DirectTV on your computer?

[mdeven]

Only with the capture card....
Mark

[JT]

I have recently upgraded to recordable DVD on my computer, and am wanting to learn how to use a capture card to transfer DTV to DVD. What programs would you recomend to do this and what capture card would you recomend? Thanks for any help. JT

[mdeven]

Jack, I wouldn't begin to try and suggest a card.... I think ASI makes the one I have.... It's a cheap one and the video quality isn't great.... I basically got it so I could monitor the stream while I did this stuff.... It would allow me to capture video from one source, convert it and burn it to a DVD (or VCD)....
As far as software, I like EZ DVD Maker.... You can get it at www.ezdvdmaker.com
Mark

[lefty]

I use an ATI Rage Pro All in Wonder to do this. Works best in WinME, as it won't record in XP for some reason. I have yet to write anything to a DVD.

:cool:

[normsbro]

isn't there a hack for the series 1 tivo's which will allow you to put in a larger hard drive and a ethernet port so you can transfer your stored video to your pc on a network?

[d_o_geezer]

I'm not really sure if you can get DTV, but I know you can get Dish with a DVB card that you install in your computer. It will allow you record anything you recieve. Most of the DVB cards I have seen don't have a slot for a smart card, but I have seen them with a slot.

[borg1]

DVB is a satellite transmission standard, and the one used by DishNetwork.
DSS is the proprietary transmission format used by DirectTV.

You can receive DishNetwork with a PCI DVB card but no one at the present makes a DSS card.

A soft CAM is floating around on the internet for DishNetwork which makes a smartcard unnecessary, so no need for worry if the PCI card has no smartcard slot.

I understand the PVR built into some cards will allow recording of up to 3 programs at once since it is working with the transport stream.

[JT]

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

This is the one I think I'm going to get. It's a little more expensive because it does a lot of the compression on board the card. I am thinking this will let me use my old PII333 system as a dedicated video capture system. Opinions please.

[mdeven]

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

This is the one I think I'm going to get. It's a little more expensive because it does a lot of the compression on board the card. I am thinking this will let me use my old PII333 system as a dedicated video capture system. Opinions please.
JT,
While it is a little pricey, it looks like a good unit.... Hell, I might have to start savin' up my lunch money :p
Mark

[JT]

I talked to a friend of mine who does video editing for the local U, he suggested the Hauppauge cards. I've never heard of them, but he says they are the best he knows of for video capture. The card actually says that it wants a minimum of 450mhz processor, so I'm heading into the U's surplus sale today to see if I can pick up a used processor, MB and memory. I bet I can get it all for about $50 from surplus. A 450mhz PII is not much of a mchine by todays standards. Hauppauge also had DBS receiver cards and the (I'm not going to get this acronym right, but...)ATSCI receiver cards for your computer. It is my understanding that neither of the two digital receiver cards they sell will receive DSS. If you have another minute, could you please verify that? Thanks for your help.

JT

DTV to DVD here we go...

[borg1]

For the price they are asking for a TV Tuner, you might consider adding a few dollars and getting their Nexus DVB card and explore a whole new world in sat TV.

I checked last weekend, and the only difference between Dave and Dish PPV was Dish did not have 'Pirates of the Caribbean' released yet.

Not only that, but you will have a built-in insurance policy when Dave decides to kill the HU stream, until something for the P4 is released.

If you do not want to go the DVB route, check the hardware reviews at VCDHelp or DVRHelp. They have user ratings of all the capture cards including the Hauppauge.
If they mention loss of A/V sync, look at the Canopus ADVC100. You will need to provide the MPEG conversion, though.

I removed a Radeon AIW because I thought it was causing a blue screen problem (it was not) and replaced it with a $50 Pixelview XCapture. The Pixelview does at least as well a job of video capture, but I want to capture raw MPEG off the transport stream, and a DVB card will do that. None of this MPEG-analog-MPEG conversion; I want the original MPEG written directly from the transport stream to my harddrive. I bought the SkyStar2 card, but I have an old Athlon XP1800 I can put in the video box.

And no, the Nexus and the Nova cards are DVB (a transport format) cards, and neither will receive DSS (a propriatary format used only by Dave).

