A good DVB-S2 card? (4 Viewers)

[da-anda]

I'm also looking for a good DVB-S2 card, but I would like to get one with additional video-in, to be able to loop through my current set top box (dbox2 with neutrino) if I don't like the handling of the TV-stuff (EPG,...) in MP, or to loop through some other video device. Any recommendations for that? Unfortunately my graphics card has no video-in.

I had an eye on the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-4000 (german site, as the product is not available on the US website of the company) - but it's quite expensive, especially the additional USB CI-module I would also need

Btw., do you also have a recommendation for a TV-card that's looping through the LNB signal like some set top boxes do it?

 

[Mercbac]

Jumping in on this thread, I have been struggling with a pair of FloppyDTV-S2 cards. My problem is they keep disappearing from device manager, which is way before MediaPortal comes into the picture. I've tried 3 different firewire controllers, swapped one of the tuners under warranty, took away my DiSEqC switches, tried different firmware's and drivers, surge protectors on the coax cables, and after 10 months of trouble I'm more than sick of it so I'm considering the TwinHan or Azurewave tuners.
What I would like to know is whether anyone has tested one of these on either Dutch or Swedish Canal Digita(a)l, because that's what I will be using them for. My system spec is on the left here.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[kszabo]

... so I'm considering the TwinHan or Azurewave tuners.
What I would like to know is whether anyone has tested one of these on either Dutch or Swedish Canal Digita(a)l, ...

Hi,
I use my Skystar HD2 (=Twinhan) for Thor 0,8°W, but without Diseq. MP 1.0 had no problems with channel scan (I see all your Canal Digitaal channels, even the HD ones) and I can wath the free-2-air ones. I do not have a subscription so I cannot test them for you. This card is really a no-problem thing for me so far.

You can really risk 70 €

 

[Mercbac]

Thanks Kszabo, I would just like to know if anyone has ever watched channels on either of the subscriptions I have, because I have read mixed results on that working. Some say it works, some say it doesn't. So finding all the channels is step one, being able to watch them is the final confirmation I need.
On the other hand, if my last attempt (going back to XP instead of Vista) doesn't work I will most likely try the Twinhan anyway.

 

[Mercbac]

OK, So now I purchased an SP400, which is recognized by Vista SP1 (32bit) as a Cinergy S2. Vista installs a driver (1.1.0.101) but with that one MP doesn't even see a signal. Trying to install version 1.1.1.301 from Terratec's website results in a yellow exclamation mark in device manager (driver cannot start) and installing the previous version from Terratec's website (1.1.0.601) has the effect that Terratec's cinema software tells me "no supported hardware found".

So now I have two different DVB-S2 tuners (Cinergy S2 and FloppyDTV-S2), both recommended by people on the forums here, who no doubt have them running fine, but in my case they are a complete disaster. So after 10 months my HTPC project is a complete nightmare because I simply cannot get a reliable tuner up. And reliable to me is more than "it may fail once every week or so".

I'm still waiting for a reply from Terratec's techsupport, but if anyone has any good suggestions, I'd be more than happy to give about anything a try.

 

[kszabo]

OK, So now I purchased an SP400, which is recognized by Vista SP1 (32bit) as a Cinergy S2. Vista installs a driver (1.1.0.101) but with that one MP doesn't even see a signal. Trying to install version 1.1.1.301 from Terratec's website results in a yellow exclamation mark in device manager

If you have a Twinhan SP400 then why not try the original Twinhan driver?

here: Twinhan

I use my Technisat Skystar HD2 with this driver and watch Thor 0,8°w:
TechniSat Digital: Downloads download Software Version 1.2, there is a driver inside

 

[Mercbac]

Hi Kszabo,
Thanks for your reply. The sp400 driver on that link leads to a "page not found" in Chinese, so nothing to download there. I did however find that "Mantis driver", same version 1.1.0.400 on another site and installed it. The effect is that after every reboot the device is listed in Device Manager with an error code 10 (cannot be started). If I then diable and enable it, it works sort of, because video playbeack stutters very much. I've also tried the Technisat driver (results in "cannot start" error in Device Manager) and the official latest 301 driver from Terratec, which also results in the "cannot start" error.
The only driver that always looks fine in Device Manager is Terratec's 1.1.0.601 driver, but with that one, MP doesn't even see a signal...

Right now it feels like my HTPC is cursed. Two different tuners that work fine for other people cannot seem to work reliably on my system, and it's not exactly the first PC I've ever built....

 

[bounguine]

Mercbac, sorry, you said that you have two tuners.
Did you try them one by one or together?

 

[Mercbac]

Well, I started off with two FloppyDTV-S2 tuners and had nothing but trouble, meaning I could not rely on a scheduled recording to work or even LiveTV to work. Trying to explain to the rest of the family that MP is really great doesn't work when the tuners disappear from device manager all the time and they can't watch their favourite TV programs. I had one of the FloppyDTV's exchanged under warranty after a discussion with Digital Everywhere tech-support, but the new one had the exact same behaviour of disappearing from Device Manager. After trying 3 different firewire controllers with both tuners either on different controllers or on the same or chained to each other, at least one of them would disappear within a day. I do believe that having just one might actually work, but I have to test that over an extended period of time before any valid conclusion can be drawn.
So sick and tired of dealing with unexplainable hardware issues I tried the SP400 (Azurewave, Twinhan, Terratec, it all seems to be the same hardware), but with that one I am not able to find a driver that's both stable and makes the tuner work in MP.
And to finally answer your question, Bounguine, yes I currently have two tuners in my system, one FloppyDTV and one SP400.

 

[bounguine]

I don't have a DVB-S2 card yet.
But I experienced the same problem with "simple" cards - SkyStar 2 and Acorp USB installed together.
Drivers crashed.
If I stopped or even unpluged one them the problem persisted.
The only solution was to de-install driver of the USB-card and to clean up the registry.
Now I use only one DVB-card