Twinhan VisionPlus 1020A Help

[skunkworks]

Hello,

I am new to the whole FTA satellite hobby. And while searching on ebay i came across a Twinhan VisionPlus 1020A PCI Card for 20.00, and I Purchased it. I would like to know the ups and downs of this card. As well as If there are any other software it can run off of besides the original one that is more friendlier to use.

Also, Can someone recommend a dish and motor setup for it since the Twinhan setup is temporary until i get some money to get a decent FTA system.

My current setup is a Dell inspiron 530 Running Windows XP Professional with an intel duo CPU @ 2.2 Ghz and 2GB Ram.

 

[B.J.]

Hello,

I am new to the whole FTA satellite hobby. And while searching on ebay i came across a Twinhan VisionPlus 1020A PCI Card for 20.00, and I Purchased it. I would like to know the ups and downs of this card. As well as If there are any other software it can run off of besides the original one that is more friendlier to use.

Also, Can someone recommend a dish and motor setup for it since the Twinhan setup is temporary until i get some money to get a decent FTA system.
....

I wouldn't say that the 1020A wasn't a "decent" FTA receiver. I have 2 1020a cards, plus a Broadlogic, Fortec Lifetime, Fortec Ultra, Fortec Mercury, Coolsat 8100, Diamond 9000, Azbox, and one of those older USB boxes. I do 95% of my sat viewing using the 1020A. I think the key to turning a PCI card like the 1020A into a more useful receiver is using it with a network player like a Roku HD1000 or a PopCornHour. The only reason I've started using the 1020A less is that more and more stuff is showing up on DVB-S2 transponders.

On good thing about the 1020A, at least for the older full sized version, is that it can lock DSS transponders using TSREADER and a plugin. Not much free video on the DSS channels, but there is audio.
Some people have posted over the years that the 1020A doesn't work with some diseqC switches, and there are mods posted to the switches. My 1020a didn't work well at first, but after I upgraded the power supply in my computer it worked fine.
Re software, I've never really used the software that comes with the card. I use TSREADER, and either stream to ROKU or PCH, or play on the PC with VLC.

 

[RtpiFan]

I use mine with TSReeader & MyTheatre and have being treated very well by it.
I can lock DSS transponders but apart nasa and ion but twinhan seem to be the newer one when look at images of older card.

 

[fafhrd2]

B.J. is 100 per cent correct in his comments on the 1020a. You got a very good deal. I use the Twinhan software (download latest version don't use the old CD version) and TSreader. You will need to install codecs ac3 filter, .h264 and fddshow. My computer works pretty well showing HD feeds and it is only a 1.7 ghz with 640 mb ram running xp - 64 mb video card. Cheers!

 

[enb141]

The only bad thing about this card is that doesn't works well under windows 7 x64 at least if you have more than 3.5 GB in RAM, and the driver doesn't works under MCE but if you are not using windows 7 and MCE then the card works as it should.

 

[skunkworks]

Question about TSreader

Thanks for all the help. Also, with TSreader Can i pick up HD streams with it and view it from VideoLan on the free edition? And does it need codecs?

 

[B.J.]

Thanks for all the help. Also, with TSreader Can i pick up HD streams with it and view it from VideoLan on the free edition? And does it need codecs?

Depends on how fast your computer is, how cluttered it is with running services, and how high a bitrate the HD is.
Tuning the stream with the Twinhan is no problem at all, however the playing it with VLC part is very CPU intensive. My old 1.8 GHz Win2k computer can play HD up to around the 16 mbps range, like the PBS stuff, but I sometimes have to shut down some services to get it to work. It can't keep up with the faster stuff.
It can stream even the fastest stuff over the LAN, however.

 

[zamar23]

Can someone confirm that [ame]Twinhan VisionPlus 1020A [/ame]does not support clear DSS? I've seen many users confused by this card low and high profile versions.

 

[Smith P.]

Can someone confirm that Twinhan VisionPlus 1020A does not support clear DSS? I've seen many users confused by this card low and high profile versions.

I posted pictures of both TH1020a cards with short review regarding DSS last months.

 

[zamar23]

I found that thread, but the pic you posted of Twinhan VisionPlus 1020a is different from the above card pic, sold currently at Amazon, or formely sold at Sadoun. Can someone post an official Spec for it? Anyone knows the difference btw Red and Green PCB versions of this card? Which company made each of these versions, and which one has clear DSS support activated in its driver (I assume, both support it in hardware)? It looks like the green PCB card was designed and produced for Twinhan or another CN customer by Telstar TW as an OEM product.