Skystar HD card seemingly available in the UK now :)

[BGonaSTICK]

Well, they appear to have landed on these shores. I haven't checked with sateuropa yet regarding stock. Have to ask the wife if I can have one first

_http://www.sateuropa.co.uk/product_overview.asp?id=1515&catid=14&subcat=52

[Jimdefruit]

Are you a man or are you a mouse? :roflmao:

I look forward to your review Stick.

[Stv]

Hi,

Any idea whether the Skystar HD will work with Linux like the other Skystars?

Also, I'm planning to run it with an old system to begin with - 1.2Ghz athlon, 512mb ram - will it be up to the job?

I'm happy to spend some money on the dish & infrastructure etc but am trying to put off buying my media pc just yet.

Steve

[Jimdefruit]

These are the hardware requirements if you fit a Skystar HD card:

System requirements
- Intel Pentium III (1 GHz or higher)
- Windows 2000/XP Home/Professional (Service Pack 2 recommended)
- Minimum 256 MB RAM
- 64 MB free space on hard drive
- Min. 10 GB free space on hard drive for PVR function
- CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
- 1 available PCI slot
- Sound card that supports DirectX
- 3D graphics card recommended (min. 64 MB)
- DirectX 9.0 or higher
- Acrobat Reader Version 5.x or later

Requirements for HDTV [1080i / MPEG 4 (AVC/H.264)]
- 3,4 GHz P4 (Single Core with hyperthreading) or
- 2,2 GHz AMD 3500 + or
- Dual Core P4 D820 / D830 or
- Dual Core AMD X2 3800+
- with graphics card: ATI X1600 / X1800 er NVidia 6600 GT / 7600 GT

[Stv]

Thanks for the swift reply - perhaps I should stick with the Skystar 2 for now then I will certainly be back with more questions once I've read up some more in the forum.

Cheers,
Steve

[BGonaSTICK]

I guess I'm in the same boat as you - don't really want to have to buy a whole new PC just yet. I think the tipping point for me might well come when the Skystar HD is supported by programs like ProgDVB and AltDVB.

The only operating system that is supported according to the official product specifications is Windows 2000/XP Home/Professional (Service Pack 2 recommended).

The drivers can be downloaded here:

http://www.technisat.com/download/en/soft/1401.zip

A CI interface is promised for later this year, so you could always stick an old Dragon in it and watch Premiere HD.

[Stv]

really sorry - what is a CI interface? I checked the glossary but couldn't see anything.

Also, is the Dragon an alternative card to the Skystar 2? A search of the forums brought up dragon cams, but I'm still confused as to what a cam is let alone anything else!

Thanks,
Steve

[BGonaSTICK]

A CI interface is a slot for a CAM - a Conditional Access Module to allow the viewing of pay-TV.

The Dragon CAM is one such module, but can itself be programmed to open certain pay-TV channels illegally.

This is something that can normally be done in software on the PC for a card like the Skystar2, but isn't available yet for the Skystar HD.

Don't apologise for asking questions. Ask as many as you like!

[fergycool]

Hi,

hmmm, I'm looking to get another PCI DVB-s card at the moment. Wonder how long it will take the linux drivers to appear???

Some research is needed I think!!

Cheers
Ferg

[BGonaSTICK]

None yet AFAIK.

Certainly nothing official in the software download pack. I've looked