Receiving satellite signals in the UK

[stu8080]

As for what channels you can receive well that is a slight problem. The FloppyDTV has a built in CAM and with the appropriate dragon CAM. All SKY channels can be decoded. Unfortunately GBPVR does not support CAM at present (although I do believe it is on Subs to do list).

So does this allow you to slot in a valid Sky card and watch encrypted channels, If only through FloppyDVT software?

I heard that, as Elite stated, Sky refused to allow licenses to decode encrypted channels and the only way to recieve these is through a set-top box... if CAM support finds its way into GBPVR this would be quite a leap forward!

Still means i have to pay Sky extortionate rates for Sky Multiroom though

[Bathman]

"So does this allow you to slot in a valid Sky card and watch encrypted channels"

Not with GBPVR as it lacks CAM support but you are able to with the folowing software.

Showshifter
MyTheatre
MCE 2005
Vista MCE
DVBViewer
TVCentral
BonaVista
VistaTV
Mediaportal

[Gideon Wood]

my card cant find any channels at all, what am i doing wrong ?

tried following several posts advice, but nothing seems to work.

help....please

[fausto]

Also you are not able to pick up the DVB-S EPG data with GBPVR (like you can with Freeview (DVB-T)). Apparently the EPG data is transmitted on a separate stream called OpenTV.

This is not much of a problem for the common channels as you can get the XMLTV data of the web however for some channels this is not the case.

I'm new to all this but am thinking of getting a DBV-S card for my pc. I was wondering about how to get an EPG. Can you explain the above EPG stuff in more detail please. Also, do all DVB-S cards allow you to receive BBC HD or have you got some super-duper, top-of-the-range capture card?

[frankmcg]

BBCHD's current broadcast only requires a DVB-S rather than an S-2 card. That said, with the new freesat service coming next year this could change, so if your budget stretches it may be worth picking up an S-2 card now rather than a plain S since they're backwards compatible.

Don't know about the epg stuff I'm afraid. I just use xmltv - have a look on the website http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/ It's pretty straightforward to setup for the mainstream channels.

[fausto]

Thanks Frank.

I had a look at the Birtles site. His grabber gets you an XML file with the channels of your choosing. Then you can configure Gbpvr to use this to update the EPG on a regular basis via a batch file. Have I got this right?

[frankmcg]

That's it exactly. Select it in the configure options and select full EPG reload rather than update only. You can then tell your machine to update it at the same time every day (which it can switch on to do if you've got it in hibernate/sleep mode).

I've amended the batch file so it wakes up, pulls the data from the xmltv grabber then does the epg update and goes back to sleep.

[fausto]

BBCHD's current broadcast only requires a DVB-S rather than an S-2 card.

Just re-read this and the significance finally sank in to my slow brain. I checked on this BBC page http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/info/sat_...cies.shtml that it still running.

That clearly means a DVB-S card can currently receive the signal but what do you need to view it? Can I view via GBPVR on my PC? Only if the PC is fast enough? Only if the graphics card can handle it? I'll have to try it tonight. Can anyone suggest a minimum spec of PC and graphics card to watch HD?

[frankmcg]

Unfortunately I've never been able to get BBCHD working on my machine as the communal dish I'm connected to won't pick it up for some reason. However to get smooth playback you probably need either a decent dual core processor (AMD x2 4200+ or a core2duo from intel) and/or one of the modern gfx cards that accelerate h.264 video which I think is the codec BBCHD isusing. The ATI 2xxx or nvidia 8500/8600 are good choices for this. If you are choosing one over the other, I'd recommend going with the dual core processor as there are numerous problems reported with trying to get h.264 acceleration working properly on the gfx cards.

You can test whether your box is capable of playing back BBCHD by downloading a 720p h.264 clip off the internet (do a google search), at least I think it's 720p, might be 1080i? This will test the playback capabilities at least, but to watch live may need a bit more power on top.

Hopefully that's a bit of help, apologies it's a bit vague but as I said I can't actually try it out myself for mechanical reasons!

[#66]

Hi,
I'm a newbie to all things PVR and am currently spec'ing out a box to build my own.
I understand that GB-PVR can accommodate a DVB-S card, but my question is can in handle encrypted channels or just the FTA ones? Is there anybody in the UK currently using GB-PVR with a satellite? And if so, are the any pitfalls that I should be aware of?
Any support is much appreciated. Keep up the great work.

Don't know what encryption is used in the UK, but I'm working on setting up a sat card here in Norway to work with conax encrypted channels. I got a phoenix card reader for my leagal subscription and set up the mdplugins. Got in all that I want and more! The biggest prob I have had is getting Live TV playback to work stutter free.

I've editid my dvb-s ini file to only include the transponders I want, so I don't have to sift thru tonnes of crap channels that I'll nevet watch. I scan for 11 transponders now instead of 74! I also use a xmltv egp as its seems to be more acurate that the egp that comes with the stream.

As for HD, I would wait with that untill you get in want and working before going on more hair pulling adventures!