[JT]

Ok, borg, you convinced me to at least look into this further. What does it take to receive Dish Net using a DBS card. It sounds like all you need is the DBS card. Either way, I'm going to get the PVR and hook a DTV receiver to it. The PVR is not a receiver of any kind, it just records (capture only). I think the DBS card is a receiver card only (no video capture) Why can't I just get a DBS receiver card, and then have both DTV and Dish net recordable to DVD using my puter? You need a little over a gig/min for uncompressed video storage....at least that is what I was told. I also was not overly impressed with the ATI all in wonder. My video card is already at least as good, and they just put too many bells and whistles on that thing. The jack of all trades is the master of none.

Here is my basic question that I haven't even tried to answer myself: The DBS card is a cam-less system. How do you use it to receive Dish Net programming? Can you just plug it in and it works? It seems like I should have to run some sort of decription software at the same time. Or, are you saying is all I need is a copy of that 'soft cam'. How do I use the soft cam if that's all I need, and where do I get it? General answers are fine at this point. Thanks for the suggestion borg. If I'm gonna do it, I may as well go all out. Will this card work for this purpose?

http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/html/wintv-d.pdf

[borg1]

JT,

We will be in the same boat. I plan to install my DVB card in the same system which has the capture card. The first difference is the DirectTV receiver's s-video out is connected to the capture card. The DirectTV audio out is connected to the sound card line-in.
For DishNetwork, the dish connects directly to the DVB card; the card IS the receiver.

I am not certain what you are referring to as a DBS card, and the ATSC card referenced in the link provided will not work for Dish or Dave. I suspect the ATSC standard will progress along with HDTV, which probably means you will have limited programming in the early years. Think of it like VHS and Betamax, where the rest of the world already uses VHS and we just came out with Betamax, courtesy of General Instruments (now Motorola).
However, since we have all the money, we might make it stick this time. (Sorry for the techno-sarcasm)

Here is a line from the FAQ for the WinTV-D card:
"Since digital television in the US is available only by terrestrial broadcast, you will need an antenna".
Probably not what you are looking for.

You are correct that the DVB cards do not do video capture. They capture the entire transport stream, and the PVR function built into their circuitry will seperate an individual program stream and write it AS RECEIVED IN RAW MPEG onto the harddrive.

Currently, DVB cards are available from Hauppauge (Nexus and Nova), Technisat (SkyStar2 and the older SkyStar1), VisionPlus (Twinhan 1020 and 1030), and Broadlogic (forgot the model numbers but they are sometimes available on eBay CHEAP).

Here is a post I found at a DVB site which I will use for preliminary setup. All credit is given to the author.





How to get your DVB up and running quickly on BEV and/or Dish.
This is a short guide to get your DVB up and running on the Nimiq satellite at 91°W and/or the Echostar Satellite at 119°W.

Hardware
PIII 1120Mhz 512MEG RAM Asus Intel 815 Chipset
ATI Radeon 7500AIW
Audigy SoundBlaster
VP-1020 DVB Card
10/100 Network Card
80 Gig 7200RPM HardDisk
DVD CD/RW Combo Drive
Logitec Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Video Monitor 27" JVC D Series

Software
Windows XP Pro
DirectX 9
MyTheater 2.76
MDYankse-1-06.2-TT
SoftCam.Key (Current)


First off - The computer this is running on I consider one of my junkers, It was basically built from spare parts and the only thing it does is function as a PVR/Entertainment unit. It will function as a PVR, Satellite Receiver, MP3 Player, or DVD player beautifully but only doing one thing at a time.

The video displayed on the 27" TV usually is almost as good a quality as the satellite receivers I currently own, depending on the station being watched.

I am going to assume that you already have the DVB Card installed and that the drivers are also installed.

