external tv tuner...?

[Maggi]

Originally posted by VJ
Ok, thanks!
(I can't see the outputs for the A/V, which is why I asekd) Are the same outputs still present on the Hauppauge cards ? Is building your own outputs hard, or do you just have to connect certain pins to certain cables ?

1.) yes

http://www.hauppauge.com/html/dvb_s.htm

2.) just connecting pins to pins, ie. a little soldering to make either an outlet with RCA jacks or a SCART connector

http://www2.arnes.si/~mthale1/rgb.html

Well, Belgium is quite densily cabled, and there are not that many digital stations as of yet (or they are pay-channels). There is some talk about digital coming this way, but I don't see it happening in the first couple of years.

hmm ... on Astra satelite there are quite a few hundreds TV and radio stations and all you'd need is a satelite dish and an apropriate LNC (good ones cost ~200 € here in Germany)

no option to go satelite ?

Well, it turns out to be a problem here, as several pay TV channels have encrypted their audio. So while you - of course still theoretically - are able to decode the video-signal, decoding the audio-channel often is not possible... But euhm, still theoretically, doesn't that require a card with the Booktree chipset ? Or do these use a booktree chipset ?

all that is about analog broadcasting only ... digital is a completely different story and my own scientific research revealed that both TV and radio are no problem on the digital side ...

[VJ]

Originally posted by Maggi
1.) yes

http://www.hauppauge.com/html/dvb_s.htm

2.) just connecting pins to pins, ie. a little soldering to make either an outlet with RCA jacks or a SCART connector

http://www2.arnes.si/~mthale1/rgb.html

Hmm, that soldering is well within my range / daring . Well, all this digital stuff is new to me... Is it still possible to use these cards as analogue tuners ? Or is this only possible with the WinTV-DVB-s, but not with WinTV-Nexus_s ? I know certain stations here are digitally broadcasted on cable (Hallmark), and Canal+ (encrypted). But without satelite dish, the number of stations I'd gain would be minimal...

hmm ... on Astra satelite there are quite a few hundreds TV and radio stations and all you'd need is a satelite dish and an apropriate LNC (good ones cost ~200 € here in Germany)

no option to go satelite ?

Nope, multiple reasons (most important: small appartment, no ability to place an antenna; but I'm also not ready to invest in it yet - perhaps I fail to see the upside, as we have 31 stations on cable now).

all that is about analog broadcasting only ... digital is a completely different story and my own scientific research revealed that both TV and radio are no problem on the digital side ... [/B]

Do you need that strange cardreader-card ? Or just special software or so ? (just curious, this is the first I hear about this... )


Jörg

[Maggi]

Originally posted by VJ
Hmm, that soldering is well within my range / daring . Well, all this digital stuff is new to me... Is it still possible to use these cards as analogue tuners ? Or is this only possible with the WinTV-DVB-s, but not with WinTV-Nexus_s ?

the Nexus is just a new revision of the DVB-s series

I know certain stations here are digitally broadcasted on cable (Hallmark), and Canal+ (encrypted). But without satelite dish, the number of stations I'd gain would be minimal...

for that you'd need the DVB-c card ...

Nope, multiple reasons (most important: small appartment, no ability to place an antenna; but I'm also not ready to invest in it yet - perhaps I fail to see the upside, as we have 31 stations on cable now).

hehe ... 31 vs. a few hundreds ...

but I fully understand that you don't really have an option to setup your own dish, but if you do, you'll never go back to analog ... plus: you get a digital VCR for free (your harddisk)

Do you need that strange cardreader-card ? Or just special software or so ? (just curious, this is the first I hear about this... )

Jörg

the days when you had to shell out extra 500,- € for CI and CAM are over ... right now it's just a zip file that contains a complete and free TV app, all needed "extras" and it fits on a single floppy disk ...

[VJ]

Originally posted by Maggi
for that you'd need the DVB-c card ...

The "that", is that referring to my digital-channels-on-cable-question ? I can't seem to find such a card on the Hauppauge site...
(hmm, Hauppauge doesn't have one of the easiest websites)

hehe ... 31 vs. a few hundreds ...

Myes... But I am quite pleased with a number of those 31 channels (often good movies/series to watch)...

the days when you had to shell out extra 500,- € for CI and CAM are over ... right now it's just a zip file that contains a complete and free TV app, all needed "extras" and it fits on a single floppy disk ... [/B]

Hmm, if I were to want to research further on this, any idea where I might have to look ?

Jörg

[Maggi]

Originally posted by VJ
The "that", is that referring to my digital-channels-on-cable-question ? I can't seem to find such a card on the Hauppauge site...
(hmm, Hauppauge doesn't have one of the easiest websites)

yup, "that's" what I meant ...

http://www.hauppauge.de/prod_dvb-c.htm

it's the only reference that I found and it's in German, since we are living in the EU, it shouldn't be a problem to get one of those on your end.

Hmm, if I were to want to research further on this, any idea where I might have to look ?

Jörg

http://www.happyuc3.net.tc/

and I'd recommend MultiDec + SoftCI ...

[Nowhere]

Maggi, what about such simple (and, most important, cheap ) card like this one?
Does it (apart from MPEG2 decoding, but that's not a problem with 1+GHz cpu I guess...) have all capabilities of more sophisticated models, can act as vcr and also has those theoretical possibilities?

and btw, how much does it cost in Germany? (~90 € here...still at least 2 times less than the other)

[VJ]

Originally posted by Nowhere
Maggi, what about such simple (and, most important, cheap ) card like this one?
Does it (apart from MPEG2 decoding, but that's not a problem with 1+GHz cpu I guess...) have all capabilities of more sophisticated models, can act as vcr and also has those theoretical possibilities?

I think Maggi pointed me towards those cards, as I was looking for some external tuner thingy; the cards he showed all have a video out signal (making them usefull for my purpose)...


Jörg

[Nowhere]

But since the thread drifted to dvb cards, why can't I ask about the card from my link?

[VJ]

Oh, sorry, I didn't mean it like that...
Ask away !


Jörg

[Maggi]

Originally posted by Nowhere
Maggi, what about such simple (and, most important, cheap ) card like this one?
Does it (apart from MPEG2 decoding, but that's not a problem with 1+GHz cpu I guess...) have all capabilities of more sophisticated models, can act as vcr and also has those theoretical possibilities?

and btw, how much does it cost in Germany? (~90 € here...still at least 2 times less than the other)

Hi Nowhere,

from the picture it looks as if that card doesn't have any external connectors and not even an internal one for making your own outlet and hence you would probably have a hard time using this card for any other purpose than watching on your PC only.

I guess that makes up the difference in price and further I have no idea about its theoretical capabilities.

TVout through DVD Max is not nearly as good as the built-in TVout on my DVB-s, so maybe that's not a good fallback option for you as well.

Hope that helps ...