Which DVB card?

[alnitak]

I'm planning to add a DVB-s card (and likely a DVB-t card too) to my 1.2 GHz Duron system.

I'll probably start with my existing Win2K install, but will probably move over to Linux once I've got bored of the supplied software. This will then become a PVR system.

I don't need a TV out, and as I understand it it's the MPEG playback rather than PVR recording that benefits mostly from the higher-end cards.

Are there any fundamental differences between the Nexus-s and the SkyStar 1 other than the bundled software? I've seen good prices for the SkyStar card from retail suppliers on Ebay (£129, if I recall)

Alternatively it would seem that I could probably get by quite happily with a SkyStar 2, particularly with its support for >4 streams on data services and with the "new improved" version now out with better receiver sensitivity.

I'd welcome any knowledgable feedback before I part company with my hard earned cash :-)

thanks,

[rolfw]

£129 for an SS1 is a very good price and it is an excellent card, not sure whether there is any significant difference between it and the Nexus in performance.

The new SS2 claims a new improved tuner and certainly could benefit from the update, but even in existing format, using Win2000 and MyTheatre it is an exceptionally good value piece of kit.

[alnitak]

£129 for an SS1 is a very good price and it is an excellent card, not sure whether there is any significant difference between it and the Nexus in performance.

It turns out that I was looking at a Technotrend rev 1.6 cards on Ebay , not a Technisat SS1. The same guy also has Fuji/Siemens rev 1.3 cards for £110.

Does anyone know anything about these cards? Are they SS1 clones like the Nexus?

[cjgall]

Vidac, a German company that currently make analogue capture and TV cards with built in hardware MPeg encoder are going to release a DVB-S card in October 2003. If its anything like the analogue card I now have I would wait and buy one of these, they are superb, especially if you need to recompress the video as Vidac cards use the onboard MPeg encoder, or do other stuff like burning home video to CD-R/DVD-/+R.

I will be putting more info on my website in a couple of days time.

http://vmagic.unimatrixhub.net

My site currently states that this is a rumour but I have now received confirmation from Vidac.

In the meantime I can e-mail a flyer to anybody who is interested (couldn't upload to this site due to large size 1/4MB). Vidac say that the specs are not definate, they may change. Also in the flyer they say that some of the products will be available in the first quarter, this has not happened as they are still waiting for delivery of the new MPeg chip (should arrive in about two weeks) so they can start production.

Vidac can be found here: www.vidac.de (only in German I'm afraid, hence my unofficial vmagic site)

I don't know about the price but it will not be cheap. I did read 129 Euro's but have not confirmed this.

[Razor]

I did see an add for a VisionPlus card somewhere it has a CI mod. Not sure about the cost but around 174euro. Might see if I can find it again and post a link.