Step 1: Check and see if you have any other DVB Software currently installed on your computer if you do uninstall it (some programs load into memory at startup and can conflict with your DVB Card IE: WinDVB)

Step 2: Install MyTheater 2.76 (Install everything, make sure all the boxes are checked) when it asks you if you want an interlaced or de-interlaced picture select interlaced, the next thing that you will have to answer is about audio output, select 2 speaker output, you can change it later. Once MyTheater is installed you can upgrade the Yankse package by unzipping the file to a location of your choice. Once you have unzipped the file find the following two files Yankse.dll and Yankse.ini you will have to copy these files to C:\Program Files\MyTheatre\MDPlugins, or to wherever you installed MyTheater. The next thing you need is the SoftCam.Key file, copy it to the same directory as you copied Yankse to.
Note: Check the contents of the SoftCam.key file by viewing it with notepad, make sure that it has the nagravision keys in it some copies of SoftCam do not have them.

Step 3: Turn off your computer and connect your LNB directly to the DVB card, DO NOT use a diseqc switch yet we will set that up later. Restart your computer.

Step 4: Start MyTheater, It should start up without any errors, if you get a DVB card failure or a directshow failure refer to step 1. Once MyTheater has started move your cursor over to the video portion of the screen and right click, this will bring up a menu, click on general settings, this will bring up a window where you can set general program options, I advise turning off the Timeshift feature until everything has been set up and is running
correctly, Do so by clicking on the Timeshift Tab and de-selecting the Enable Timeshift CheckBox (Box is empty). Close the General settings window.

Step 5: Right click on the video screen and select LNB Settings.This brings up a Window showing all your available satellites and their transponders.

Generally I delete all of the satellites, what you do is up to you, but personaly I like only the satellites I am interested in being listed, it makes it a lot easier to find what you are looking for.

Step 6: Copy and Paste the following into notepad, save it as Nimiq91.ini, you can do this without closing MyTheater.
----------------------------------------------------Cut------------------------------------------------------------
[SATTYPE]
1=91
2=Nimiq 1 (ExpressVU)
[DVB]
0=31
1=12224000,V,20000000,1,100,81
2=12239000,H,20000000,2,60,62
3=12253000,V,20000000,3,100,81
4=12282000,V,20000000,5,80,75
5=12297000,H,20000000,6,60,60
6=12311000,V,20000000,7,100,81
7=12326000,H,20000000,8,60,63
8=12341000,V,20000000,9,80,81
9=12355000,H,20000000,10,60,62
10=12370000,V,20000000,11,100,81
11=12384000,H,20000000,12,60,63
12=12399000,V,20000000,13,100,80
13=12414000,H,20000000,14,60,56
14=12428000,V,20000000,15,100,82
15=12443000,H,20000000,16,60,68
16=12457000,V,20000000,17,80,75
17=12472000,H,20000000,18,60,62
18=12486000,V,20000000,19,100,81
19=12501000,H,20000000,20,80,68
20=12516000,V,20000000,21,80,76
21=12530000,H,20000000,22,60,62
22=12545000,V,20000000,23,80,81
23=12559000,H,20000000,24,80,69
24=12574000,V,20000000,25,80,79
25=12588000,H,20000000,26,60,62
26=12603000,V,20000000,27,100,81
27=12618000,H,20000000,28,80,69
28=12632000,V,20000000,29,80,81
29=12647000,H,20000000,30,60,62
30=12661000,V,20000000,31,80,79
31=12676000,H,20000000,32,80,69

----------------------------------------------------Cut------------------------------------------------------------

Step 7: In MyTheater on the Satellites window you will see some buttons one of them says Import press this button and browse to where you saved the Nimiq91.ini file, select this file and import it into MyTheater. You should now have a new satellite that says Nimiq 1 (ExpressVU) Highlight this satellite by clicking on it with your mouse. Right below the satellites box are 3 text boxes put 91 in the first box, leave the second box alone and in the third box select SIMPLE1 from the dropdown. Again at the bottom of the screen there is a button marked APPLY press this button to save your settings. In the next set of text boxes put 1125000 in the field LOF1, leave the second field SW at 0, and put 11250000 in the third field LOF2, you will have to type these numbers in manually to set them. When you hare entered these settings press the apply button to save your settings.
You are now ready to scan the satellite for channels. On the other side of the satellites windows you will see a list of available transponders, and below this you will see 3 Blue buttons press the one marked Sel All, this will highlight all the transponders for the satellite, now press the scan button. A new screen will pop up to show you the transponder being scanned and the results. on the Nimig 1 Satellite you should have 450+ Channels after the scan is done. Close the Scan window and then close the LNB Settings window. On the Right side of your screen under the channels list you should now have a new satellite listed (Nimiq91), In front of it is a + sign press it and you should see all your channels.

