Skystar HD2 & 7MC help needed

Daveybryce

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Hello all.

Just bought one of these Technisat Skystar HD2 TV Cards for the PC and it's not 100% working.

By this I mean.... when using 7MC on TV card Setup it sees the card and installs all the channels - Great!!!

The issue lies when trying to view the channels. Sometimes after a fresh boot it works and I can watch TV and get sound. Then if I go to watch a movie and then back to watch TV, I get a blank picture but I still get sound. Now if I go to close 7MC down and then load it up again, I get nothing other than TV signal not available and get no sound or picture.

To add to this, DVBViewer TE2 has exactly the same issues.

Is anyone else having these issues or might it be hardware issues.

Many Thanks in Advance

Dave
 
Sounds more like a codec issue, or issue with loading a codec, than a straight hardware issue - I assume this is the first/only TV Card you've put in?

What codecs are you using?
 
I don't think it is codec related. I have tried all codecs related to FFDShow/cyberlink/shark's codecs/coreAVC. Used Radlight to merit the codecs accordingly. Used the MCDU utility to set M$'s default codecs.

I'm purely using M$ DTV/DVD decoder which should decode the DVB-S/S2 signals natively.

I'm just thinking out loud here, but surely if the codecs were an issue, it would either work all the time or not work at all. Sometimes I get the MC background and no black screen or sound, sometimes I get a black picture with sound and sometimes (very rarely) I can see video and sound but only on random channels.

I've mailed Technisat to see if they are developing or testing Windows7 with their hardware which was basically a waste of time. They said the BDA drivers should work in W7 but they will not support them until W7 is released as an RTM build.

I'm installing Vista again with TV Pack to see if it is an OS issue.

I'm also trying to find latest BDA drivers for the card.
 
Just an update.

Been having so much difficulty with setting this card up to use in both VMC with TV Pack and 7MC.

However I think I have found a solution which requires testing when I get home tonight.

Apparently and this is not common knowledge (as it's taken me about a week of googling and reading about 30 other forums to get to this stage), a program called DVBlink is required in order to bridge the card which allows it to be used with VMC +TV Pack and 7MC. As there is no real native support for DVB-S card so it fools them into thinking they are terrestrial cards.

Anyways here is the information I've got if anyone else in interested and some downloads. DVBLink RC
 
Hi mate
Are you using this to control a motorised dish ?
Thanks
Robert
 
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Update again,

Utter success with 7MC. I followed the PDF instructions precisely that come with DVBLink with DVBViewer. Took my time and voila I can watch Tele thru my new card.

Next stage tonight is to sort channel numbers and names as they reflect what is in DVBViewer rather than what Freesat uses. Bit tedious but gonna be worth it. Oh, and sort out the EPG's.

Thought I would post up my success with a big smiley face. :thumbsup:

Hi mate
Are you using this to control a motorised dish ?
Thanks
Robert

No, however DVBviewer can set up motorised dishes in that set up. Basically the way DVBlink works in 7MC or VMC with TV Pack is it creates your channels in DVBviewer then by using a virtual server allows a link into Mediacenter. So essentially you are watching DVBviewer thru Mediacenter. If that makes sense.
 
I have just spent the last few weeks building a htpc using a pair of hd2 cards. in 64bit windows 7 I get the issues you are describing - in 32bit windows it all works fine and is pretty solid, apart from I can't use both cards at the same time - if I do I get a black screen.
 
The DVBLink software is really designed for Vista - which didn't have native DVB-S support.

TV Pack and Win 7 DO have native DVB-S (not sure about S2 - but there is no FTA S2 at 28.2/5 anyway so it is a moot point. BBC HD, ITV HD and Luxe HD are all DVB-S) so shouldn't require DVBLink to be used if the BDA drivers are properly implemented.

I don't have to do anything to get my Pinnacle 7010ix card recognised, and the Hauppauge drivers for my Nova-HD S2 work fine in 7MC.

Are you running 32 bit or 64 bit? 64bit driver support is nowhere near as comprehensive as 32 bit. If using slightly non-standard hardware I'd always go for a 32 bit install at the moment.

Prior to TV Pack and Win 7 - Media Center in Vista and XP MCE would only support analogue and DVB-T cards. To get DVB-S to work you had to have spoof BDA drivers that pretended to be DVB-T (Digital Everywhere's Fire and Floppy ranges had good support for this) - and DVBLink (and DVBS Bridge as well I think) work like this. However in Vista TV Pack and Win 7 the driver architecture was improved to allow native DVB-S support - meaning no requirement for spoof drivers pretending to be DVB-T devices.
 
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I thought this thread had died. lol

DVBlink was kind of working well for me but DVBviewer kept closing down on it's own with no errors after about 20mins which kinda killed the viewing experience. This closing issue is known with W7 and there is a work around.

Personally i think that the drivers for my card which is a Mantis BDA driver isn't upto TV Pack or W7.

So for the time being I'm using DVBviewer for TV and 7MC for everything else until Technisat actually release some working drivers for W7. Even after emailing them a few times they haven't confirmed that they are working on any new W7 drivers which sucks a bit. When W7 Basic and premium officially get released later this month, hopefully we will see if they have or not.
 

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