BIG Confusion

lean_moha

Hi
I've been thinking of going motorised in the bid to find the right dish for me and last week upon reading about the Diseqc stuff I've become more confused and gone off the Idea at least for now, not knowing if I've got the right DVB-S card to start off with [a Pinnacle PCTV Sat-CI (same chipset as the TwinHan VisionPlus at least according to MyTheatre)]

Appearantly the PCTV Sat-CI only supports Diseqc 1.0 and 1.1 not 1.2 I've read stuff on the 3 and really don't have a clue what they were going on about. Can anyone help?

Also while putting the idea of a motorised dish, I've got this 60cm dish I found being tossed out and am looking to put it up along side the sky minidish so I can wathc both Astra/Eurobird and Hotbird. Can you tell me if this dish is any use with a universal LNB to pickup Hotbird from the Surrey the EIPR and dish size calculator at
www.satmania.com
seems to think so but at a shop I was going to get the LNB from says the required dish size is 80cm or pictures will be unclear.

Lastly what would I need to connect both dishes to my card I have a spliter already from when I thought I cloud connect to recivers to a single signal source.

Thanks

lean_moha

OK found out finally what I need for a motorised system is the diseqc 1.2 compliance stuff. But I'm still lost b'cos my DVB-S card is the same chipset and look as the TwinHan VisionPlus (VP1030) and is what Mytheatre and ProgDVD run the card as is diseqc 1.2 compliant. But the user manual that Pinnacle provided goes on about the PCTV sat (i.e non-CI like the NOVA-S) which is not diseqc compliant.

I've emailed Pinnacle support loads of times but no reply. does anyone know how to test is a DVB-S card is diseqc compliant.


Thanks loads

kalamar

DiSEqC is simply a plugin for ProgDVB or MyTheatre,it has very little to do with the card. You cant use a splitter for your two dishes you need a DiSEqC switch.
DiSEqC 1.0 run switch, DiSEqC 1.2 run motor.
Youse is tryin to make it hard on yourself it seems to me.

lean_moha

Really!!! DiSEqC is just software!!!!

So why do the product manufactureers and shops try to make one think its all about hardware. Then again maybe MT and ProgDVB have a system like how WinDVD 6 and PowerDVD decode DTS by software.

The thing is I'm just scared to pay £150 for the motor dish and LNB and the thing not work. But I understand what you mean but its mainly b'cos I don't know anything about this sattelite stuff just that its much better than using an arieal and you get most of the usefull programing u'd have to subscribe to sky for.

BGonaSTICK

In fact it's both.

At the procesing end, the PC hardware runs the application software and plugins which address the hardware drivers, which in turn enables the application to access the i/o device, and pass the 'data' to the motor/switch/whatever. This then interprets that signal and translates it back into a hardware response (switching/driving/whatever). The hardware has to be capable of interpreting the software, and vice versa.

The hardware in this case is often capable (tho not always) but does not come with fully functional software. This has often been supplemented with additional software to achieve full function.

Sorry for talkin' like a spanner, but you did ask!

lean_moha

Thanks for that. Not sure I quite got it but I think this was it

1 PC runs software, then 2 software tells hardware/motor to move. Or is it that the software tell a special chip on the card to move the motor?

So technically speaking I'm still buggared for the motorised stuff b'cos I don't know if my DVB-S card will turn the motor. Especially since I've now discorvered the hard way that Pinnacle, like CreativeLabs, r useless as far as their tech support goes. And till now there's been no driver updates for my card just the non-CI version.

I've checked the net to see if there's a way to test DVB-S cards for Diseqc 1.2 compatibility but no luck only the hope that my PCTV Sat CI looks like and is recorgnised by ProgDVB and MT as the TwinHan VisionPlus which is Diseqc 1.2 compatible.

BGonaSTICK

LOL, I think that's because I explained it badly! Was just trying to explain how it was a mix of HW and SW.

You need a piece of software to send the diseqc 1.2 commands to the motor.
They are either supplied with your software, or may be added as a plugin.

Don't know if one exists for your card/chipset, but all you can do is search and ask around. I have a skystar 2 and there's an 'aftermarket' one for that, tho it requires one of the driver components to be replaced by a 'patched' one to get the job done.

lean_moha

LOL!!!! sure me just Confused!!!!

I desperately think I picked the wrong card even though I actually like it and the best alternative was my original AverMedia, with its full interactivity(all the colour bottons) but it didn't have CI.

So far I've found tones of Pinnacle fan sites all of which are of course in german thu no patches or drivers. Maybe the card is just too recent or just not popular or well known (the card is appearantly only for sale in the UK and germany despite being assembled in Taiwan).

Hmmmm!!!!!!!! wonder if replacing my Pinnacle drivers with the Twinhan ones might work same chipset afterall. Guess I cld just be patient and weight for Pinnacle to get thier fingers out of their arses (probably not a pritty sight). Or perhaps look for a cheap motor like £10-£20 on Ebay or something and experiment, since my MT installation has disequ 1.2 in it plugins section

The Fatty

you should have got a skystar!