Step 8: Check for audio and video, select a channel that has a red dot beside it and double click on it within a few seconds you should start seeing and hearing your program, if you don't keep reading. If you don't get audio and video after a minute or so then something is wrong and while I can't troubleshoot everything here are the most common problems and how to solve them. First off right click on the video window and when the menu pops up check and see if the selection marked Video On/Off has a checkmark beside it, if it doesn't then click on it to turn it on. If you still don't have video try another channel and see if that works, some of the channels are HD and you can't receive them anyway. Next check to see which graph you are using, right click on the video menu and when the meny pops up move your mouse down to the Graphs menu and there will be anothe menu, the Graph that is being used will have a check mark beside it make sure the one that is for your OS has a check mark beside it. If you still aren't getting anything you probably have a key problem Right click on the video screen and go to the selection that says plugins select the MD API Wrapper and select it, this will bring up a window where you can check to see if your keys are valid. Across the top of the MD API Wrapper window are a set of menu choices, select the one that says Yankse, a menu will drop down, first of all make sure that the one marked ACTIVE has a check mark beside it.
Next click on the one that says show monitor a new screen will pop up and here we can check and see if our keyfile is valid. In the box marked Key there should be a set of numbers, if they aren't there you have an invalid keyfile, the box could also show an error message, no key, invalid key, etc.
If this is the case then get another keyfile and try again.

Step 9. Turn off your computer and disconnect the Nimiq LNB connect the LNB for DishNet. Restart your computer.
Copy and Paste the following into notepad, save it as EStar119.ini.

----------------------------------------------------Cut------------------------------------------------------------
[SATTYPE]
1=119
2=EStar 119
[DVB]

0=21
1=12224000,V,20000000,-1,0,1
2=12239000,H,20000000,2,100,91
3=12253000,V,20000000,-1,0,4
4=12268000,H,20000000,4,100,87
5=12282000,V,20000000,65,75,47
6=12297000,H,20000000,6,100,88
7=12311000,V,20000000,67,100,55
8=12326000,H,20000000,8,100,88
9=12341000,V,20000000,-1,0,4
10=12355000,H,20000000,10,100,90
11=12370000,V,20000000,11,100,90
12=12384000,H,20000000,12,100,87
13=12399000,V,20000000,13,100,83
14=12414000,H,20000000,14,100,88
15=12428000,V,20000000,15,100,85
16=12443000,H,20000000,16,100,86
17=12457000,V,20000000,17,100,81
18=12472000,H,20000000,18,100,90
19=12486000,V,20000000,19,100,85
20=12501000,H,20000000,20,100,86
21=12516000,V,20000000,21,100,86

----------------------------------------------------Cut------------------------------------------------------------

Follow exactly the same procedure as you did in Step 7 and scan the satellite
You should find 300+ channels
Check to see if they are being decoded properly the same way you did in step 8 if they are the you can go to the next step and hook up your diseqc switch.

Step 10: Turn off your computer and disconnect the LNB cable. Connect a piece of cable between the terminal marked receiver of the diseqc switch and the LNB Input of your DVBCard, Connect the Nimiq91 cable to the LNB1 terminal of the diseqc switch, then Connect the Dishnet cable to the LNB2 terminal of the diseqc switch. Restart your computer and then start MyTheater. When MyTheater comes up Right click on your video screen and select LNB Settings, when the window pops up select the Nimiq91 satellite by clicking on it with your mouse, In the box directly below the satellites from the dropdown that says SIMPLE1 change it to V1.0-LNB1 press the apply button. Select the EStar 119 satellite in the satellites list and then change the box showing SIMPLE1 to V1.0-LNB2 and press the apply button.

If you did everything like you were supposed to you should now be able to switch back and forth between Bell and Dish without any problems, I have been using this setup for a short while and while there are a few minor problems they aren't enough to be concerned about.


