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aitch

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Hi,
I haven't been into Sat TV since the days of Filmnet Decoders and the early Videocrypt hack days. ( No house to hang a dish on )
So, its a re-learning experience for me.
Rather than fill the forum with stupid questions, is there a website which shows what is needed for a PC Laptop based entertainment system.?
Ideally I would like to be able to watch TV from the satellites close to Astra with a motorised dish.
Can the dish be driven by the PC.?
Any pointers to a small Polar Mount.?

thanx
aitch
 

rolfw

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Berkshire
Pretty much all of the information you are likely to require is in this section aitch, the forum has an advanced search function where you can fine tune the key words and how they are used.

You need a laptop with at least 800mhz to work well with the viewing software and be capable of decrypting channels, the Skystar USB from Technisat (advert at top of page) will be a good basis to start and will power a DiseqC motor (although the manufacturers do not support this).
 
K

kalamar

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Laptop WILL NOT operate a DisEqC motor. (maybe if you power it up with an auto battery but watch out fer the smoke signals
 

aitch

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Hi,

Thanks for that info.
Ill do some keyword searching.

aitch
 

rolfw

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Technomate 5402 HD M2 Ci, DM7000s, Transparent 80cm Dish, Moteck SG2100 DiseqC motor, lots of legacy gear. Meters: Satlook Digital NIT, Promax HD Ranger+ spectrum analyser.
My Location
Berkshire
kalamar said:
Laptop WILL NOT operate a DisEqC motor. (maybe if you power it up with an auto battery but watch out fer the smoke signals

Must confess that I haven't used the SS2 USB, but I believe that it operates from an external power supply, so should not cause any problems.
 

BGonaSTICK

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rolfw said:
Must confess that I haven't used the SS2 USB, but I believe that it operates from an external power supply, so should not cause any problems.
That's interesting; can anyone confirm that the SS2 USB has a separate power supply?

I'd happily swap my PCI version for a USB version if it was a transparent swap, as I have a nagging concern about the long term effects of drawing that much power from my motherboard's PCI bus. Also to be considered is the fact that even in a massive full-sized tower case, I've had video card crashes caused by the excessive heat build up (running 3 extra case fans...)
 
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kalamar

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Can the USB units work with computer programs like MyTheatre on the hard drive ? or do they have their own internal software ? I have always wondered about this and this seems like a good spot to post the question. Hope its clear
 

peter in the bus

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I use a USB Skystar2 device. IT DOES have it's own power supply, and it can do everything that an internal device can do. It's main benefits are that you can put it in a cool spot to keep it from overheating.......
 

BGonaSTICK

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peter in the bus said:
I use a USB Skystar2 device. IT DOES have it's own power supply, and it can do everything that an internal device can do. It's main benefits are that you can put it in a cool spot to keep it from overheating.......
Nice one PitB!

Can you tell me (if you know how the PCI version stacks up) if there are ANY differences in setup or software or drivers or... you get the picture (oooh, bad pun).

I read on the Technisat site 'due to the fact that the software for both devices is identical, detecting during setup automatically a PCI Bus or USB port interface' so it's going to require a re-install of something or other.

Do you know how the PCB revisions comapare across the two device types (I belive the PCI card to be on revision 2.6 something...)

Now where's my wife's VISA card....
 

peter in the bus

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@BGonaSTICK

As far as I can tell, set up, software, drivers etc. are the same for both versions. Whether you could install the USB device and leave the old software from the pci version is another matter.... From my experiences with this device it would probably be better to do a clean install. Again, as far as I know, the latest USB device has been updated as has the latest PCI version....there should be no differences with any of the components...
A big advantage it has as well is that it has its own on/off switch....quite useful for when things go tits-up and you need to restart the SS2...otherwise you have to do a re-boot with an internal device...
Hope this helps
Peter in the Bus
 

BGonaSTICK

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peter in the bus said:
@BGonaSTICK

As far as I can tell, set up, software, drivers etc. are the same for both versions....

<Snip>

Hope this helps
Peter in the Bus
Thanks, that's very cool.
I think you're spot on with the driver re-install.

It seems to have enough advantages to do the swap.
What viewer software do you use, and am I right in assuming that you have all the best MDPlugins?

Did you shop around for yours? Where did you find the cheapest?

Thanks m8.
 
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