DVBSky S952 - Any Comments? (4 Viewers)

[mm1352000]

A short in the cable? Could you elaborate on that?

"Short" is short (sorry! ) for short circuit. Basically it means that there is little or no resistance for the tuner power supply.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_circuit

If any of the small wires from the braid/sheath in the cable are touching the inner core, or if the inner core is somehow bent and touching the PC case... that is a short circuit.

Edit:
To be clear, in the case of a short circuit the resistance is low. Therefore the tuner LNB power supply will send max current (power) into the cable. This will cause the cable and tuner to get quite hot.

Do you think my PSU may be dead?

This has little to do with the PC PSU; everything to do with proper connections and the tuner => LNB power supply.

 

[CAPTAIN_CESSNA]

A short in the cable? Could you elaborate on that?

"Short" is short (sorry! ) for short circuit. Basically it means that there is little or no resistance for the tuner power supply.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_circuit

If any of the small wires from the braid/sheath in the cable are touching the inner core, or if the inner core is somehow bent and touching the PC case... that is a short circuit.

Edit:
To be clear, in the case of a short circuit the resistance is low. Therefore the tuner LNB power supply will send max current (power) into the cable. This will cause the cable and tuner to get quite hot.

Do you think my PSU may be dead?

This has little to do with the PC PSU; everything to do with proper connections and the tuner => LNB power supply.

So I should basically check all my cables and make sure nothing's touching the tuner card... and the tuner could be faulty?

 

[mm1352000]

Exactly
Does the tuner only get so hot during/after scanning, or also when timeshifting and recording?

 

[CAPTAIN_CESSNA]

Exactly
Does the tuner only get so hot during/after scanning, or also when timeshifting and recording?

That's what I'm going to check probably on Thursday night. It was warm(ish) at idle but nothing to write home about, scanning made the temperature go through the roof. I haven't left it showing live tv for long enough for it to cool down yet.

 

[wizard123]

Strange i've no heat issue at all mine does not even get overly warm while both tuners are locked, have been running well over 6 months and still going strong.

I'm wondering if it's the scans that caused the temperature to shoot up. Have you noticed any excess heat on yours when performing a scan/a lot of channel switching?

Next chance I get I'll put it on a HD channel and leave it viewing for an hour or two to see what happens.

Have you tried any of the MePo features aimed at speeding up switching/resume? I'm thinking preloading/pause/stop etc.

I know the review reads like I'm ripping the card to pieces, however other than the heat buildup I honestly can't fault it.

Oh, in a low profile case the top LNB input is a bit close to the chassis, making the insertion of the card very difficult. I have the same problem with the TBS 6981 as well though, and this card is shorter.

No excess heat in any situation at all so i'm either lucky or your unlucky lol, i only use preload on my freeview usb tuner to stop graph crashing when switching between freesat and freeview tuners.
Other than that i can be watching one stream while recording another both on the same tuner and it will get warmish as you would expect when a card is being stressed but by no means hot or too hot to touch.
I would redo your satellite cable connections just to make sure its not a short like MM suggested, just snip the end and redo only 2 minute job.

 

[CAPTAIN_CESSNA]

Strange i've no heat issue at all mine does not even get overly warm while both tuners are locked, have been running well over 6 months and still going strong.

I'm wondering if it's the scans that caused the temperature to shoot up. Have you noticed any excess heat on yours when performing a scan/a lot of channel switching?

Next chance I get I'll put it on a HD channel and leave it viewing for an hour or two to see what happens.

Have you tried any of the MePo features aimed at speeding up switching/resume? I'm thinking preloading/pause/stop etc.

I know the review reads like I'm ripping the card to pieces, however other than the heat buildup I honestly can't fault it.

Oh, in a low profile case the top LNB input is a bit close to the chassis, making the insertion of the card very difficult. I have the same problem with the TBS 6981 as well though, and this card is shorter.

No excess heat in any situation at all so i'm either lucky or your unlucky lol, i only use preload on my freeview usb tuner to stop graph crashing when switching between freesat and freeview tuners.
Other than that i can be watching one stream while recording another both on the same tuner and it will get warmish as you would expect when a card is being stressed but by no means hot or too hot to touch.
I would redo your satellite cable connections just to make sure its not a short like MM suggested, just snip the end and redo only 2 minute job.

I was thinking internally when you were talking about a short... I've actually already remade the connections on the sat feeds.

Have you tried operating your card without the auxillary power connected? It says on the manufacturer's site that it must always be connected, so I haven't tried it.

 

[wizard123]

No i always connect the aux power, did the same on my TBS cards when i had those until they failed.For sure check inside for shorts but i guess it's possible for the aux rails on the psu to be faulty/failing although that would be a suprise.

 

[CAPTAIN_CESSNA]

No i always connect the aux power, did the same on my TBS cards when i had those until they failed.For sure check inside for shorts but i guess it's possible for the aux rails on the psu to be faulty/failing although that would be a suprise.

I wouldn't expect the PSU to fail yet anyway, it cost me a small fortune when I bought it (Nesteq ASM) and it's not often the fan spins up so I know that isn't hot. It is about 3 years old though, it's actually the oldest component in the machine.

 

[gurabli]

Did you manage to resolve the heat problems?
I think the card might be so hot only when scanning. Try and see if watching HD channels for a longer time (30 minutes at least) from a cold boot produces the same amount of heat.
Other then that, the card might be faulty, try to contact DVBSky or the shop where you bought it. It is possible that you got a wrong one, replacing it wouldn't hurt, especially if it is not too much for postage.

 

[mm1352000]

<off topic> @gurabli has your card arrived yet?</off topic>