How to get satellite and DBV-T in my PC (1 Viewer)

[cokie69]

Quick question...

I live in a flat in Barcelona, aside from DVB-T which I can get from the building's common antenna I also have access to a dish in the roof which is pointing Astra satellites with a universal(?) LNB -it used to host a Sky suscription in the past!. Anyway, I would like to take advantage of having a dish pointing to Astra, so:

1.) What do I need in my PC (hardware-wise) to pick up channels being received by the dish?

2.) Is there any way I can 'plug' both cables -the one from the FTA DBV-T and the one from the satellite dish- at the same time and get all the channels into my MediaPortal?, if so, what would I have to do?

3.) Last requirement: aside from 1.) and 2.) the solution should also allow me to decode in the card's CPU, not in the PC's CPU. (btw, and should be an 'affordable' solution too!!!)

Suggestion???

 

[infinite.loop]

1.) What do I need in my PC (hardware-wise) to pick up channels being received by the dish?

a dvb-s card.

if you want dvb-s2 (HD-TV) and/or a subscription card, take a look at the cards from digital everywhere.

2.) Is there any way I can 'plug' both cables -the one from the FTA DBV-T and the one from the satellite dish- at the same time and get all the channels into my MediaPortal?, if so, what would I have to do?

you need 2 TV-Cards.
1x dvb-t
1x dvb-s

3.) Last requirement: aside from 1.) and 2.) the solution should also allow me to decode in the card's CPU, not in the PC's CPU. (btw, and should be an 'affordable' solution too!!!)

i am not sure what you mean by that

dvb signals are allready digital (mpg2 or h.264 for dvb-s2), there is no extra CPU load like you have with a software encoding analog card where the CPU has to encode the signal into a mpg2 stream.

 

[geov]

Hi

Your terminology for question-3 is a bit wrong but I think I know what you are asking....

You want the TV-card to do the encoding rather than the computers CPU. It’s called a hardware-encoder (mpeg2 or mpeg4) rather than software-encoder. The cards that Chris "infinityloop" recommended do use hardware-encoders so that should give you what you want.

 

[infinite.loop]

Your terminology for question-3 is a bit wrong but I think I know what you are asking....

You want the TV-card to do the encoding rather than the computers CPU. It’s called a hardware-encoder (mpeg2 or mpeg4) rather than software-encoder. The cards that Chris "infinityloop" recommended do use hardware-encoders so that should give you what you want.

ENcoding

dvb (DIGITAL - video - broadcast) means that you receive a digital datastream.
this datastream allready is an mpg2 or h.264 stream.
so there is no need for "encoding"

most analog cards however have an chip on the board which encode the analog signal into a mpg2 stream.
some very cheap and crappy analog cards come without that and require that the CPU does this encoding in realtime.
that requires a CPU of AT LEAST 2.4GHz. NEVER EVER CONSIDER THAT ​

DEcoding

h.264 playback requires quite some CPU power (i.e. 1080p - 1920x1080).
"latest Video (grafic) Cards" offer the possibility to take that load from the CPU and do the de-coding.
but thats still a nightmare to get it working because of neverending driver and codec problems....​

 

[cokie69]

Thanks guys,

You're right... my wording must be wrong. Afterall, I am not to versed on this technology (just yet!). Thanks for clarifying.

I am not too interested as of today in a card with HDTV (1080p) capabilities cause (a.) over here there's yet no station broadcasting that quality -and I believe it'll continue like this at least until 2010 (analog off) and (b.) I'm not that fuzzy with that... I am quite happy with current DBV image definition -furthermore, my LCD is only 32", not too big to really appreciate the enhancement of HDTV.

Regarding the nbr of cards... I've got a small problem: I want to install this in a barebone which doesn't have more than 1 free PCI left so I should find a combined solution.

I've seen this card, Hauppauge Win-TV HVR-4000, which claims to have DBV-T, DBV-S, DBV-S2 and analogue cable TV in one single card. It's a bit pricey but I still can afford it. Would you recommend this one?, is it compatible with MP?.

Or else, which other card(s) -similar to the above mentioned- would you recommend?

Thanks.

PS: btw, do these type of cards get very hot?... my barebone isn't that big and I wonder about building too much heat inside.

 

[infinite.loop]

I've seen this card, Hauppauge Win-TV HVR-4000, which claims to have DBV-T, DBV-S, DBV-S2 and analogue cable TV in one single card. It's a bit pricey but I still can afford it. Would you recommend this one?, is it compatible with MP?.

the driver still contains one mahor bug which hauppauge knows about since months, but still no new driver.

the analog part is SOFTWARE ENCODING. so if you want to feed your card with an analog signal -> do not buy it.

 

[geov]

Your terminology for question-3 is a bit wrong but I think I know what you are asking....

You want the TV-card to do the encoding rather than the computers CPU. It’s called a hardware-encoder (mpeg2 or mpeg4) rather than software-encoder. The cards that Chris "infinityloop" recommended do use hardware-encoders so that should give you what you want.

ENcoding

dvb (DIGITAL - video - broadcast) means that you receive a digital datastream.
this datastream allready is an mpg2 or h.264 stream.
so there is no need for "encoding"

most analog cards however have an chip on the board which encode the analog signal into a mpg2 stream.
some very cheap and crappy analog cards come without that and require that the CPU does this encoding in realtime.
that requires a CPU of AT LEAST 2.4GHz. NEVER EVER CONSIDER THAT ​

DEcoding

h.264 playback requires quite some CPU power (i.e. 1080p - 1920x1080).
"latest Video (grafic) Cards" offer the possibility to take that load from the CPU and do the de-coding.
but thats still a nightmare to get it working because of neverending driver and codec problems....​

Thanks for the correction....you can see that I only have experience with analog cards