Equity DVB-S2

[tvropro]

I e-mailed Pansat and Fortec Star and asked them about if any of there receivers can do MPEG 4 H264, DVB S-2 8PSK. These are the replies I got.

Pansat:

Hi,
Yes our 9000HD will. But we have new model 9200HD which can be upgradable to DVB-S2 version by using S2 module optional
purchasing. Currently we still holding module kit manufacturing until S2 free to air broadcasting channels available.

Regards,
Tech

Fortec Star:

Yes, the PASSION does. However, we only sell it in Europe at the
moment. It won't be available in North America until summer.

Fortec

We will have to wait and see still

 

[lumpkin666]

Maybe a helpful reminder that there are now FTA DVB-S2 channels out there would help pansat along

 

[linuxman]

That is precisely why I am working so hard for a viable PCI card solution.

I may be wrong, but I think the cards will be available long before the STBs ever get here.

There are DVB-S2 cards available now with 8PSK capabilities. All that is needed is for the Software people to interact with them. DVBDream, MyTheatre, TSReader, and all the rest.

 

[photoman76]

I use the Technotrend S2-3200 pci card and DVBDream. Works great on the Equity DVB-S2 mux. Only drawback is you have to order it from Germany. About $150 total cost including shipping. For some reason I can't get it to work with TSReader on my computer. But it works fine for others here.

 

[Covack]

Cyber e store in Florida, has them for $116.99 plus shipping

 

[lumpkin666]

Cyber e store in Florida, has them for $116.99 plus shipping

Out of stock, and price is now $129.95USD

 

[Diamond Jim]

Gentleman, forgive my ignorance, but what are all of these cards you all keep talking about, what do they do and how do you use them?

 

[lumpkin666]

Gentleman, forgive my ignorance, but what are all of these cards you all keep talking about, what do they do and how do you use them?

Jim, there is a whole section in these FTA forums that discuss them. They are PCI cards that go into your computer to allow you to run software to receive satellite through your computer (some have outputs to send the video on to a TV too!).

The beauty of the PCI cards is that you have more flexibility in decoding the video stream - i.e. you can use them (with a good processor, and appropriate software) to decode dvb-s2, 4.2.2, etc (some cards support these formats and some don't).

 

[photoman76]

Technotrend S2-3200

Technotrend S2-3200 HDTV-S2 incl. remote (MPEG2/4) DVBSHOP - Technotrend, Shop, DVB-S, DVB-C, DVB-T, HDTV, H.264, DVB-S2

 

[lumpkin666]

Technotrend S2-3200 HDTV-S2 incl. remote (MPEG2/4) DVBSHOP - Technotrend, Shop, DVB-S, DVB-C, DVB-T, HDTV, H.264, DVB-S2

$40 for shipping.. yikes!

 

[Diamond Jim]

Jim, there is a whole section in these FTA forums that discuss them. They are PCI cards that go into your computer to allow you to run software to receive satellite through your computer (some have outputs to send the video on to a TV too!).

Lumpkin,

Thanks for the information and pointing out that it is discussed in the forum. I will check it out.:up

DAMN, I MUST HAVE BEEN BLIND NOT TO SEE THAT!!!!!

 

[photoman76]

$40 for shipping.. yikes!

And it took over three weeks to get here.

 

[lumpkin666]

DAMN, I MUST HAVE BEEN BLIND NOT TO SEE THAT!!!!!

Not really, the topics that come up in that forum don't always catch my eye either.

In the last year, I've owned a few PCI cards, but always sorta came back to the STB's. This time, I might go ahead and buy/keep a PCI card due to the HUGE price difference ($120-150 for a card, vs nearly $400-500 for a box that may not do as much as the card)

And it took over three weeks to get here.

In three weeks time, I would have forgotten why I wanted one!

 

[linuxman]

I just about have the Twinhan 1020a working with MyTheatre to the point where I have a PC STB. It will do SD without distortion of any kind, HD 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 without any difficulties nor distortion.

I use a remote control for everything, it has a nice overlay/OSD. Tells me all I need to know about what I am playing, beautiful picture on my 32" HDTV screen and hopefully by this week-end I will have the XML EPG working with my TitanTV account to display on the screen for me. It will record with the push of a button, or can be scheduled.

I can set it up to auto-magically come on when XP Pro starts in full-screen mode and take it from there with the remote.

Plus that one little card runs my 8.5 foot Birdview dish via my GBox V3000, switches between 4 standard LNBFs setup as Ku/C/DBS/Ku-Hispasat on the 0Khz off side of my Ecoda switch and on the 22Khz on side of the Ecoda, I have Ku-Universal/Ku-Universal/Ku-Standard/Ku-Universal running on my two multi-lnb dishes.

All tones, diseqc and power comes from that little Twinhan card.

When I finish, I am going to be shopping for the right DVB-S2 card with 8psk capabilities.

The nice thing about it is this. When I am finished using this as a PC/STB, it will make a Monster Desktop computer.

 

[tvropro]

How hard would it be to build a STB that you could download the codec's from the net for new stuff. That's more or less what you do with card's right? If I was a rich I would put a product like that out there. It would be a heck of a money maker.

 

[linuxman]

How hard would it be to build a STB that you could download the codec's from the net for new stuff.

Already being made. It is called a DreamBox.

It is cost prohibitive to make a dedicated STB from a computer. The only way you can justify it is to do what I am doing. Save it for use as something else later.

 

[updatelee]

dreambox has a hardware mpeg2 decoder, so what video formats it decodes is fixed like other irds and cant be changed with codecs

 

[lumpkin666]

dreambox has a hardware mpeg2 decoder, so what video formats it decodes is fixed like other irds and cant be changed with codecs

I would think that it might be possible to bypass that though, I mean there are PCI cards with the hardware mpeg2 decoder, and you can still use them with the software decoding. However, the processor probably wouldn't handle much software decoding anyhow.

 

[starman345]

Already being made. It is called a DreamBox.

It is cost prohibitive to make a dedicated STB from a computer. The only way you can justify it is to do what I am doing. Save it for use as something else later.

Some people (like me) use it as a dual purpose rig. My htpc is just that, a home theatre and personal computer. I use it for both. My 42" sony lcd is my monitor and I run everything with a cordless gyration mouse/keyboard combo, a twinhan 1020a and skystar 2 in pci slots and the usb Skywalker all working nicely.....couch potato heaven!
Linuxman, glad your getting the kinks worked out. You certainly have put in the effort.:up

 

[updatelee]

just doesnt have the cpu power, ie someone compiled ffmpeg for the ppc platform, its used to transcode youtube flv videos into mpeg2 so the dreambox can view them, unfortunatly the dreambox just doesnt have the cpu power required for realtime, a 30sec youtube video takes about 60sec to transcode.