Hope you find this information useful.
Regards
Tinkerer

[borg1]

PS

I just saw a post with the weblink and do not know anything about these guys, but here is a Nexus DVB card for $229

http://www.dvbmaster.com/hauppauge_nexus.html

[JT]

When I wrote 'DBS card' I meant DVB. Thank you very much for posting that tutorial borg. I hope you were able to cut and paste that. Pretty complete answer for sure. I already have an Echostar 2700 complete with antanae (Dish 500). Will the fact that the switch is already in the 'lnb' screw up the set up process? How about if I never set up the .ini for BEV? I'm not sure you can bypass the switch with the Dish 500 antanae. I figure one feed to puter receiver and one to set-top receiver. I wasn't even going to try for BEV. That would require a third dish on my porch at present. I am planning on doing Dish net and DTV with the same triple lnb dish eventually, so I will only have one dish. May sound extraneous, but don't want to draw any extra attention. Thanks again for taking the time to post that borg. Very helpful indeed.

[borg1]

JT

I know what you mean. I am thinking about painting over 'Dish500' and stenciling 'NASA' on my third dish just to confuse the neighbors.

You will need to know if you have the Dish500 legacy or Pro. Also whether Dual or Twin.
A pro twin does have a genuine DiSEqC 2.0 switch built in, and one LNB can be hooked without further switches (and only without further switches) directly to your DVB card. Legacy LNBs will require external switches, and all LNBs will require their specific .ini file(s). DishPro LNBs may ususally be recognized by a black DP on the LNB.

BTW, you are probably fortunate to also have a DN receiver on the other LNB. It appears there are (possibly power) issues with using only the card to actuate the built-in DiSEqC switches (allegedly) in certain temperature ranges.

If you leave out the .ini for BEV, you simply will not see those channels available.
As far as I can tell you cannot bypass the internal switch. I ordered the DishProTwin, and expect initially to only see the right polarized (odd numbered) transponders until I find the right .ini file(s) to recognize the left polarized transponders.

I am still climbing the learning curve on this and will post more when I find it.

[JT]

I have the 500 pro twin dish. How do I know if I have the right .ini files? Where do I go to get the catalog of .ini files? I would like to pick up the .ini for 110* dish as well as 119*. That's where the high def channels are. (I think) It will be a while before I get to setting this up, but while we have the discussion going...thanks for the info. I think I'm getting a pretty good idea of what I'm gonna need to make this fly. First, it's gonna take $.

[jetsgone]

JT:

The hidef channels take a truckload of CPU power to decode in realtime. I haven't done it myself but people who have tried have said 3ghz is needed.

The ini files aren't too hard to find. Take a look for them and if you can't find them let me know.

DVB cards aren't truly camless -- they emulate a CAM. If DN was to introduce a new card and discontinue the old ones, you wouldn't receive video until that card was hacked and a plugin released for some of the programs like mytheater, etc.

Most movies recorded are about 2.5 - 3 GB on EVU and about 1.5 to 2.5 GB on DN. DN broadcasts in 544x480 res while most of EVU broadcasts at 704x480. The siginificance of that is not all DVD players will play 544x480. I think most of the new ones will but some a couple of years old do not.

The handy thing about the DVB is that with a Diseq switch several sats can be connected to one card.

I hope this might help you if you are seriously looking into DVB.

JG

[JT]

My system should run even a high def DVB card, and that's what I will get if I get one. My system is designed to run high bandwith applications. I still haven't worked out all the details of the DVB card, but the PVR is easy and fast and needed for Dave. I don't even have my dish net receiver modded yet. Thanks for the offer jetsgone. I may need some more help. Mostly with finding the .ini for the 110* bird. It looks to me like borg gave a pretty complete explanation on what needs to be done to get it going. Thanks for your help guys. DTV to DVD...ahhhhh...suck me sideways Larry!

[borg1]

Hey Mili,

Maybe you will take a look at selling DVB cards?

They are legal until July 2005, when they will be required to have a copy protection chip. You could service the Americas market who will be trying to buy them before the new regulations take effect. Do a Google search for 'DVB card" and you will find mostly European websites selling cards.
If the guy in Florida is selling them on eBay for $99 +shipping, and I bought one from Germany for $69 + $30 shipping, it looks like you might get a decent margin on them. And the top of the line Nexus is at least $229.

