Which S2 card? (FTA / Freesat UK) (1 Viewer)

[ibmonkey]

Hi just wondering if I could get some tips on which card to go for to receive "freesat" including HD channels? (I'm in the UK btw)

I've been using 2 Hauppauge DvB-T pci cards for about 4 years with MP with good success, but sometimes when the weather is bad I get stuttering TV and I'm also looking to receive HD channels. I bought a flat last year, and the last owners had sky so the dish is there and there's 2 cables feeding into the living room from the dish. I'm thinking now it's work a shot at trying to get freesat channels to work in MP.

I would be greatly appreciate anyone with tips on what cards work well (and hopefully out of box). I have slots on my motherboard for 2xPCI/1xPCI express x1/1xPCI express x16. I don't have any plans on using CI/cams, so don't need to take this into consideration.

 

[porky996t]

Hi,

I curently use a TBS6980 dual tuner DVB-S card and it has been faultless, This has been superceded by the TBS6981 card see >>here<<. It has two coax inputs so you should be able attach the existing dish easily.

I use it to pick up the Freesat HD channels (I also have a couple of DVB-T tuners for Freeview channels that are not available on Freesat such as Dave) and it just works great. Channel changes are quick and stable too.


HTH,



M.

 

[ibmonkey]

That's great porky. Just before you replied I was searching through the forum trying to gauge what others were using without problems, and came across the TBS6981. The cheapest I could find it is on Amazon at £74.99, thanks to another thread where others had pointed this out.

It sounds like my setup will be very similar to yours Porky, as I'll be keeping the dvb-t cards in there so I can still watch the channels not picked up by the S2 card (thanks for the tip!)

I'll hopefully get this sorted before xmas so I can try out the HD channels while off work


The reason it took so long to reply is because my new SSD that I've been using as my system drive decided to pack in!

 

[porky996t]

No worries ibmonkey.

You are not on your own with that SSD, I bought one as a replacement for the Zotac clients I have and had to send it back as it wouldn't retain any data after power off... I suppose that makes it RAM then

Good luck with setting up. What I have done is a full clean scan with all cards (DVB-S/S2 and DVB-T and using 28.2E as the satellite) then combined the relevant channels - I combine the scrambled with the unscrambled for EPG purposes. You will find multiple Channel 4's and Channel 4+1's. I then set up a channel group called "Favourites" and go through all the channels, ticking the ones I want and the unticking the ones I don't want. This takes ages as there will be about 800 channels. I also put the two DVB-S cards as lowest priority in the TV server, this means that the DVB-T cards will get used first if the channel is available on them. After this has been done, I the Export everything to an .xml file as a backup. In order to get the EPG working I have gone back to using Miroslav's Sky EPG guide which is pretty much faultless after a clean full scan.

My setup is running really smooth again, and the GF is happy with it too, so I'm not going to mess with it for a while.


HTH,



M.

 

[ibmonkey]

Thanks Porky,
Well I've given up on the SSD for now (tried flashing new firmware etc, and still just stops unexpectantly), and gone back to the drive I had previously. I'm also looking into one of those Zotac AD10s (also following that tread on here) for the bedroom as part of an overhaul I'd like to do... replace the TV in the living room, and move that TV to the bedroom and setup a client for it.
Good tips here for me getting this set up. I haven't looked into Miroslav's EPG grabber before, but I found the (huge) thread and it seems to be just what the doctor ordered.
...I also noticed the "8 hours behind" bug you posted on there. Don't worry it happens to us all! I did it yesterday after resetting the bios while I was trying to fix the SSD, and wondered why nothing at all was showing on the EPG (seems the dvb-t epg doesn't pick up program info from 01/01/10!)

If I get the card, I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again

 

[porky996t]

Hi ibmonkey

seems the dvb-t epg doesn't pick up program info from 01/01/10!

Reassuring to know it is not just me. Please don't let this veneer of stupidity fool you though



M.

 

[ibmonkey]

Hi M.
do you ever have issues when switching channels from one HD channel to another? For example from Channel 4 HD to BBC One HD.
Nearly everytime I do, it will go wrong, most of the time the sound will change OK but the last still frame from the previous channel will appear and remain on the screen.
I am currently only using one of the tuners on the card, the other is also disabled in the MP TV config.

Thanks

btw. switching from SD channels to HD channels seems OK for most of the time, and SD to SD is perfect. The main issue is HD to another HD.

 

[porky996t]

Hi Ibmonkey,

Sorry to hear you are having probs.

I don't have any difficulties switching channels from HD to SD, SD to HD or HD to HD.

If your picture is freezing I would suggest getting the logs as soon as you have a freeze and posting them up - making a note of the time you changed channel and post up your logs.

BTW, I use the PDVD11 'unlocked' codecs for HD channels and the Win7 DVD codecs for SD channels. Have you tried different codecs??




M.

 

[ibmonkey]

Thanks!
It was the codec. Previously I had just installed LAV and was just using that for everything. Now I've gone back to SAF unlocked, and all is perfect.
On a separate note regarding the card setup, I did a very similar thing as you suggested with scanning and selecting the channels I wanted. I got the epg to work great with just the epg data from the dvb, without the need to install and configure one of the sky epg grabbers.


Also... I got a replacement for the dead SSD. It worked for a few weeks, then guess what? this one died too! Typical!

 

[TheBatfink]

I use Blackgold BGT3595 Dual DVB-S2 and Dual DVB-T all on one card not had no issues so far. They have also now released a Dual S2 and Dual T2 all in one