[JohnnySSH]

Hi,

I'm not sure where to put this but as it's sort of hardware related I guess I'm gona just take a chance and ask it here....


I'd personally like to aggregate my TV and Satellite set-top box into XBMC.

My thought was to grab a Hauppauge hybrid TV/Satellite card: http://hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_hvr4400.html

and get rid of the set-top satellite box completely.


I'm struggling to understand though if it's possible to be able to do this as I have a paid subscription on the satellite and a specific Sat company decoder card - the tuner is also from the company too (though I don't think that matters too much).

Is it possible to run a setup like that using the proper card reader? It's a credit card size card with a PCMCIA adapter.

My XBMC setup runs Arch Linux so I know for definite that the TV portion will work but I'm just concerned over the satellite....??

Or would it be better using some kind of card with a TV tuner and SCART/Composite RCA inputs or separate RCA input , as in something like the Hauppauge USB-Live-2:

http://hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_usblive2.html


Would anyone have ideas?


Thanks.

[noggin]

If your satellite provider provides you with both a CAM (Conditional Access Module) which is a bit like a PC/PCMCI module AND a viewing card which slots in, then you can buy PCI-E or USB tuners with support for CAMs and cards (the CAM slots into a "CI Slot"). There are sometimes also solutions that don't need the CAM (as it can be emulated in software) and instead just need a Smart Card reader. (Tuners without CI slots are lower cost)

I'm not sure how well supported the CAMs are in Linux - but they are well supported in Windows applications like DVB Viewer. (I used to use one for Conax broadcasts)

Entirely possible - but possibly not for a beginner.

[JohnnySSH]

Aaaah the CAM module that's what it was.... sorry not really that familiar with TV based satellite systems.

Just a quick Google and found this:

http://www.amazon.com/Internal-Satellite...B005XXGWL0

which yes is a bit pricey but seems to support Linux and XBMC.

I guess I just need to search around, and perhaps augment it with a simple 32bit PCI TV tuner card?

[noggin]

You need to do a lot of research before buying. AIUI TBS linux drivers are a pain - and based on an old kernel. OpenElec support is an issue for instance.

Also not only do you need driver support, you may also need software support for the CAM. I used DVB Viewer in Windows and it allowed me to access the menu in my CAM (which was needed in some situations) When I ran a CAM-based solution (quite a few years ago now) I used a FireDTV DVB-S2 Firewire system with a CI slot. This worked really well - but FIreware (and Digital Everywhere who made the FireDTV boxes) have gone the way of all things.

This isn't at all straightforward. It is possible - but you can never do enough research!

[JohnnySSH]

Thanks for the responses.

I'm just kind of beginning in my quest so I totally agree with your statement about doing research.

Currently just checking over the Wiki at: http://linuxtv.org/

I will also need to figure out how to integrate the system whether it be simple DVB-T or DVB-S/S2 into XBMC; perhaps by using a MythTV backend... again will need to research it.


Since XBMC is basically the only graphical interface that the system runs I will need 100% integration, perhaps it might even be worthwhile to build a backend server for TV streaming only?? Since all of my content is run over the network anyway it wouldn't be a problem.


Again will need to study up more :-)

[noggin]

I've used TV Headend quite a lot recently for DVB-T/T2 both on the same machine and with separate back-end/front-end - but this was all for FTA unencrypted stuff so no CAMs to worry about. No idea how TV Headend copes with CAMs.

MythTV has a lot of support and I'm sure you'll find a lot of supporting information about it. I've never really got on with it - but that was more a front-end rather than a back-end thing for me.

I'd also do a lot of googling specific to your TV platform - always good to find someone who has already done what you want to. There's a lot of support for the Scandinavian platforms for instance.

[JohnnySSH]

Thanks again. I think it would be a good idea to see if anyone else has done something similar. Wish it was as simple as plug n play though, but point of being an engineer is loving to back stuff out :-)

[mr3p]

Get one of these

http://www.titaniumsatellite.com/amiko_a3