Please officially support at least 1 DVB PCI card for Satellite TV

[Cytomax]

Hello all i am pretty new to this and dont know how hard it would be to implement but i was just wondering if it would be possible to officially support at least 1 DVB PCI card for Satellite TV.  I know you guys support a ton of cable tv pci cards which is great but all we satellite users just need for you guys to please support one satellite card.  Again i dont really know how hard this is and maybe you already have supported but according to wiki all i see is stuff for cable tv. 
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Category:Hardware
Thanks in Advance
Eddie

[Hagen]

Any Hauppage DVB-S should be supported.

[Cytomax]

Thank you for the reply...
I will look into the Hauppage DVB-S.
I was also told that the Skystar 2 DVB-S Satellite Receiver PCI works pretty well with LinuxMCE

I was just kinda wondering why this isn't "Officially" supported by putting it on the wiki?
There must be some kinda of test that this hardware has to pass to be able to be put on the wiki and im guessing it has not passed this yet?

Thanks in Advance
Eddie

[rafik24]

 Hi guys,

Any DVB-S pci card will work as lon as it is supported by the kernel, mythtv detects all available dvb
devices it's great for that.

[Cytomax]

I guess its my OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) or something i just like it to be "official" before i try it but i guess if you guys say it supported anyways then its ok...it just leaves me wondering why... but i guess thats not important as long as it works
Thanks again
Eddie

[Hagen]

The reason it's not in the Wiki is because everyone that has actually tried it and gotten it to work can't be bothered to put it in the Wiki (in the words of Zaerc)

[Cytomax]

lol.. i guess you have a point there.. i thought that maybe hardware had to pass some sort of test and only the mods could edit the hardware section of the wiki... i guess not
Thanks
Eddie

[rafik24]

 I promissed to learn about wiki in order to put a tuto on dvb card,

i did so but messed up the Category:Hardware page. Sorry guys,
i did not know how to revert to the last version (Zaerc i'm sorry)
did not do that on purse (and this is mainly why i did not want to use the wiki)

however here is the tuto, please let me know if you think any changes are needed

== Description of DVB Cards:==

LMCE uses mythtv as media player and some people use DVB cards as input in Mythtv.
(I will write a tuto for vdr if i manage to put my hands on vdr wrappers.)

There are different types of DVB cards they differ in the kind of signal / band / compression algorythms and some have mpeg decoders that allow the card to process all the video so the processor is free to do the rest on your host.

- The DVB-S cards are used to receive satellite signals K Band / PSK QPSK 8PSK etc...
- The DVB-T cards are used to receive terestrial signals VHF/UHF
- The DVB-C cards are used to receive coaxial cable tv

Those cards should work with lmce as long as they are supported by the Linux kernel.

First check dmesg | grep dvb should tell you if the card is seen properly and also tell you wich device the card uses (/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0 and so forth.)
 
In order to use the card you will need to scan for channels.

To do so you will need to install dvb-utils packages:

sudo apt-get install dvb-utils

sudo scan /usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/examples/scan/dvb-s/Astra-19.2 >channels.conf

If you dont want any radio or encrypted channels:

sudo scan /usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/examples/scan/dvb-s/Astra-19.2 -x0 -t1 >channels.conf

If you are getting to few channels:

sudo scan /usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/examples/scan/dvb-s/Astra-19.2 -x0 -t1 -n >channels.conf


Hint: if you can't get any signal lock try to get the frequencies looking on your tv or satellite receiver then input them in the /usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/../..........

You can even make your own file copying the model in the dvb-x category.

Once you have populated the channels.conf file you can setup mythtv tu use your card
(mythtv will tell you if it sees the DVB card)

Then in the channel scan section use the channels.conf method and put the path to your file.

If mythtv finishes the scan then finish the setup and fire up your MD to watch tv.

Best Regards,

Rafik Boulellou

[Hagen]

The Wiki hasn't been the most including place either recently. So I just post in the discussions, and Trout will do with the info whatever he wants, atleast the info is there, but it requires some digging (and a registered user...)

[Cytomax]

are you talking to me or rafik24?
Eddie

[Hagen]

are you talking to me or rafik24?
Eddie

yes...  both, I guess

[Cytomax]

So what your saying is that the wiki just hasnt been updated yet and if it where updated it would include some dvb pci cards for satellite tv?
Eddie

[Hagen]

Not entirely, the Wiki is constantly updated.
It's just that instead of being blamed for ruining pages or not following the 'approved setup', it's easier not to enter any info at all, or just putting it into the discussion pages. That way the guy that knows how the Wiki must look can put it in there as he sees fit.
I don't think I will ever dare to enter any real info on a public page there.
As Rafik learned when trying.

[Zaerc]

The wiki will not include any info on anything unless someone actually bothers to add it.  Personally I do not own any PCI DVB-S cards, so I doubt I will be the one to add information on that any time soon.

I have put Rafik's information on a new (seperate) page here: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/DVB I hope that helps a bit.

And I'm sorry to hear that Hagen, that's exactly what I was affraid of when the wiki "admins" started to enforce policies they were making up as they went along to justify pushing actual contributors around.  To be perfectly honest it has kept me from adding more information as well.  Nobody needs that kind of hassle.

[Cytomax]

Well thats just silly.. maybe they could open up a part of the forum for people to post things to be put up on the wiki.. that way the admins know what people want on the wiki....?