- Freesat DVB-S and mediacenter?
- Posted by BillyUK on May 9th, 2008
With the launch of "Freesat" in the UK and the HD channels promised.
Does anyone know of a DVB-S card/dongle that is mediacenter compatible?
It would be great to have the mediacenter features and be able to capture HD
content.
Thanks if you can help
Billy
- Posted by Nigel Barker on May 9th, 2008
On Fri, 9 May 2008 11:33:00 +0100, "BillyUK" <nospam@here.net> wrote:
The only HDTV available in Media Center is in the US for Over The Air MPEG2. Most satellite HD e.g.
BBC HD is MPEG4 & thus not supported.
DVB-S is also not currently supported natively in Media Center but there are solutions from DVB-S
card manufacturers that supply fake DVB-T (Freeview) drivers so that the cards will work within
Media Center. With the right Conditional Access Module (CAM) you can even use your subscription card
to watch encrypted channels e.g. Sky. If that is your requirement then the FloppyDTV or FireDTV
devices from www.digital-everywhere.com are far & away the best choice.
For Free To Air channels the you have a wider choice of DVB-S tuner although the FloppyDTV is still
the best it is quite a bit more expensive than simple DVB-S cards.
BTW "freesat" (the brand name is all lower case) is just a repackaging of the FTA channels with a
new Electronic Programme Guide. Currently you will not be able to use this EPG or the parallel Sky
one as no DVB viewing application supports it.
--
Cheers
Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP
- Posted by BillyUK on May 9th, 2008
"Nigel Barker" <nigel@nigelbarker.com> wrote in message
news:vgb8249bueij9efp80i8s355h59l6esr3e@4ax.com...
Thanks Nigel
I'll give them a look.
I know freesat is (or will be) similar to the freeview DVB-T system but I
thought it had extra HD content?
I currently use a Kworld DVB-T card with vista media center and it is
superb.Just thought the HD might be interesting.
Thanks again
Billy
- Posted by Nigel Barker on May 9th, 2008
On Fri, 9 May 2008 15:14:10 +0100, "BillyUK" <nospam@here.net> wrote:
If you just want FTA DVB-S HDTV (currently just BBC HD & Luxe HD) then just get yourself a cheap
DVB-S card. The current bargain is the Pinnacle 7010ix available for just 35 pounds delivered
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/543758...searchsource=0 This is a
dual DVB-T & dual DVB-S. You can use the Freeview tuners in Media Center & use the very excellent
DVBViewer (just 15 Euros) for the satellite tuners. There are also hundreds of FTA SD TV & radio
channels available including BBC1/2/3/4 ITV1/2/3/4 C4, E4, More4 plus various +1 channels plus free
movie channels, 24 hour News, Music etc etc Take a look here to see what channels are available
http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html
--
Cheers
Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP
- Posted by John Lockwood on May 12th, 2008
On 9/5/08 15:14, in article
162C4878-E0E2-471F-BF74-79FD2741DFBB@microsoft.com, "BillyUK"
<nospam@here.net> wrote:
There is the BBC HD channel which is broadcast over DVB-S in H.264, and Lux
HD which I believe is also over DVB-S in H.264.
I believe there is also ITV HD which is over DVB-S but in H.222 (which I had
never heard of before). Apparently suitable software can can be convinced to
treat this as H.264.
While it is possible using DVB-S tuners that 'pretend' to be DVB-T tuners
(like the FireDTV mentioned by Nigel) to get some FreeSat channels, this
will only work for MPEG2 broadcasts as currently even the Vista version of
Media Center still does not support H.264 broadcasts at all. (Even for
DVB-T, Norway and New Zealand both use H.264 over DVB-T so they do not work
in Media Center currently).
I have seen other postings on the Internet that indicate that people have
succeeded getting these HD FreeSat channels using DVBviewer for Windows, or
the latest EyeTV 3.0.2 for Macintosh.
FreeSat is giving the impression that most/all of it is a new service. If so
then they should have gone straight to DVB-S2 and H.264 (even for SD) for
all the channels. To me it looks like most of the channels are exactly the
same (from the same satellite) as those currently available 'free' via Sky
(which is why they are using the 'old' DVB-S and MPEG2).
The reason this is an issue is that ALREADY they are saying they are full-up
on the satellite they are using. They are using a particular Astra satellite
that only covers the UK so as to avoid having to pay extra for the rights to
broadcast over Europe. Sky does not have this problem with other Astra
satellites and encrypted channels since they simply don't sell the viewing
cards in Europe.
PS. Allegedly the much delayed Media Center update to Vista (codename Fiji)
might add official DVB-S support and H.264 support.
