DVB-S Card that works with MCE.

Seen this post on Green Button not sure if its accurate maybe nigel will tell us
http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=47&MessageID=134839

 

I'm running a SS2 with MCE thanks to a new plug-in from Crypto @ DVB Portal. Still only in beta form undergoing testing etc. but looking very promising.

 

I had a look at the plugin from DVB-Portal. I thought that I had a SS2 among my collection of DVB-S cards but it turned out to be a Technotred Budget. Anyway as far as I know the plugin allows you to access DVB-S from within the MCE interface but doesn't integrate with the EPG or allow you to set up recordings. Please correct me if I'm wrong Kramer.

 

Yes, there is a new card from Hauppauge currently only available in Germany. It supports FTA satellite channels in MCE http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=4865

It works by pretending to be a DVB-T card thus the channels must appear in the DVB-T EPG if you want to have channel information but it will still find all the channels even without a programme guide.

Evidently at present the drivers only supports MCE with German channels from Astra 19E http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=5067

I believe that it will be relatively straightforward to support UK channels from Astra 28.2E. ITV1&2 will be FTA very soon so even though it's only the FTA channels it should be pretty decent when it is OK for UK. I have just ordered a card from Germany so wil keep the forum posted as to how I get on.

 

Yep, no recording or EPG facility yet but implimenting these shouldn't be too difficult once the plugin is stable etc. The lastest version records in MCE's format.

 

It only works with a SkyStar 2 doesn't it? Is it just FTA channels or is it possible to use a CI/CAM & card?

 

Just an update on my experiences with the Hauppauge Nova-S-Plus within MCE. It caused me a lot of head scratching at first as it didn't appear to pick up any of the Astra 2D channels. I eventually realised that it didn't pick up any of the first dozen frequencies that are mapped to DVB-T MUXes (maybe this is a UK DVB-T thing). Once I had changed to a mapping starting with the 15th channel it found them all fine. Also needed to change & add frequencies to the provided file for 28.2E.

The lastest software & drivers are available from http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/de/chelsea/88x_2_108_23237_inf.zip
http://www.hauppauge.de/files/dvbs-reg.zip

It's a real pain managing & deleting all the hundreds of unwanted channels & then shuffling around the channels & then mapping the channels to the EPG data but I now have a system set up with BBC1/2/3/4 ITV1/2/3/4 plus News from ITV/BBC/CNN/Sky/Euronews plus Performance plus the various radio channels like BBC1/2/3/4/5/5xtra/6/7 etc

I have even tried it with an LNB switch & adding all the FTA channels on Hotbird & it seemlessly handles switching between the two dishes. Bottom line is it works great once set up with no problems with changing channels on the digibox.

Now that I eventually have it all working I need to pull out the card & reconfigure as apparently the Technotrend Budget Card BDA MCE drivers now have support for the CI & CAM so I need to try & get this working so that I can use my Dragon CAM & Sky card.

 

Keep us informed about your progress with the technotrend nigel I would be very interested in a DVB-S card that works with the Sky Card and Dragon CAM with MCE.

 

COuld someone please post some screenshots of PQ quality of the BBC and ITV channels, make sure there in .BMP format, I have webspace if you need it..

 

Is Ch5 FTA now or just BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Ch4?

 

Five is not FTA & neither is Channel 4 but BBC1/2/3/4/News 24 plus ITV1/2/3/4/News are plus a few others.

 

The picture quality will be just the same as outside MCE using any other DVB-S software e.g. Technotrend or Hauppauge SW supplied with card.