Moving from the US to Ireland

[tony_park]

Hi,

the setup, from a UK perspective, is that you have your pc with your DVB-S/2 tuners, and a separate STB which holds the viewing card, provides the decryption keys and keeps entitlements upto date.

On the media pc, you install MC (or other popular media center software), dvblogic's TV Source and configure for the plugins to receive the key details from the STB.

There are more details on here

A brief overview of the setup: http://www.avforums.com/forums/17815285-post159.html

or an older guide (some bits have changed, but the fundamentals are still the same): http://www.richardcollins.net/etc_media ... _htpc.html

HTH

[sshirley]

the setup, from a UK perspective, is that you have your pc with your DVB-S/2 tuners, and a separate STB which holds the viewing card, provides the decryption keys and keeps entitlements upto date.

But if you have a CI module for your tuner card, you don't need a separate STB, correct?

[holidayboy]

afaik there are no CI modules that will work with Sky and Media Center, I think there may have been some in the past though (Technotrend?), Tony will probably be able to put us straight there.

You need the Dreambox type stb in order to refresh the viewing card entitlements via the satellite feed (which is what happens when you use Sky with the official stb), as well as to share those entitlements with DVBLink over the LAN.

If the entitlements are not refreshed then the encrypted channels will eventually be unavailable and you would need to call customer services to get the card set up again (once you put it back in the official Sky box).

This setup also has an advantage in that you can have as many tuners as you like, with only a single viewing card. Each tuner does need a separate cable drop from the dish however, though you can use quad, or octo LNB setups, or use a quatro LNB system.

I use this Dreambox setup in order to gain a few "free to view" channels over and above the Freesat ones, these channels require a valid Sky viewing card, but no monthly subscription.

[sshirley]

Mark1234 said to me that I am in for a shock when it comes to media centers outside the US. He was right! This seems ridiculously hard to do! Mind you, it wasn't always so easy here in the US either. In the last 4 years or so, CableCard devices became legal. All you have to do is rent a CableCard ($3/mo) instead of a STB ($15/mo), slap it in your tuner card, pair it, and you're off.

Ok, now I understand what the Dreambox is for. I'm guessing that I don't need the top of the line model as I am only really using it to decode the SmartCard, refresh the entitlements, and stream the video to my HTPC via DVBLink. If I understand correctly, DVBLink for Dreambox is software that provides connectivity for MCE to the Dreambox. I can use a quad-tuner card (i.e. http://www.tbsdtv.com/products/tbs6984- ... -card.html) and DVBLink with provide me with the decoding/decryption for those 4 tuners via the software connection to the Dreambox.

Is that correct?

[barnabas1969]

I think what sshirley is asking above is whether or not an HD DreamBox is required in order to receive the HD channels. That would be my question, anyway.

To rephrase: Can an older SD-only DreamBox be used to authenticate the HD channels in a setup with Media Center and a DVB-S2 tuner card?

[holidayboy]

You got it

The Dreambox keeps the viewing card alive and provides the decrypt keys to DVBLink, the PC tuner cards actually receive the dvb-s(2) streams that Media Center then saves to disk.

To further complicate matters, there is a DVBLink program that will let you use the Dreambox's internal tuner in Media Center!

I have the dm500s unit and it struggles to keep up with that though so I use it purely for viewing card duties.

[sshirley]

The Dreambox keeps the viewing card alive and provides the decrypt keys to DVBLink, the PC tuner cards actually receive the dvb-s(2) streams that Media Center then saves to disk.

So I was reading the MediaPortal forums (as I'd be open to trying that too) and they mentioned a system that would bypass the Dreambox option. It's a SmartCard reader from Infinity (http://bit.ly/17JZEyz). That could be an option as well.

To further complicate matters, there is a DVBLink program that will let you use the Dreambox's internal tuner in Media Center!

Really? So no read need for a tuner card? Neat!

I have the dm500s unit and it struggles to keep up with that though so I use it purely for viewing card duties.

Nice. So a mid-range unit would be better then. Ok.

[barnabas1969]

I have the dm500s unit and it struggles to keep up with that though so I use it purely for viewing card duties.

So, does that mean that the dm500s allows you to receive the HD channels on your DVB-S2 tuners? If so, then this seems like the least expensive route.

[holidayboy]

I think what sshirley is asking above is whether or not an HD DreamBox is required in order to receive the HD channels. That would be my question, anyway.

To rephrase: Can an older SD-only DreamBox be used to authenticate the HD channels in a setup with Media Center and a DVB-S2 tuner card?

Good question, no you don't need an HD Dreambox in order to decrypt HD channels.

You do need an HD Sky box though (I think) in order to get the Dreambox set up for HD channel entitlements.

Part of the process in getting things set up is to enter the Sky stb serial number- which is needed for the entitlements to be refreshed.

I'd guess that an SD Sky box serial would only give you SD entitlements. Tony, or others, would have more knowledge there as I only get SD channels via the Sky ftv entitlements.

