HD STP and Hauppauge Colussus (1 Viewer)

[rabies]

Hello!

I am new to using Mediaportal to watch TV and as a newb it can sometimes feel like moving around a jungle with all different setups and solutions. For many years i've been using Mediaportal as my main frontend for watching movies and playing music with my HTPC. Today I've decided to take a step forward and use it as a TV-frontend as well. I've been reading around on different forums and trying to figure out what sort of hardware I should get. So therefore I am writing this post, and hopefully get a little bit smarter.

I've been looking at the Hauppage Colussus, but I understand that this card doesn't have a satellite tuner and that it's main purpose is the PVR functionality. As I already have a HD STB with a subscription from Canal Digital in Norway I was wondering if I can use this card, connect my tuner to the card, and then use my HTPC and Mediaportal as the frontend for watching TV instead of the STP itself?

Would I be better of to get a DVB-S2 card with a CAM and just skip the whole STB?

Regards,

Rabies

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Rabies

I've been looking at the Hauppage Colussus, but I understand that this card doesn't have a satellite tuner and that it's main purpose is the PVR functionality.

Correct.

As I already have a HD STB with a subscription from Canal Digital in Norway I was wondering if I can use this card, connect my tuner to the card, and then use my HTPC and Mediaportal as the frontend for watching TV instead of the STP itself?

You can. Keep in mind that a Colossus isn't like other DVB-X cards - you can only watch or record 1 channel at a time.

Would I be better of to get a DVB-S2 card with a CAM and just skip the whole STB?

I think you should seriously consider it. There are a few things you should keep in mind:
- Colossus = record/watch one channel at at time
- CI+ (pairing) probably won't work with a DVB-S2 tuner
- *some* DVB tuners allow you to decrypt multiple channels with a single tuner. This is known as multidecrypt. Both the tuner *and* the CAM must support it for it to work.
- Colossus setup can be a little complicated

mm

 

[rabies]

Thank you so much for the quick reply.

After thinking a little bit about it I have considered that the Colussus functionality probably is sufficient for me. I mostly watch TV in my livingroom anyway, and my main goal is to gather all my mediafiles into one box and front-end. And also, since I spent quiet a lot of money on the STB it's fine to get use of it. If I at a later stage see that I need the functionality of a DVB-S2 card, I could always just add one

Regards,

Rabies