If any of the rumors centering on Dave's hashing of the No-ZKT mod have merit, it might offer an interim/alternative solution for your existing forum members. And it seems an area overlooked by all the other North American sat sites.

Looks like something you might investigate.

[JT]

All you need is a PVR card for your computer and a dedicated DTV receiver. Just run the coax out from the IRD to your PVR card instead of your TV. This will allow you to hook up any input device to your PVR card. VCR, DVD player....anything with audio and video outputs. Your gonna want a lot of storage space if your going to record full movies. I think the model your talking about is a Tivo unit though, isn't it? There may be a way that is a lot less expensive with your model 490. Have you thouroughly read your owners manual to see if there are any ideas there?

[JT]

I am completely unfamiliar with your IRD, so I don't know the answer to any of your questions. Sorry. It sure seems like there should be a way to just plug that IRD into your computer and dump what's already been recorded, but I can't be sure. Maybe ask the questions in the Tivo section of the forums.

[pereira11]

when i start my theatre, a screen comes up saying 'card initializing' it then freezes on this screen requiring ctrl+alt+delete. what do i need to do to fix this problem?

[jetsgone]

Check device manager to ensure that the card is correctly installed.

[pereira11]

how do i check to see if its correctly installed?
also the dvb card came with software that i installed, should i uninstall that?

thanks

[jetsgone]

I'd try two things:

1. Check device manager. If you see exclamations marks then the DVB card does not have proper drivers.

2. Uninstall the software that came with it.

What kind of card are you using? I use the VP1020 and did not install any drivers for it -- I let MT take care of that.

[pereira11]

im using visionplus card. ill try this and tell you the results.

thanks for the help.

[pereira11]

i uninstalled the vision plus software, checked the device which was working correctly and still when i start my theatre the screen just says card initializing and nothing happens. any other suggestions?

thanks

[jetsgone]

What version of MT are you using?

You might try an old one like 2.76 to see if it starts and to check if you get the preview channels. If you do, you know that your card is good. If you don't get the previews, and I'm just thinking out loud here, maybe the card is defective.

The other thing I've heard, but never experienced, is to move the card to a different PCI slot.

[pereira11]

ok i will try these,thanks

[pereira11]

ive tried reinstalling everything,ive downloaded the lastest drivers from twinhan.com and still cannot get my theatre to work. it just says 'card initializing'. has anybody had this problem or have any other suggestions to make it work?

thanks

[praetori]

I have a general question that I am interested in exporing options for.

I currently clone, and am very happy with the results that I have seen since I started. My question involves something different.

I am interested in recording content from my satellite on my computer. Basically, a custom made digital video system. You could do this using a video capture card, but that would require a receiver hooked to the computer, which is not what I'm looking for. I want the computer to be able to control what channel I am watching. Basically, a TV tuner, except using a satellite digital picture. So, is there anything out there that will emulate a satellite receiver and enable you to watch TV on your computer monitor? If so, and if the card exists, if it emulated the behavior of a popular TV tuner, you could use a program such as WinDVR to schedule recordings of your favorite shows.

I believe that satellite is our only hope for recording high quality TV signals, since digital cable is proprietary. Direct TV sends the same signal to everyone, thus would be the best candidate for this.

Anyone have any ideas on how this could be done? Or know if it is possible?
there is spoecific remote control feature for dtv and does just what you want..this is software that runs on a pc :)

[GotMilk?]

Well, I don't quite understand all this DVB card discussion. If you want to burn best quality Dave movie on DVD, use DirectTivo. They are easily hackable to use wireless home network and you can transfer the high quality recording through the network and author your own DVD on your computer. Both series I and II DTivo can be easily hacked to do this job.

You have to sub to Dave for now though as P4 hack is not publicly available. But due to this fact, DTivo is cheap on fleebay now. Go and get a couple of DTivo while it's cheap. When P4 hack goes public, the price for DTivo unit will be sky rocketing !!!

[lips905]

:blowingup Wow my brain hurts from reading all these posts lots of info thanks everyone