Which DVB-S2 card would you recommend

[balky]

I currently have a floppyDTV S2 which I have been using for around 3 yesrs with DVBV and almost never had any problems.

 

These days, I start to have problems especially with MPEG4 transmissions which will simply not show any image or have any sound.

 

Whenever I start DVBV, the application blinks twice and freezes, I would then have to use the task manager to kill the application and then launch it again and only after that it starts to work properly.

When I go to BBC HD for example, the channel changes and all work okay, but if I go to eurosport HD for example, I always have to reload graph before anything shows, and most MPEG4 stations just don't show anything.

I start to think that the software MPEG4 decoding that is being done on the card is becoming a bit obsolete for the new MPEG4 transmissions, and as there have not been and will not be new drivers because digital everywhere has closed business, I start to consider an alternative.

 

I am also wondering if anybody has some experience with the AdvanceTune 9700 PCIe card.

 

The DVB-S2 card must have support for pay channels and motorized dish.

Thanks.

[Derrick]

I start to think that the software MPEG4 decoding that is being done on the card..

 

..not true. It's done bei software decoders on your pc.

[balky]

..not true. It's done bei software decoders on your pc.

 

Thanks,

 

does that mean the floppyDTV-S2 is still okay?

[Griga]

Check View -> Filters -> DVB Source in DVBViewer. You can see on the property page if a video stream arrives in DVBViewer. If yes it's a playback/decoder problem. Read more about it here.

[balky]

Check View -> Filters -> DVB Source in DVBViewer. You can see on the property page if a video stream arrives in DVBViewer. If yes it's a playback/decoder problem. Read more about it here.

 

I trust you guys will always represent... :-)

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll play around tonight and let you know what I find...

[balky]

Hi Griga,

 

here is what i found concerning paid HD channels...

 

Eurosport HD, EEN HD, NED1 HD, NED2 HD, NED3 HD: the screen stays black with no video no audio.

i checked in the filter properties and saw no data / connected for both audio and video. After that I reloaded the graph and all works fine.

 

MTVNHD, Brava HDTV, National geographic HD, Discovery HD showcase: the screen stays black with no video no audio

i checked in the filter properties and saw no data / connected for both audio and video. The reload of the graph does not help. Screen stays black with no video no audio.

 

Most FTA HD channels ITVHD, BBCHD, ZDFHD, EINS Festival HD are not consistent, sometimes I have to reload graph and sometimes it works right away.

 

This makes me think that if it is not the floppyDTV-S2 that has problems, then it might be the CAM module. But then I removed the CAM module and even the FTA HD channels did not work anymore. The floppyDTV-S2 couldn't handle the FTA HD channels without the CAM module inserted.

I have an Aston crypt CAM running version 2.18 of firmware

 

Please let me know your thoughts about this issue.

 

Many thanks in advance.

[Derrick]

..most likely your aston cam can't cope with the high mux rates on the dvb-s2 transponders of canal digitaal.

 

please add a support.zip

[balky]

here is the support.zip

many thanks for your assistance.

support.zip

[Derrick]

...no idea. It's probably the module. But this is strange:

The floppyDTV-S2 couldn't handle the FTA HD channels without the CAM module inserted.

..even after restart or rebuild graph?

 

I gave up with canal digitaal HD-channels with DVBViewer. In my hd-receiver (internal slot ) it's working like charme Maybe other users with a working setup and ci-module can help..

[balky]

...no idea. It's probably the module. But this is strange: ..even after restart or rebuild graph?

 

I gave up with canal digitaal HD-channels with DVBViewer. In my hd-receiver (internal slot ) it's working like charme Maybe other users with a working setup and ci-module can help..

 

(In my hd-receiver) I'm guessing you mean you have an STB...

 

Anyone have ideas what might be wrong or what needs to be replaced?

 

I'm sure there must be some folks out there who have this working...

 

I don't mind replacing the floppyDTV card, or CAM module, but as well, I don't want an STB in the picture...

[balky]

 

I gave up with canal digitaal HD-channels with DVBViewer.

 

 

Does this mean it might be a DVBV issue as well?

 

Guys... please heelp...

