Need Card and LNB purchase advice.

[bifferos]

Hi all,

I have a 1metre offset dish and actuator left over from the last time I did anything with satellites (> 8 years ago). I'd like to set this up again, this time for digital. I plan to control the positioning through a Linux PC, therefore writing my own positioning software and so on, also writing some simple PVR software, but I still need to get a PC card and compatible LNB, which is where I'm a bit stuck.

I'm just wondering which card to go for. I've seen ones going for about 33 quid ie: TWINHAN VISIONPLUS DTV SAT-CI DVB-S TV, and 0.3db LNBs for about 10-15 quid. A couple of things I'm worried about:

1) Compatibility between LNBs and cards - what do I look for? 'Universal' LNB and a card that calls itself DVB-S? Is that enough?

2) Different encoding formats (MPEG, et al). I don't mind converting content on the controlling PC 'offline', so probably don't care about hardware decoding, but do some satellite channels use propriatry encoding for the video format that I wouldn't be able to convert using Linux?

3) How do you find which LNBs are really to spec? Do some brands publish frequency-noise figure graphs so you can tell what the values are across the entire spectrum? I've seen an LNB on ebay with 0.1dB noise figure.

4) Linux compatibility, although it seems a huge number of available cards *are* supported (probably because of the set-top box market).

Thanks for any advice,

-biffer.

 

[BGonaSTICK]

1) Yes. Universal, DVB-S.
2) All MPEG2 - so dont worry - it's standard for DVB-S
3) Most manufacturers produce specs. 0.1db is a joke (unrealistically low). Just get a quality one. MTI blue line 0.3db are superb, and can be had very cheaply off ebay. Invacom are also excellent, if a bit (lot!) dearer. Read which are the popular ones here on the forum and follow suit.
4) Don't know - up to you to research if drivers are available, or write one yourself.

The most popular card by far is the skystar 2. Cheap, and seriously good for a budget card. The hardware decoding is good to have, (on say the Nexus-S or Skystar1) as it will relieve your PC CPU from the chore of doing this. If you have a fast CPU it's not so much of a problem. Other than that it will provide a TV out port off the card as opposed to having to feed the TV out of both your graphics and audio cards to s-video in etc. Maybe you don't need the TV option anyhow.

STICK

 

[bifferos]

Thanks for the quick response m8! Skystar 2 + MTI blue line it is then. I've also seen these mentioned elsewhere on the forum.

regards,

-biff.

 

[pothead13]

SKYSTAR 2 is the one to get

 

[mick32]

i 2nd that