Dual tuner setup: Unable to record one channel and view another

[Wuhtzu]

Hi everyone

 

I have a problem with my htpc / dual tuner setup: I am unable to record one channel and view another. Everything else works great (sd channel, hd channels, encrypted channels, free channels)

 

My setup is this:

 

1x Digital Devices Cine S2 v6 (a dual tuner card) (http://shop.digital-devices.de/epages/62357162.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62357162/Products/091201)

 

1x CI Expansion modul (able to decrypt 4 channels at a time) (http://shop.digital-devices.de/epages/62357162.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62357162/Products/092003)

 

DigitalDevices DVB Driver 2.4.1.68 x64

 

DVBViewer 5.0.0.0

 

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

 

Digital devices Cine S2 setup (via a driver config/control panel):

- Single Cable reception: "Normal operation" selected (other option is "Single Cable"

- Common Interface Module: Two tuners detected (DVB-S/S2 Tuner1 and DVB-S/S2 Tuner 2) and selected for use with the CAM

 

Sattelite / dish / lnb setup: One dish, two LNBs (heads), two cables into the hourse, one cable connected to each input / tuner on the Cine S2 card

 

Provider: Canal Digital

 

What is happening is this: I tune to channel A and start recording. Then I tune to channel B and stay there for a while (5min for example). Now when I try to tune back to channel A (which should be recording) I just get a frozen screen - channel A is not playing (after choosing it form the channel list). I can perfectly fine tune back to channel B and B is playing just fine. Channel A is still marked as "Recording". Pressing "Stop recording" makes no difference. Channel A is still frozen. I then shut DVBViwer down (the only way to get channel A working again). When I go to check the recording it seems to has stopped at the time I changed channel to channel B.

 

Any ideas as to where I might start to debug this? Is it misconfiguration of DVBViewer, driver bug, hardware bug or CAM / CI incompability?

 

Best regards

Jonas

[Wuhtzu]

Some more information:

 

You can see a picture of my setup (the single CAM/CI-module and dual tuner) here. Just to stress that it is a single card with two tuners and a single CAM/CI-Module.

http://wuhtzu.dk/random/IMG_20130213_230143.jpg

 

 

A little update:

I have found out that I am able to view one channel and record another as long as one channel is not encrypted. I can record channel A (encrypted) and view channel B (free) at the same time. I can also record channel A (encrypted) and record channel B (free).

 

So now I know both tuners work and that they work at the same time. Now it looks like a problem with the CI/CAM. Am I wrong in expecting that my CI should be able to decrypt two channels (one for each tuner) at the same time?

 

 

Thanks again for any thoughts.

[Tjod]

Is you CAM able to handle enough streams?

http://support.digital-devices.de/knowledgebase.php?article=27

 

And have you configured the CI via the Digital Devices tool which is part of the driver installation.

[Wuhtzu]

Thank you for your reply Tjod.

 

Is you CAM able to handle enough streams?

http://support.digital-devices.de/knowledgebase.php?article=27

I find that hard to judge. This is my cam:

http://wuhtzu.dk/random/cam_front.jpg

http://wuhtzu.dk/random/cam_back.jpg

When I bought 1x Cine S2 and 1x CI-module (for use with Cine S2) I thought my cam was what the knowledgebase refers to as "SMIT Conax". Conax is what Canal Digital uses and on the back of the cam it says "Technology by SMIT". Does anyone know if my cam is on that list?

 

And have you configured the CI via the Digital Devices tool which is part of the driver installation.

When I open the Digital Devices tool it detects my CAM and I get a check box per detected tuner (DVB-S/S2 Tuner1 and DVB-S/S2 Tuner 2). Both boxes are checked. Other than that the only option I see is "Single Cable reception" and this is set to "Normal operation" (the other option is "Single Cable", and I have two cables from two lnbs). I will post screenshots asap.

[Wuhtzu]

I find that hard to judge. This is my cam:

http://wuhtzu.dk/random/cam_front.jpg

http://wuhtzu.dk/random/cam_back.jpg

When I bought 1x Cine S2 and 1x CI-module (for use with Cine S2) I thought my cam was what the knowledgebase refers to as "SMIT Conax". Conax is what Canal Digital uses and on the back of the cam it says "Technology by SMIT". Does anyone know if my cam is on that list?

 

Digital Devices answered this for me. It is not the CAM they list. This is the cam they list: http://shop.digital-devices.de/epages/62357162.sf/en_GB/?ViewObjectID=36901623

 

So this probably is a CAM problem

[Wuhtzu]

Digital Devices answered this for me. It is not the CAM they list. This is the cam they list: http://shop.digital-devices.de/epages/62357162.sf/en_GB/?ViewObjectID=36901623

 

So this probably is a CAM problem

 

Just to expand on the answer above:

 

I've spoken to a quite technically competent person at STRONG (the manufacturer of CAMs for Canal Digital) and he said that the CAM I use (the official CI+ CAM for Canal Digital) does not support decoding multiple channels.

 

So this really looks like it's solved. I simply need one more CI expansion module and one more CAM. And a gut feeling that says this will not be shut down / made impossible in the near future (http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/topic/48885-ci-specification/)

[Wuhtzu]

Just to expand on the answer above:

 

I've spoken to a quite technically competent person at STRONG (the manufacturer of CAMs for Canal Digital) and he said that the CAM I use (the official CI+ CAM for Canal Digital) does not support decoding multiple channels.

 

So this really looks like it's solved. I simply need one more CI expansion module and one more CAM. And a gut feeling that says this will not be shut down / made impossible in the near future (http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/topic/48885-ci-specification/)

 

So this turned out to be true, I just needed one more CI-expansion module and one more CAM.

 

I ordered another one of these http://shop.digital-devices.de/epages/62357162.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62357162/Products/092003 from Digital Devices and another CAM from my content provider Canal Digital by telling them it was for a new approved TV I've just bought (they do not sell CAMs for use with tuner cards ).

 

And now everything works. Two channels at the same time, record one and watch another or record two and watch one of them.