[balky]

DVBV seems to crash a lot lately...

 

Two times yesterday within 40 minutes of each other, while watching the US open live tennis transmission on eurosport HD the system froze completely and I had to press and hold the power button to shut down the computer. After the second time, I continued watching the live match on the SD channel.

the first time, the image froze and the sound continued for approximately 4 seconds, and then it was dead silence with a frozen image. the second time the image froze and immediately, the sound kept repeating itself like a broken record.

 

I have been using this soft for over two years and never saw anything like this before.

 

Anyone knows what might be going on?

 

Thanks.

[majstang]

DVBV seems to crash a lot lately...

...image froze and immediately, the sound kept repeating itself like a broken record.

I have been using this soft for over two years and never saw anything like this before.

Yes but im sure you have updated the ATI driver more recently than that! Windows 7 and the ATI 5700 series card has not been around for two years. You must have used other hardware and OS when system was stable. Your issues are graphicscarddriver related...no question about it. The symptons you are descibing are classic for ATI cards and their shitty drivers. Im sure you will find more info on the ATI site.

[Derrick]

DVBV seems to crash a lot lately...

 

Two times yesterday within 40 minutes of each other, while watching the US open live tennis transmission on eurosport HD the system froze completely..

 

Rename the plugin folder and try again.

[balky]

Rename the plugin folder and try again.

 

Thanks,

I did that and it seems to be working ok for the last 15 minutes...

I'll let you know if it crashes again.

[balky]

Yes but im sure you have updated the ATI driver more recently than that! Windows 7 and the ATI 5700 series card has not been around for two years. You must have used other hardware and OS when system was stable. Your issues are graphicscarddriver related...no question about it. The symptons you are descibing are classic for ATI cards and their shitty drivers. Im sure you will find more info on the ATI site.

 

Thanks,

For sure, I wasn't looking in that direction at all, but that being said, this is a fresh win7 install from about three weeks ago.

I intentionally did a fresh win7 install just to avoid driver conflicts with the ATI4850 that I was using before.

I'll have a look at the ATI forum for something similar.

Thanks once more.

[RedDwarf]

I have had ATI and nVidia cards and I have had less problems with ATI drivers than nVidia. nVidia drivers are not as stable as ATI in my experience, the latest being terrible for quite a few people including myself.

 

It might of been worth using a driver cleaner app to remove all remnants of the old cards settings.

 

I have experienced BBC HD display problems occasionally myself and I am currently using a nVidia card. Rebuild graph usually fixes it but not always. I don't know what causes it but it doesn't happen all the time so haven't tried to fix it. I have been using ffdshow for decoding.

[balky]

The whole thing becomes really kind of confusing...

 

I must admit I have seen the BBC HD issue even before I changed my graphics card. In my case with BBC HD, the image just pixellates incredibly like when you're dragging a window on a desktop that is very ver low on memory. Sometimes a rebuild graph helps, and sometimes I have to restart my HTPC altogether.

 

I use arcsoft codecs for HD, and I have TMT3 installed for playing blu-ray. The TMT3 works as flawlessly as ever.

 

So now back to my original problem, is this issue related to my floppyDTV-S2, my aston CAM, DVBV or now the graphics card driver...

 

Thanks.

[majstang]

I have had ATI and nVidia cards and I have had less problems with ATI drivers than nVidia. nVidia drivers are not as stable as ATI in my experience, the latest being terrible for quite a few people including myself.

 

It might of been worth using a driver cleaner app to remove all remnants of the old cards settings.

 

I have experienced BBC HD display problems occasionally myself and I am currently using a nVidia card. Rebuild graph usually fixes it but not always. I don't know what causes it but it doesn't happen all the time so haven't tried to fix it. I have been using ffdshow for decoding.

Your troubles does not have any similarities to Balkys. You are not forced to hard reboot when system freezes. Your system still respond to userinput if you are abled to rebuid graph. For you a safe bet would be to remove ffdshow entirely cuz its crap. I've had nothing but trouble with that codec since it was first released.

