Any programs support new skystar HD card?

kitoog

The new skystar hd pci card is available on some german sites now and i am just wondering does anyone know if alt-dvb etc support it?

stegboy

I got a Skystar HD card on Friday. It works with the technisat tv center software that is supplied but can't get it working with anything else.

The tv center s/w appears to be fixed to use the powerdvd7 codec (also provided). Shame as I'd like to try coreavc but can't get any apps working with it. HD performance stutters on my system, with cpu usage around 90%....

P4 3Ghz prescott
1Gb ram
150Gig hdd
ATI Radeon 9800 pro
XP Professional

kitoog

supposedly its the exact same as the technotrend s2-3200 and with dvbviewer it shows up as this card ( well thats what someone said on the dvbviewer forums, dont know if they used the actual 3200 drivers with their skystar card to get it like this). You should give it a try anyways ( mines on its way from germany). Its early days for this card anyways, so it should be supported over the coming months. All i want is alt-dvb support! as that is the only program thats seems to run bbc hd fine for me ( with coreavc ).

rolfw

I'l be interested to hear how your PCs cope with the HD from the card, as will many others.

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kitoog

well hopefully mpeg4 hd isnt too different from mpeg2 hd! as my skystar2 with the latest altdvb and coreavc runs all the mpeg2 hd channels fine, so im hoping it'll be the same with the skystar hd and mpeg4.

Not the best processor but hope it does the job:

e6300 1.86ghz core 2 duo
1gb ram
x1300 ati graphics card

rolfw

Well there is hope for me yet then. Mine is a 2.8Ghz Celeron with 1G of Ram and a 256Meg graphics card.

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stegboy

I managed to get the technotrend s2-3200 drivers loaded yesterday(well it comes up as a Technotrend BDA Capture device & Tuner device) but it still wouldn't show up in dvbviewer. It was late and this is my first taste of satellite pci cards (and dvb viewing apps) so its more than likely mistakes I'm making!

With regards to the pc specs, using the s/w supplied, my cpu was running at 90% with nothing else running and BBC HD was stuttering every few seconds and sound was out of sync. But I don't think it would take much to improve it and hopefully a change of codec or dvb app could do it.

kitoog

try alt-dvb and pick the first option ( bda drivers or something) and see if it works

stegboy

Tried alt-dvb last night with standard Skystar HD drivers. Can select the bda driver but can't do a channel scan for some reason. This may be a seperate bug and nothing to do with the Skystar HD card.

Also tried ProgDvb but no success. Device isn't found so s/w doesn't start up.

Probably gonna stick with the tv center s/w that comes with the card and get a new graphics card with decent built-in acceleration for HD.

kitoog

As far as i know, graphics cards make no difference atm, all depends on the cpu. As the avc codecs are looking for no help from the graphics cards. Well thats i have being reading in forums.

andrewsm66

I also bought the Skystar HD card last week. Seems like a nice card but the software looks like a bit of a rush job.
I built a new p.c. last week as well which is well kitted out.
P4 dual 2.4, 4GB ram, Nvidia 9600 GS, 2x raid 0 HD...

I also noticed that the BBC HD service was stuttering slightly. It seems to be worse on some programmes and not just dependant on fast changes in the scene. Last Of The Summer Wine looks good but the Migration of the Wilderbeast definitely stuttered. The processor occupancy sits between 40% and 50% when watching.
I tried installing Nvidia pure video drivers and that may have made it slightly better.
I think the card uses the H.264 drivers installed by the Cyberlink PowerDVD application so maybe these drivers are the culprits?
Looking around German support groups I remember seeing some mention of different H.264 drivers but as my German is non-existant, I couldn't really go any further.

I notice there is an option to set DisEQC 1.2 but this is greyed out, I wonder if this is a future option or whether it just applies to the USB version? I don't know if PCI busses can source the 400mA required for a dish motor.
Finally, when I do a scan on Turksat 42W, the program crashes near the end of the channel scan.

kitoog

get the coreavc pro 1.2 codec, bbc hd seems perfect using that with my old skystar2 card (well havent noticed any stuttering anyways). On one of forums i was checking somebody said they were using their skystarhd with alt-dvb and the bda drivers so it must work (maybe they were using the technotrend s2-3200 drivers). Have you tried any of the free german hd channels on 19e? From what i have being reading, bbc hd is using something called mbaff which is meant to be harder to decode than some other standard which is being used ( paff or something, think i read sky were using this but am probably wrong). Anyways the card is only over 90 euros on some german sites so bound to be a lot of ppl getting them over the coming months and hopefully more software support.

