DVB-S + phoenix + viaccess : recommendations required?

[dturland]

Hi,
Now that Gbpvr is essentially flawless for me it's time to risk waf wrath and replace the current cumbersome but tenacious route to watching art movies sat tv (manhattan st550 sat receiver + viaccess cam + PVR150 ) with a hopefully equally robust solution with dvb-s pci card + phoenix reader + software (ehmmmmmm, software).

Should mention that on a whim I purchased a compro s350 (Dava, it's your fault!) thinking I would not need a CI. But I see that the succeses mentioned on Gbpvr all seem to be based on DVB-S cards with CI.

Is it essential that a dvb-s card has an exisitng CI even though the CI itself is not used?

Is the compro s350 therefore a complete non-starter? I do have an RMA for it (many thanks, Scan) but it would be a shame to return it if it would make a serviceable second input, maybe sharing the smartcard?

Anyway, creeping up on the main reason for the post:

I am after a robust solution, and would prefer to only buy it once (cough; s350 , cough cough; plextor PX-M402U), so is there any down-side to choosing the twinhan(azurewave) dvb-s2, with potential for HD, over the dvb-s even though I don't intend to view HD for some time?
http://www.woden.com/html/desktop_tv.html
http://www.dvbdirect.com/product_info.ph...ucts_id/94

or maybe there are better (robust|compatible rather than picture quality) dvb-s cards?

Also, in terms of cardreader, which of the
iInfinity usb phoenix,
Smartmouse USB,
Infinity USB Unlimited ...

is most suitable|painless|robust|compatible, bearing in mind all I need to do(?) is read an exisitng art movies viaccess card?

Suggestions welcome. Advice on the the non-startage of the s350 quite urgent as the RMA expires on tuesday!

Thanks,

David

[martint123]

I have an S350. With the Current version of gbpvr it does not correctly scan for channels, the names come up as 'unknown'. It is possible to use other peoples scan cache files or edit your own from scanning in other apps.
I don't have any cards/readers s can't help on that side. The S350 and dvb-s cards will get the current UK freesat HD channels.

[dturland]

Well, answered some of my own questions by deciding not to RMA the compro s350.
As feared; gbpvr config crashed on scanning 2 of 101 unfortunately before writing results of scan 1 of 101 so no scan.cache file :-(

Still, progdvb showed what a fine picture dvb-s can produce; certainly when compared to both a manhattan st550 straight to scart and, obviously, going via a pvr150.

So does anybody have a scan.cache for hotbird 13.0e I can use as input to gbpvr?

Also, after a proof of concept toy with wincsc in progdvb, it appears that CI or lack of it has no bearing on compatibility with card readers etc.

Next stage is the phoenix card reader...

David

[martint123]

There is a patch on here somewhere for the crash during scan that may be worth trying. post nr 7 on the survival guide http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=35529

It certainly scans all 28.2e for me, but leaves the channel names as 'unknown' with teh current version. I currently nick someone else's scan cache file or manually tweak it from a save output from a successful scan with dvbviewer

[dturland]

Thanks Martin,
Tried the patch and the scan seems less fragile but still required half a dozen attempts for the scan to complete without failing.
Failure would either be config "disappearing" or a dialog pop-up containing (using the latest compro s350 driver, 1.3.6.6):

Code:

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
   at NativeUtilities.BDARecorder.SubmitTuningRequest(String tuningRequest, Boolean force)
   at NativeUtilities.BDARecorder.StartScanTransponder(String transponder, Int32& signalStrength, Int32& signalQuality)
   at Config.Plugins.x501d1ffea8b79320.x692a1118e1794d77(Object xdf2e3583f942db7b, EventArgs xc4f45905cb1fc7ba)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.TimerNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

Unfortunately,even for the completed scan, the config.exe.log file shows only partially populated xml channel information for most of the channels I am interested in (TP 65: "ART MOVIES" et al ) and so the corresponding tuning requests are therefore not created.

I can probably obtain the missing video_PID and pcr_PID from the free dvbviewer utility 'Transedit MMC' and create my own tuning request lines but it would be nice to keep it in house.

I have attached config*.log and the scan-4.cache if it's any use, to anybody.

As an aside I tried the recommended s350 driver,1.3.4.5b from:
http://www.progdvb.com/drivers.html
and no channels were discovered during the scan.

cheers,

David

[martint123]

I'm hoping the next version will fix the scanning problems with this card, I must admit that once I stole someone's cache file, broadcasters haven't changed much and maintaining it isn't such a pain!.

p.s. I'm using the same driver 1.3.6.6 and it seems very stable, including going into and out of standby. Sadly gbpvr doesn't like my twin-tuner pinnacle card so that's relegated to a client machine and dvbdream.