[bobbob]

you can also use the card reader solution which eliminates the need for the dreambox and the loss of that feed. its not stable enough for me though and everyone on AVSforums seems to have gone back to the dreambox in time. i have an octolnb. i would also debate the difficulty of dvblink

edit octolnb plus paying the guy to run 8 cables 10m cost me about £300 4 years ago

[NWW]

you can also use the card reader solution which eliminates the need for the dreambox and the loss of that feed. its not stable enough for me though and everyone on AVSforums seems to have gone back to the dreambox in time. i have an octolnb. i would also debate the difficulty of dvblink

edit octolnb plus paying the guy to run 8 cables 10m cost me about £300 4 years ago

Was about to post just that. I'm using a smart card reader on my HTPC with a TNTSAT card (which will soon be obselete, damn you Canalsat) for a setup just like that.So all cables go to my PC. No need for a dreambox.

(Dish + 4 octo lnbs + 100 F connectors + 8 4x1 diseqc + 100M coax cost me 215€ last june. Thank you, Germany.)

[barnabas1969]

Wow, £300 is a lot of money for what bobbob has.

NWW, are you saying that you have FOUR octo LNB's? Are they mounted on separate dishes and aimed at different satellites?

[NWW]

Wow, £300 is a lot of money for what bobbob has.

NWW, are you saying that you have FOUR octo LNB's? Are they mounted on separate dishes and aimed at different satellites?

To be more accurate, 3 octos and one quad. All on the same dish using a bracket and a wide enough dish to be able to receive the 4 satellites I'm pointing at which are:

9°E: This is the quad, I'm only interested in TF1 HD and M6 HD on here, reason why I didn't put an octo here.
13°E: Hotbird, one of the two major locations in Europe. Italian, Greek, Swiss channels, and a lot of arab also.
19.2°E: The second major location. Used by Belgium, France, Germany (most of which are FTA in HD), Spain
28.2°E: My favorite, home of Freesat and Sky.

I can link my entire channel list that I had on another forum if you'd like, with the matching satellite.

[tony_park]

Hi guys

sorry, not been checking on the thread recently.

At our house, we have an oversized satellite dish installed, with octo lnb, 4 feeds into the lounge, and 2 into the study. I installed the dish myself, with the help of a borrowed satellite finder, from the brother in law. Signal on my dish rarely drops below 90%, and quality tends to be around 95%.

In the lounge we have the media pc, with 4 tuners, and in the study, just the technomate box with its feed. The extra is in the study in case I decide to install a sat tuner on my laptop.

In the kitchen, we have an all in one pc, which is setup with the dvbdream software for live tv, although I am considering installing the dvblogic client software on it, just haven't got round to it, as the pc doesn't have keyboard and mouse attached, so I haven't really done much with that pc - it tends to get used for watching recorded tv.

The technomate stb doesn't need to be an HD version, it can be a standard def, its literally just used for the decryption codes and to ensure the entitlements are kept up to date. On the STB, I've installed OSCam which handles these duties admirably.

There is a card reader solution, but I always found it to be hit and miss whether it was going to work... and I could guarantee the weekends it wouldn't be working, would be the weekends we were away from home, so we went for the more stable route. The card reader I was using, is the omnikey 3121, cost about £10 from ebay. OSCam then needed to be installed on the host pc. This saved the extra cable feed from the satellite, but due to stability issues, we sold our card reader on.

HTH
Tony

[barnabas1969]

That's great info, Tony. Is any particular model of Technomate receiver required in order to install OSCam on the STB?

[tony_park]

Hi,

can't vouch for other models, but I use the TM500s Super (one of the cheapest). Unlike the DB500s, this is not a clone, and as such, there are forums for support - not that I've ever needed it.

I would have thought any STBs that can install plugins (running open linux) would be compatible, a quick search on any models that interest, should confirm whether its possible or not.

HTH
Tony

[barnabas1969]

I looked on the OSCam website, and it has a list of supported devices, but it doesn't list any Technomate ones. I saw one retailer on the web that sells the TM500S Super for less than 99GBP with free shipping to anywhere in mainland UK.

I'm not planning to do this, but thought these questions might help the OP. It's a really cool thing that you (in Europe) are able to do with these satellite boxes. If it was possible to do something similar here in the USA, I might actually consider it as a possibility. However, our only options in the US are FTA satellite (which doesn't have many channels here besides a plethora of religious programming and a few others like RetroTV) or to use multiple satellite STB's connected to Hauppauge HD-PVR's or Colossus cards. The problem with that, besides the mess of wires and boxes, is that each additional STB causes the monthly subscription price to go up.

[NWW]

But you really don't want to know what kind of mess it is.

Between making sure all the hardware is working correctly, having to source alternate guides because MS EPG isn't complete, DVBlogic, Sky's constant channel reshuffling... It really isn't plug and play. But once you do set it up, it's streets ahead!

[barnabas1969]

You would think that, since DVB-S, DVB-T, and DVB-C are so similar, Microsoft would have included DVB-C support (with support for CI modules) in Media Center, wouldn't you?

EDIT: Do you think it's possible for the people at DVBLogic to create a "virtual" tuner that can access the content on a DVB-C tuner card and present it to Media Center? Or, is there more at play here than that?

[barnabas1969]

Hmmm... go read the post at the link below. This makes it sound simple to use the TBS6680 as a dual DVB-C tuner in Media Center. It appears that it requires two CI modules (and two coax inputs) though, so I imagine you would still be charged for two CI modules and the subscription that goes with them, but it would eliminate the wires and boxes at least.

http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=8126

Is it not this simple?