Different software can make a big difference aswell, coreavc with altdvb seems to be very good in my case but coreavc with dvbviewer is crap. Hopefully i get my skystarhd card before the weekend!

kamaleon

Yes it is i'm afraid, totally different ball game mate.
Sorry mate, don't wanna put you off like that, but forget about it. It ain't never gonna work (unless those drivers and codecs get a MAJOR improvement)
sorry again to point this out, but you haven't been reading properly.
Geforce 6 and 7 series provide hardware acceleration with the proper drivers and codecs (cyberlink7 and a few others). The difference is huge between some hw assistance from the graphics card and pure cpu horspower.
Ati are way behind for the time being.
BUT Coreavc doesn't use any DXVA whatsoever, it's all done by the CPU. I have heard, though, that CoreAVC might use the purevideo VPU (video processing unit) down at some point.

*stegboy & kitoog, are you using Alt-dvb 2.2? Your skystar HD comes bundled with BDA drivers, so it should appear on Alt's initial pop-up menu.

kitoog

sorry thought bbc hd was mpeg2 hd for some reason! so was hoping that it wasnt too different to mpeg4 but seeing as it is mpeg4.............ignore me

I only have a skystar2 atm, and had a 6600gt in my pc last month with purevideo installed and the powerdvd avc codec ( with hardware acceleration enabled) and made no difference at all. Took the card out anyways as it was too noisy, i'll get another graphics card when they are cheaper and are 100% confirmed to help with the hdtv decoding.

btw i was using alt-dvb this evening watching the fa cup match on bbc hd ( well the pre-match stuff) and had autogordianknot converting a dvd to xvid in the background( probably was going very very slow at that stage) but bbc hd was still fine . So I opened up mediaportal in a window and started playing family guy and bbc hd wasnt stuttering at all when i put it full screen ( was using coreavc ). CPU was probably really really high but none of the programs had crashed, so not bad for a 400 euro/ £270 dell pc:

dell e520
e6300 1.86ghz core 2 duo
1gb ram
x1300 ati graphics card

I'll have to try out the skystarhd with mediaportal when it finally arrives.

kamaleon

HW acceleration of AVC is 100% proved mate.
I say this from personnal experience, and I can back this with further arguments:
hxxp://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2874&p=19
hxxp://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2798&p=3
hxxp://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_purevideo_hd_preview/

Now when you say
This doesn't mean anything... compared to what?
Purevideo codec does not do anything to AVC, you can uninstall it. It's an mpeg2 codec.
But the Purevideo VPU is a different thing (shame on you Nvidia for using the same term), it's a HW chip on the card that does do HW acceleration of AVC, IF you have the right codec to do so - like Cyberlink 7.

So what is your system running on if it doesn't have a graphics card now? onboard gpu?

Now i have a question for you:
Does Coreavc display image properly on your setup?
I don't know why, but in my system it eats half the image, on the right side and the bottom. Like here:

I wonder what the score is?

stegboy

Had a mad rush to get SSHD working with alt-dvb, ready for the footy on BBC HD last night. Got it working with alt-dvb, but strangely, it would only display a picture if the technisat tv center s/w was running as well. This was using the BDA drivers supplied with the card. Not tried it with the technotrend drivers. Anyone else had this issue?

Picture quality was excellent but still stuttering.

Tempted to bypass the pc setup completely and get a pace hd box instead - only £149 at the mo. Or buy a 7600GS.

Kamaleon: I'm using alt-dvb 2.2.

kitoog

sorry meant Purevideo drivers not purevideo codec, well im only a noob at this stuff as you might have guessed , i just followed some guide on another forum. Is bbc hd the same with dvbviewer with regard to the picture being chopped up? haved used it in a while with coreavc but im sure the picture was ok with that. I just though it was an alt-dvb problem, use the cyberlink avc codec and you'll know for sure what is the probelm.

just have the graphics card that came with the pc in it atm - x1300 ati graphics card

Low Profile

'TechniSat TV Center 1.0.7' claims to support Skystar HD.

kamaleon

skystar=technisat...

Low Profile

What can I say.

redmart

Did anyone try Dvbdream? I found this to be the best software for the skystar 2. If that worked I would consider upgrading my skystar 2 for HD.

Turok

serval tv cards,including the hauppage,has problems,to running under windows vista!

can,someone,give an overview,when you rekord,difrent hd channels,on astra and 28,2,how much space,is it needed,in one hour,on harddrive?

would,it be also posible,to record, a crypted tv channel,and,inserting,the ci modul,with the right card,for the channel,and decrypt the stream,after recording?