Skystar or Nexus for BBC in Spain?

[paddyharben]

I am about to buy a new PC and will be fitting it with a TV tuner card for FTA satellite TV.

My impression from browsing previous postings on this forum is that the Skystar and Hauppage cards are the best for this. As I want the card to have onboard decoding and need a TV-out, I assume my choice is between the Skystar 1 and Nexus-S cards.

The important thing will be the sensitivity of the tuner when dealing with fringe reception conditions, as I will be using the card to get the BBC's digital TV and radio channels in Madrid, Spain. These channels are on Astra 2D, and Madrid is well outside the official footprint for this satellite. I am currently using a Pace 2600 Sky Box with a 1.8 metre dish to pick these up, and this works well most of the time.

My first question is: Which of the two cards will do a better job of picking up these channels, given my location?

Also, the Skystar 1 appears to have some kind of "loop-through" for the antenna - does this mean I can plug the cable from the LNB into the card and take a line out again to the Sky Box? And if so, would such a setup affect the Sky Box in terms of channels received or reception quality?

Paddy Harben

 

[BGonaSTICK]

I understand that both cards are virtually identical (Nexus based on SS1) and that neither have very sensitive tuners AFAIK.

Quite happy to be corrected on that suggestion though.

Loopthrough may only allow your digibox to see 'a quarter' of the channels, due to polarity and band switching occuring on the PCI card. Not sure if the SS1 has loopthrough, and the Technisat site is down ATM (again ).

My advice would be to check out one of the specialist sites for 2D reception, and ask if anyone uses PCI cards in your location.

STICK

 

[Satslut]

I am about to buy a new PC and will be fitting it with a TV tuner card for FTA satellite TV.

My impression from browsing previous postings on this forum is that the Skystar and Hauppage cards are the best for this. As I want the card to have onboard decoding and need a TV-out, I assume my choice is between the Skystar 1 and Nexus-S cards.

The important thing will be the sensitivity of the tuner when dealing with fringe reception conditions, as I will be using the card to get the BBC's digital TV and radio channels in Madrid, Spain. These channels are on Astra 2D, and Madrid is well outside the official footprint for this satellite. I am currently using a Pace 2600 Sky Box with a 1.8 metre dish to pick these up, and this works well most of the time.

My first question is: Which of the two cards will do a better job of picking up these channels, given my location?

Also, the Skystar 1 appears to have some kind of "loop-through" for the antenna - does this mean I can plug the cable from the LNB into the card and take a line out again to the Sky Box? And if so, would such a setup affect the Sky Box in terms of channels received or reception quality?

Paddy Harben

I am further out of the footprint living hear in the balearics, but I use an SS2 with only a small dish and I get BBC up until 7pm with no problems. But to prove the case I get no more or no less viewing time when I view via my Force or technomate boxes than I do my SS2.
As for the loop through, I wouldn't bother, all sorts of problems occur with Sky digiboxes here in weak signal areas, a twin LNB is a much better way.

 

[paddyharben]

Thanks for the advice. Am I right in thinking that the SS1 and SS2 use the same tuner?

I am further out of the footprint living hear in the balearics, but I use an SS2 with only a small dish and I get BBC up until 7pm with no problems. But to prove the case I get no more or no less viewing time when I view via my Force or technomate boxes than I do my SS2.
As for the loop through, I wouldn't bother, all sorts of problems occur with Sky digiboxes here in weak signal areas, a twin LNB is a much better way.

 

[paddyharben]

Thanks. I'll try a posting to the Fringe Reception forum.

I understand that both cards are virtually identical (Nexus based on SS1) and that neither have very sensitive tuners AFAIK.

Quite happy to be corrected on that suggestion though.

Loopthrough may only allow your digibox to see 'a quarter' of the channels, due to polarity and band switching occuring on the PCI card. Not sure if the SS1 has loopthrough, and the Technisat site is down ATM (again ).

My advice would be to check out one of the specialist sites for 2D reception, and ask if anyone uses PCI cards in your location.

STICK