 

Balkys issues could on the other hand be caused by multiple factors. I havent changed my system (OS or hardware since beginning of 2008) and system was working great. Suddenly summer of '09 system begun to crash and showing balkys issuedescibtion exactly (freeze with sound looping and hard reboot). ATI had from Catalyst 9.7 made several changes probably adaptations for the coming Win7. Reverting back to 9.4 to 9.6 made it better but not entirely good. Tried driver cleaners and everything I could came up with but nothing worked. In the end I was forced to format and reinstall WinXP from scratch to get rid of the all the leftovers from later Catalystversions in the registry messing with old working versions. This was the last time i did upgraded the catalyst driver ever. EVERYTHING could happen when the ATI guys are making changes/adaptations for new OS:s and new G-card versions. When having one single driver covering many different Operating Systems and a BUNCH of different graphic cards could have its drawbacks when trying to make it work for all. ATI had big issues with the 5000 series cards at the beginning...if using an old driver this could explain problems. If using a new driver maybe an older would work better. You will never know and these kind of issues requires a lot of work and smart troubleshooting to solve. Most of the time freezing issues have nothing to do with DVBViewer. Most folks who had them have resolved them sooner or later finding drivers and codecs working well together.

[balky]

Most of the time freezing issues have nothing to do with DVBViewer. Most folks who had them have resolved them sooner or later finding drivers and codecs working well together.

 

Thanks,

 

This was my opinion as well as i have been using DVBV for more than two years.

My win7 installation that i got rid of about three weeks ago was running since like two weeks after the RTM was released by Microsoft.

I was previously using a cable STB connected to an HD-PVR 1212 for local channels, and had the floppyDTV-S2 for sat. FTA viewing.

I used DVBlink to bring the cable channels on the HD-PVR into DVBV.

Except for EPG not being available for channels on the cable, this combination worked okay for quite a while.

 

The problems started when I had to replace the version of DVBlink with a newer one which did not work reliably like the older version.

After much troubleshooting and the refusal of the DVBlink authors to provide assistance for an older version, I dumped my cable subscription and moved over to sat viewing.

I got my sat paid channel subscription and since then it has been one issue after the other. The BBC HD one was part of the first ones that i ran into, but that quickly got buried under more important ones like HD channels not being viewable et al.

 

I had an ATI4850 (+ Xonar HDAV1.3). Other than with TMT3, I had to hack the system to enable bitstreaming of HD audio from other sources, so I decided to go for ATI5770 to reduce HTPC power consumption, bitstream HD audio from MPC-HC, PDVD9 and TMT3 without having to hack anything.

This led to the fresh re-install of an OS that had near zero problems. (didn't someone say DON'T FIX IT IF AIN'T BROKEN!!!)

 

Anyway, after changing the name of the plugin folder as suggested by Derrick, the system ran for about 6hrs last evening without crashing, so it's looks okay so far, but WAF is already in a very bad shape at the moment, and if it continues like in the last weeks, I will probably come home only to see my HTPC flying out of the window

 

As I said, I don't mind replacing the floppyDTV and the CAM module, i just need to be sure that replacing them will solve the issue, but if I have to go the STB route again for sat TV viewing, it will be one hell of a bye bye to HTPC...

[balky]

Ok, looks like I am starting to get somewhere with the troubleshooting...

 

Since renaming the plugin folder, the system seems to be a bit more stable.

 

Yesterday, I removed the CAM module and booted the PC without it.

 

All FTA HD channels worked without any glitch. With the FTA HD channel running, I inserted the CAM and the image froze immediately, the audio went on for like 3-4 seconds and the PC crashed as it used to.

 

I rebooted the PC with the CAM module in it and tried BBC HD, there was pixelization at the startup of the channel as usual and after, I removed the CAM, the system froze again.

 

After this, I rebooted the PC again without the CAM module and it worked the entire afternoon without any problem, paid channels not available of course.

 

If my thinking is anywhere near correct, I am starting to believe that the CAM is the culprit here...

 

I have ordered a powercam pro HD module, which I can return for refund within 14 days if it doesn't work...

 

More to come...

[balky]

The powercam pro HD module arrived yesterday...

 

All HD channels worked the whole evening without a glitch...

 

Many thanks to all who took the pain to make suggestions.