low profile dvb-c cards or alternatives?

[Midnight Tboy]

Hiya.

I'm just going through the motions now of building an HTPC (using a Dell GX760 SFF pc), and have just ordered and awaiting delivery on a 4550 Radeon card for hdmi output.

I currently run a DB500c clone but was thinking it would be ideal if I could do away with this by getting a dvb-c card for the pc, however my case needs low profile pci cards to fit. This is of course to connect to VM to unscramble the channels

Do any of you know of any low profile dvb-c pci cards at all? As far as I can tell the Technotrend C-1501 is only available in full size and seems quite hard to find information in general on all these cards?

If theres none available I suppose a potential workaround could be to get a low profile firewire pci card and then get the FireDTV card (or whatever it was called - at work at mo) - although not an ideal solution being external

hope you can help,
cheers

oh and on a tangent, what is FDTV-C? is this just the firedtv card referred to, or is this something wholly different to dvb-c?

[Cafe.Rcaer]

I coined FDTV-C to mean both FireDTV-C and FloppyDTV-C they are essentially the same and it gets a pain to keep tying "FloppyDTV or FireDTV".

As far as I know, there are no low profile cards.

Could you run a FloppyDTV in a drive bay, or an external FireDTV (like you say)?

The other alternative might be riser cards, to turn the card through 90', like these:

LinITX.com - Riser Cards

Although, be careful, some of those are for via boards, not PCI - give them a ring, they are very helpful.

[TwinTown]

Originally Posted by Midnight Tboy

Hiya.

I'm just going through the motions now of building an HTPC (using a Dell GX760 SFF pc), and have just ordered and awaiting delivery on a 4550 Radeon card for hdmi output.

I currently run a DB500c clone but was thinking it would be ideal if I could do away with this by getting a dvb-c card for the pc, however my case needs low profile pci cards to fit. This is of course to connect to VM to unscramble the channels

Do any of you know of any low profile dvb-c pci cards at all? As far as I can tell the Technotrend C-1501 is only available in full size and seems quite hard to find information in general on all these cards?

If theres none available I suppose a potential workaround could be to get a low profile firewire pci card and then get the FireDTV card (or whatever it was called - at work at mo) - although not an ideal solution being external

hope you can help,
cheers

oh and on a tangent, what is FDTV-C? is this just the firedtv card referred to, or is this something wholly different to dvb-c?

if u got an mb firewire connector u can lay the floppydtv on its side if u want and connect to that...it doesn't need a pci / pci-e slot or even if u only have an external firewire u can still run the cable to that.

cheers

[Midnight Tboy]

cheers for the replies.

I'll have to take a closer look at the mobo on the offchance there is a firewire port on there, even if there def isnt an external one....would be surprised if there is but never know.

Couldn't use the riser card as it wouldnt fit in the relatively small case.

The Dell pc itself is the 2nd one from the right here Find a Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server, Printer, Software, Service, Monitor or TV at Dell. .

There is no floppy drive which is blanked off, so hopefully yes I could potentially run it into there and connect it to a pci firewire card. The pc itself though only has 1xpci-e (to be taken up by the hdmi card when it comes) and 1 pci slot (which in this scenario will end up being used by firewire.

If I was to stuff the floppydtv into the gap of where the floppy would go (unsure to if its a custom dell size), I'd need to be careful on width as the memory cards are a little bit set to the back and right and are raised - and presumably wont be too healthy if I was to have the fdtv resting on top of them.

Do yous know the dimensions of an FDTV card? Does it just 'flop' into the floppy drive area or is there something to secure it to? Also if I was to do this then how does the cable wire connect to it? does that mean I have to somehow find an entry point for the cable to go inside the pc? Wish the case was a bit bigger....but it was free

Alternatively.....I saw mention while I browsing a Technotrend CT-3650 which is usb2.0. Are these capable of reliably pulling in HD content fast enough etc?

[TwinTown]

Originally Posted by Midnight Tboy

cheers for the replies.

I'll have to take a closer look at the mobo on the offchance there is a firewire port on there, even if there def isnt an external one....would be surprised if there is but never know.

Couldn't use the riser card as it wouldnt fit in the relatively small case.

The Dell pc itself is the 2nd one from the right here Find a Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server, Printer, Software, Service, Monitor or TV at Dell. .

There is no floppy drive which is blanked off, so hopefully yes I could potentially run it into there and connect it to a pci firewire card. The pc itself though only has 1xpci-e (to be taken up by the hdmi card when it comes) and 1 pci slot (which in this scenario will end up being used by firewire.

If I was to stuff the floppydtv into the gap of where the floppy would go (unsure to if its a custom dell size), I'd need to be careful on width as the memory cards are a little bit set to the back and right and are raised - and presumably wont be too healthy if I was to have the fdtv resting on top of them.

Do yous know the dimensions of an FDTV card? Does it just 'flop' into the floppy drive area or is there something to secure it to? Also if I was to do this then how does the cable wire connect to it? does that mean I have to somehow find an entry point for the cable to go inside the pc? Wish the case was a bit bigger....but it was free

Alternatively.....I saw mention while I browsing a Technotrend CT-3650 which is usb2.0. Are these capable of reliably pulling in HD content fast enough etc?

if u cant stand the card up in a pci slot u will need the 3.5" to add an adapter for the smartcard, to allow access....wot motherboard u got?
and remember u still need to attach the cable to card

the width of a cam is around 55mm so u can work out the dimensions

fdtv.JPG

[Cafe.Rcaer]

My case is a similar size - I have a PCI firewire card and two FireDTV's. Your best bet, I think.