Satellite cards for PC's

[Pob]

I am a glutton for punishment.
After returning a Hauppauge HD S2 'cos I could never get it to work reliably, I purchased a Compro S350 card (Dava, it's your fault!)
But it's exactly the same - random crashes when changing channels, Does not find all the channels when scanning...not just just in GBPVR, but other software. The crashes happen on SD channels, not just HD ones...
I am wondering if the problems may be connected to switching between Horizontal and vertical polarity? Most LNB's seem to require 14 or 18 volts being constantly fed to them. I did not think the PCI bus could supply this much voltage; it's 12-volt, isn't it? Maybe it varies slightly from one motherboard to the next?
(Jeez, I'm starting to sound like Skybuck Flying!)
This is from the manufacturer of my LNB:
Both the conversion of the two frequency bands and the conversion of the polarisation planes are effected separately. Switching between polarisation planes takes place by means of a variation in the voltage of the current supplied to the LNB (14 Volts for the vertical resp. 18 Volts for the horizontal plane). On the other hand, the upper frequency band is controlled via a 22 KHz signal that is superimposed on the LNB power supply current.

[martint123]

They generally have little inverters on them to produce the required voltages.
It should be easy enough to put a meter on the F-connector and watch the voltage change when you go from an H to a V polarised signal. Spotting the 22kHz tone isn't as easy though.

My Compro S350 card seems to work reliably once I have nicked someone else's scan.cache file (and fingers crossed for the next version and better scanning with channel names). I have an hours recording of one of the repeating BBC HD shows at around 10gb and it looks very good on the PCH and 1080p LCD box.

I wish you hadn't said that about the Hauppauge S2 card as it was possibly going to be my next desperate purchase if the 2350 fails with the next version :mad:

[Betamax_man]

I have a Hauppauge S2 card, the card works with supplied software - good with SD but stutters with BBC HD. Cannot get a picture with GB-PVR on HD.

[Dava]

I am a glutton for punishment..... I purchased a Compro S350 card (Dava, it's your fault!) [/COLOR]

I accept full responsibility...Sorry.

I am also struggling with scanning and this card in gbpvr but I have not seen it go wrong in its own S/W. I have not added it in yet to the clean install. Hopefully Sub will work his magic with the PSIParser tweaks I read about in another thread.

I did get it to be pretty reliable on the old install with the same hardware but I cannot remember if it was in the Vista or XP partition. I also had it so that it would regularly come up with "No Signal" with a different variation of settings.

I must start making notes on what I have done and when... nice idea, but I am sure I will just keep poking it until it works.

[martint123]

I have a Hauppauge S2 card, the card works with supplied software - good with SD but stutters with BBC HD. Cannot get a picture with GB-PVR on HD.

Bugger :eek:

[Pob]

I accept full responsibility...Sorry.

I am also struggling with scanning and this card in gbpvr but I have not seen it go wrong in its own S/W. I have not added it in yet to the clean install. Hopefully Sub will work his magic with the PSIParser tweaks I read about in another thread.

I did get it to be pretty reliable on the old install with the same hardware but I cannot remember if it was in the Vista or XP partition. I also had it so that it would regularly come up with "No Signal" with a different variation of settings.
Snip

Yes I quickly discovered the scanning problem - all channels 'unknown'.
But luckily I had kept an edited scan cache I had from the Hauppauge HD S2 card with everything on it - including ITV HD, Luxe HD, BBC HD.
But it is very interesting that you have experienced the 'no signal' problem - this is what I have been getting on the Hauppage and Compro cards often - it will work, but change channels and the no signal message pops up - and nothing can get it working again apart from a reboot. The other major issue is not finding channels during a scan. To tell the truth I never spent long playing with the software shipped with either card - I was so determined to get the 'ultimate' HTPC using GBPVR!

[Pob]

SNIP.

I wish you hadn't said that about the Hauppauge S2 card as it was possibly going to be my next desperate purchase if the 2350 fails with the next version :mad:

Thank you for the info - so these inverters manage to feed a constant 14 / 18v supply to the LNB?

I am beginning to suspect that my problems with the Hauppage and Compro sat cards are more to do with some other hardware issue - particularly with my revision 1 Gigabyte 780g motherboard. I finally got an RMA for it, and I am hoping the replacement rev 1.1 board may solve all the issues - I am an optimist by nature!

[Pob]

I have a Hauppauge S2 card, the card works with supplied software - good with SD but stutters with BBC HD. Cannot get a picture with GB-PVR on HD.

I was getting HD in GBPVR using CoreAVC or ffdhsow as H264 decoders- at the times it was working. Other times it was crashing big time (ATIDvag.dll constant loop BSOD). But the crashes happened on SD just as much as HD.

[Dava]

I had a go last night adhering to the "Free Open source Hotwto get DVXA" thread and have the following results.

The BBC HD in LivePreview mode has sound but no picture, despite H264 being switched on in the MPC Video Decoder.
Playing a .TS file that I recorded earlier makes it all go dark and then reboot 15 seconds later, no BSOD, just black and reboot.

I also have a Rev 1 Gigabyte so this may be connected.

I would like to know what I should have set for my requirements as I do not know whether I should be using TS MUX or Full TS for BDA, I remember reading that DVR-MS is bad for HD. I have the original 8.4 Catalyst drivers from the CD.

I also want to be able to use SD from this card to the MVP but it seems I will need to transcode recordings to do that if they are TS or DVR-MS ? Is this True?

Is it best to use LivePreview or Timeshift mode for HD LiveTV ?

Is it best to apply Windows updates to my clean install, does XP SP3 break anything?


I have left the S350 set up to record all of the kids stuff today so we will see how much of it is watchable.

It was all so much simpler with my old MPeg2 grabbers and blasters but I have seen the glory of HD on this setup before and now I want it back!

[Dava]

I was so determined to get the 'ultimate' HTPC using GBPVR!

It seems that we not only have the same goals but have made the same poor hardware choices.