Diseqc switching - how does it work in MP? (1 Viewer)

[Chipsa]

Hi there,

I'm quite a newbie to HTPC, currently planning to build one.
My question is maybe dull, but I need to know in order to decide which equipment to buy.
How exactly does the Diseqc switching work in MP? I mean do I need to manually switch to another satelite/LNB or is this automatically handeled by MP when switching channels? ie I have the first ten channels on one satelite and another ten on the second satelite, so by selecting a channel, mediaportal automatically moves the dish to the given satelite (I'm considering getting a dish motor) or do I have to go to the menu and select the satelite manually?

thanks a lot for help!

Chipsa

 

[mbuzina]

I do belive that MP (TVServer only) does this with some of the cards (check the compatability for TVServer 3). It seems to be supporting positioning and LNB Selection through a switch (see http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/TV-Engine_0.3/tvcards).

So you can have channels on each of your sattelites. I would (if possible) recommend to use 2 LNBs & a switch, because you would not have to wait for a motor to finish rotating you dish and you can use (by having 2 cards) both satelites at the same time.

 

[Chipsa]

Hi,

ok, I understand that MP supports dish rotation using Diseqc, the card I would like to use is FloppyDTV S2.
But my point was if I have to switch the satelite somewhere in the menu of mediaportal by my self or if I select a channel the MP automatically redirects the dish to the given satelite / LNB. The thing is I want to have the HTPC as user friendly as possible and I dont want to go through tons of menu options before I switch to another satelite. The WAF (wife acceptance factor) plays also a role

I was also thinking about having 2 LNBs on 1 dish and use a diseqc switch, which is faster. But one of the main reasons I'm getting the S2 version of FloppyDTV is that it can recieve HD channels. And I'm not sure that having 2 LNBs on 1 dish can ensure the signal to be strong enough for HD reception. Do you have any experience with that? The two sats im considering are 19.2E and 23.5E ...

 

[mbuzina]

Yes, it will store that information along with the channel and you will just have to select a channel & MP will rotate / select a different LNB (the devs have to cater for the WAF as well ;-) ).

Having 2 LNBs does not change the signal strength much as far as I know (my setup is not ready yet). The Floppy DTV S2 is the choice of the MP devs.

Be aware that you will have to use the Server (TVEngine 3), which is a seperate install and not as beta as the main program yet...

 

[Chipsa]

Hi,

thanx for answer. I really couldn't find it anywhere across the web..

The thing with 2 (or more) LNB's is that only one of them is actually "properly" set to a satellite, the other one just "skews" (schielen in german ) to the second satellite. Which means that (if I understand it correctly) the first LNB has a signal level high enough in order to recieve HD channels, but the other one has signal strong enough just for normal SD. I read somewhere that even if you have 9/10 signal quality, which is absolutely enough for SD, you may have troubles recieving HD channels..

Maybe someone here who has a similar setup? I understand that getting a bigger dish could solve the problem, so I'm considering 80cm dish.

thanx

Chipsa

 

[peterjwillis]

I am having numerous problems with the motor / Positioner support in TVE3. Currently, the dish is not moving on channel change documented here. I have sent out a few PMs related to this topic and no one has any answers. The only person that has confirmed to me they have a working positioner has a VBOXII in between their PCI card and motor.

I am in a similiar situation to you and have been considering using:
-a single pci card, a switch and 2 dishes
-or
-2 PCI cards and 2 dishes

If you have not yet invested in a motor, I would be willing to bet that you buy an extra dish and switch or PCI card for a similiar price. There seems to be many more users out there using switches, so I think the chances of getting this function to work are much higher. I have also had a lot of good luck running 2 pci cards in TVE3. I would recommend either one of these solutions before buying a motor.

 

[Chipsa]

Hello,

thanx for a reply. I finally gave up the motor solution. 2 dishes are also impossible in my case, don't have enough space. So finally I decided to use 2 LNB's for 1 dish (multifocus) and a Diseqc switch. The channel switching is much faster then, compared to the motor solution. I just hope the signal quality will be good enough to recieve HD channels from Astra 19.2E.

Chipsa