Cardsharing - DVB-s tuner?? Rookie - help please..

[JOGI]

Hello
I am new at this, but have read many topics with great pleasure.

I am building a mediacenter, in which I need a sat-tuner, but I don’t know which I would want. My need is that I want to log on a cardsharing group (e.g. Homesharing:-). I am running Windows media center on a new pc. I know that everybody recommend the skystar 2, but I would like one with a dual tuner. Any suggestions? I like this one from Pinnacle: _http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+Digital+PVR+%28DVB-S_DVB-T%29/PCTV+Dual+Sat+Pro+PCI.htm ????
I don’t know if it has a decoder or not? If not, does this mean that the CPU will be overloaded when recording or what?
Any recommendations about the best software to receive sat-TV, when I am a part of a cardsharing group(not software to the server, but to receive)? Is it possible to be a part of a drembox-cardsharing group? Do I need anything else?

Have a nice day all……

[BGonaSTICK]

OK, lots of interesting questions there. Let's have a go at answering some.

Firstly, I don't know how the twin tuner thing would work out. As far as I'm concerned, a pair of Skystar's would work just fine.

Cardsharing? Yes, possible AFAIK, both under Windows and Linux - but I've never done it, so can't advise you personally.

I don't know the card you mention, but doubt if it has hardware mpeg2 decoding, so yes - it will place a processing overhead on your CPU like most cards. Twin cards will virtually double this, but if you have a new PC and don't plan to decode HDTV, then this shouldn't be a problem.

There are several cardsharing software options, the most commonly used is probably GBOX, but others include camd3, newcamd/betad and others. The software you require will depend more on the infrastructure used by your particular group than whatever takes your fancy. Your group will be able to advise you best and provide specific support.

There is no technical reason that you can't share a card with a Dreambox group, but you might find that they only admit Dreamers.

[thehawk]

Interesting thread. Allow me to take advantage and ask questions about what I would like to do. In poor words, I'd love to have an HTPC with 2x DVB-S2 cards(Technotrend 3200 I guess) and watch encrypted channels as well by making use of a CAM.

My question is: will card sharing help me(using an original card of course) in not having to buy 2 cams and 2 original cards? That is, is it possible to have just one cam and one card on one tuner card and share it with the other tuner card?

Thanks

[BGonaSTICK]

I really don't know much about using CAMs (and this could mean either real hardware CAMs - which would in turn require an additional CAM interface for each PCI card, OR softCAMs - a software emulator) on PC's.

If you want to use hardware CAMs and have one interface slot physically added to each card, then you would normally have to have two CAMs and two cards as you imply. You could probably get around that by using the Diablo wireless pack which comprises a base unit (which holds a single card) and two wireless CAMs (which both act as if they have a card of their own inserted). I've never heard of this being utilised on a single-tuner PC (and something else) and certainly not a twin tuner PC (which is a rarity in itself).

As far as softCAMs/cardsharing goes, it's certainly logically possible to share a single subscription card between the two tuner cards, but I think you would have to have two instances of the client running, and I have no idea if that would physically work - you would have to try it. It can be tricky getting two sets of identical 'retail' hardware drivers running at the same time on the same box!

To be honest, it makes my head hurt just thinking about it. It would be hard enough getting a PC running properly with one DVB-S2 card, let alone two. To add the complexity of double emulation, decryption and also serving its own plastic is way beyond me I'm afraid.

You could probably fry eggs on a PC that's trying to do all that

[jontydog]

Yep I found it bad enough trying to sort out with one ss2 and g b 0 x. I gave up in the end too confusing

[thehawk]

Originally Posted by BGonaSTICK

You could probably fry eggs on a PC that's trying to do all that

hehe. Thanks for the reply stick.

Well at the moment I watch satellite using an X-CAM so strickly speaking I already own a CAM and both the DVB-S2 I'll purchase will have CAM support so money-wise, I'll only end up "wasting" money for another CAM.

But of course yeah, what I'm worried about is whether I can achieve what I want and what PC specs shall I go for. Sure enough, I won't purchase anything before asking more question

[Jimdefruit]

I cant really see the need for a twin tuner in one pc unless it is for recording puposes.

The SS2 shares very well with a dreambox so I would always go for separate units so keeping the pc load down. Once the software is out for the DVB S2 cards then I assume that will run in the same way as a DVB S card. DVB S HD runs ok on my 3200+ AMD with AltDVB but but is not so good on other TV software. I imagine DVB S2 will put more load onto the pc hardware an will need a faster CPU.

[thehawk]

Indeed, I'd like to watch 2 channels at the same time or watch one/record another, hence the reason for two cards. Also I'll purchase a new PC for this project and from what I understand today's "mid-level" PCs (with an Intel 6300) are more than enough. Again, I'm not THAT worried about the components but more about whether I can achieve what I'm after. I expect to do this next month and I'll be more than happy to post a step-by-step tutorial and info if I manage to get it running

[BGonaSTICK]

It'll be very interesting, and you'll be breaking some new ground as far as the forum here is concerned, although I'm sure someone somewhere has tried it before.

I predict that you'll need a really fast PC to decrypt two streams at the same time using softcams, but if you use two hardware CAMs it will obviously cut the load on the PC's CPU considerably.

Again, I've never seen it done - but it should work in theory.

[thehawk]

Yes, I'm determined to go all the way and will be more than happy to create a tutorial/guide for it and post it in different forums, including this one