scanned the channels fine. Missed a few, but still worked. Same setup, same drivers, everything. Don't know what's up.

Maybe the support file will give a clue.

 

[linuxman]

Got the support.zip file posted in the DVBViewer forum yesterday afternoon, but no responses yet.

After reading back over some posts here about some of the cards being "deaf", it may not be the cards are deaf at all. It may very well be the software mechanism in DVBViewer is the deaf part. As I said, once the channels are in place, the program plays them fine.

As a second part to my reasoning, I copied my old channels.mdb from MT 3 to the new beta, and the new beta scans those transponders fine too. Even found some new channels that my list didn't have. That list was scanned originally with my CS 5000 and the list exported into MT so it could be possible that the frequencies are closer to my equipment and therefore work better with the card. I used that same list with my Diamond.

I don't hold much hope for getting help with the DVBViewer forum, but who knows. I don't think there is any thing wrong with my setup nor the card. That only leaves one thing. The software.

 

[linuxman]

Well after a few days on the DVBViewer forum, and some good help from a couple of the guys there, I finally got DVBViewer to work with my setup.

The answer was in the settings for satellite 91W G17. I had the LOF1 at 5150, LOF2 at 5150, and sw set to zero to turn off the 22Khz tone.

That setting works in all the other programs I use, but not in DVBViewer probably because of my Ecoda switch in the mix.

The one guy gave me the code logic:

CODE
if (LOF2 = 0) or ((LOF1 > 0) and (Frequency < LOFSW)) then
Actual_LOF := LOF1
22 khz := off
else
Actual_LOF := LOF2
22 khz := on

So I set LOF1 to 5150 and everything else to zero, and it all works perfectly. I even think the software blind scan might even work now.

Now I can move on to the original intent of this thread as soon as I sell a few things in the classified section.

 

[Lone Cloud]

Jargon World

I saw this thread and since I have been trying without success to get an S-2 signal, was interested.

After reading it, I can only say I know less than when I started.

I have a computer. It has a video card in it, what kind I do not know. I have a DVI to HDMI cable. Nothing else.


My whole purpose in reading up is to try to analyze the approach from a cost/aggravation perspective.


If I have a video card in my computer, how do I determine if it is adequate for a 1080p purpose? If not, which will?

What additional hardware do I need? I do see comments about the TT3200, but can't decipher them.

Are there any other boards or hardware that I need?

What software should I run?


How often do bugs and glitches interrupt the viewing experience?


Or maybe me just sit in teepee and shoot computer with arrow.

 

[brentb636]

Lone cloud,
On Ku band , there was a sports feed ( YES) in dvb-s2 about 6 weeks ago, that I could snag with a TT-s2-3600 ( which I've gotten rid of) using Tsreader/VLC . It didn't look too bad, and considering that I had so much trouble with the s2-3600 , I think the s2-3200 will work just fine, if we ever get another DVB-s2 signal to practice on.
I'd recommend that your video card be one of the ATI or Nvidea cards which can decode h.264 in hardware, with the proper codecs. The same cards are recommended for BluRay viewing .

I intend to use Tsreader mostly, since I don't think we'll have much on Ku band for quite awhile, and Tsreader is sweet for feed chasing. I also have ProgDvb and DvbViewer Pro that I'm playing with, in case, for example, all the Ku Equity Broadcasting stuff goes to DVB-s2.

-DVB setup
AMD Athlon dual core X2 5600+
ASUS mobo
2 GB ddr ram
ATI 2600HD XT 256 MB GDDR4
Genpix skywalker-1
TT s2-3200

 

[Lone Cloud]

Thanks brent,

At least I got some of that. But some I didn't- ASUS Mobo?

Transreader sounds like software. ATI sounds like a video card. Then Genpix and TT 3200 sound like other cards.

Is this right?

One more thing - if a person wouldn't know a "codec" if he fell over it in the driveway, would such person be facing a lot of tv down time?

thanks again

 

[brentb636]

You can count on a PCI DVB solution being a challenge. It is the most flexible solution, but also , because of the endless variations, the most frustrating. If you want to do it, then start with a technotrend s2-3200 card and DVBViewer Pro. There are some freeware Codec packs that will get you started. Once you get going, you're likely to find that your PC is inadequate for the BIG bandwidth HD feeds ( 1920x1080i, 4:2:2, h.264 ) . That's when it starts to get more expensive, having to upgrade your PC.

ASUS Mobo- Motherboard in my PC by ASUS - same MOBO as CaptiveWorks Cw3000HD linux receiver.
ATI is indeed a video card that decodes h.264 in hardware, saving a lot of main cpu cycles.
Genpix skywalker and technotrend s2-3200 are both PCI DVB cards, the skywalker being a USB connected card ( my favorite, BUT it doesn't tune dvb-s2).

Once you get the PC running, you won't get downtime, BUT it will be a challenge to get it perfected.

 

[mct1]

Saw this thread and wanted to mention that you can find cheap Air2PC ATSC tuner cards on eBay.
I have been using for over a year with MyTheatre and DVBViewer. They have BDA drivers and
give a very good quality picture for a cheap card. They are not the most sensitive tuner as they are first or second generation B2C2 chips, but a lot of the signal reception with OTA lies
with the antenna. If you have a fairly strong signal in your area, these cards are great for the price. You can get the drivers from Technisat website.

 

[linuxman]

Saw this thread and wanted to mention that you can find cheap Air2PC ATSC tuner cards on eBay.
I have been using for over a year with MyTheatre and DVBViewer. They have BDA drivers and
give a very good quality picture for a cheap card. They are not the most sensitive tuner as they are first or second generation B2C2 chips, but a lot of the signal reception with OTA lies
with the antenna. If you have a fairly strong signal in your area, these cards are great for the price. You can get the drivers from Technisat website.

Thanks for the information.

I'll check them out.

 

[Lone Cloud]

Hmmm.

So if I have or get an adequate video card, and if I only want S-2 and MPEG 4 (because I have HD receivers on the other FTA tasks), if I go with the TT 3200, I'll have the hardware I need. Right?

Then DVB viewer and what you call codec packs, and I've got it?

 

[brentb636]

Hmmm.

So if I have or get an adequate video card, and if I only want S-2 and MPEG 4 (because I have HD receivers on the other FTA tasks), if I go with the TT 3200, I'll have the hardware I need. Right?

Then DVB viewer and what you call codec packs, and I've got it?

Assuming you have enough cpu horsepower on your current PC, YES. My older setup worked fine, and it was a dual core AMD 4200+ . Does your PC roughly compare with that ?

 

[Lone Cloud]

Who is a reliable dealer for the TT 3200?

I'm looking at all my usual suppliers and they don't have it.