TechniSat: SkyStar 2 DVB PCI Card

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Kashif on November 8th, 2006
It is good but hard to find plugins

Laurence, Sussex on May 13th, 2006
The card works well, but since it was installed the PC (Windows XP) has become very slow to start up and shut down, and has developed a nasty tendency to produce "IRQ not less or equal" errors when processing large files. The supplied software is bugged and quirky. Don't start the PC and expect to watch TV straight away - it won't work. You have to wait until _all_ the windows processes have finished organising themselves. Don't stop a recording and try to start again within a few second - it won't work. You have to wait a good half a minute. Sometimes a recording will simply fail to happen (file size stays at zero) for no aparrent reason, or will record sound only (as an MP2). When any of these happen, closing and re-starting the viewer will cure them, but by that time you've missed the start of the programme. When it works, which is most of the time, I have no complaints, but when it doesn't work, which is not infrequent, it becomes pointless, hence only three points. Were it not for these problems, I'd have given it five.

Marija Roncevic, Otocac, Croatia on April 8th, 2006
Very good!

Nishad Kaippally on October 31st, 2005
This card did not work for me. It kept giving me "B2C2 mpeg driver not activated" errors. I searched around for solutions and could not find any real help.

jno, Austria on September 23rd, 2005
I strongly recommend this card for feeds, especially those broadcast in 4:2:2 - works great but I have had a lot of problems getting Diseqc to work - overall though, would recommend.

Tom, Denmark on August 30th, 2005
I have only good things to say about the SkyStar 2 PCI card, I used it in one central PC, and stream this input to all users on the LAN. I have never had any problems with overheating, or drivers "going down". I used it with an original NDS card, and with SoftCam. The PC is 2.5 AMD with 1G RAM, the graphics card are the one that came with the PC (nothing fancy) - and due to the fact that I stream the signal to everyone on the LAN, I have no need for any TV Out feature. The PC is running 24x7, and is running MyTheatre (DVB program) together with a Notes/Domino Web Server - no problems at all. I can only recommend the SkyStar2 PCI card - but then again, I might be a bit of a PC nerd. As if it were for "easy of use" I would probably choose a standard reciever, but with the PC and SkyStar2 you have all options open.

Richard, Ryde on June 24th, 2005
I use this card with a TNT2 graphics card, and it works fine. It's a great toy for recording FTA TV and radio, particularly if material is to be edited. It's well worth paying for the DVB Viewer upgrade, but go for the GE version as the others are bloated with irrelevant options. Paying also gives access to some very useful plugins. I found the supplied software package confusing at first. If you're not using satellite broadband, you don't need to run Setup/Server4PC but you still have to install them, as some files are used by DVBViewer. It took me some time to get the various filter options sorted out (GE is easier because it has fewer choices), but once done it all works reliably. As for those software cams: I've yet to find any, and I'd be a bit worried about viruses etc. if I did. On the other hand, if anyone knows where they are, please point the way!

Far, York on June 17th, 2005
So why buy a £50 or so Skystar 2 PCI card for receiving TV when you can get similarly specced receivers, such as a Comag from Lidl, for not that much more. For a start, the Skystar 2 acts as a PVR - you can timeshift ("pause" live TV) and record shows direct to hard disk - around 1 hour of MPEG2 from a standard definition TV channel will occupy around 1.6-1.8GB per hour of disk space. With (free) third party software based CAM software you can also have features equivalent of any decent patched receiver. This card can also receive HDTV broadcasts and 4:2:2 broadcasts too with appropriate software - nVidia codecs are the best for HDTV, Elecard are best for 4:2:2. Since all the card does is pass data along to the appropriate codec, it can even receive the latest MPEG4 broadcasts on 19.2E providing your PC is up to it - above 2.5GHz would be a minimum for this. Officially the card supports DiSECQ 1.0 and 1.1 but unofficial drivers are available for use with DiSECQ 1.2 - users have reported success with these but I cannot test them so use at your own risk! There are drawbacks to the card too though. You need a graphics card with TV Out and a full screen video option toi view anything on a TV (this is part of all nVidia and ATI card drivers with TV Out though). You need a reasonably powerful PC - 400MHz will be just enough to watch the FTA channels, 1GHz or better to use a software CAM. The video card must be reasonably modern too - anything less than a nVidia GeForce 4 MX440 or ATI Radeon 7000/VE will result in slowdown. The card can be tempremental at times too - sometimes reception can be lost for no good reason, in which case you may need to restart the card in Device Manager. Earlier revision 2.3 cards, which ironically have the auto Symbol Rate detection feature so loved by feed hunters, have overheating problems and will require good airflow in your PC case and even a PCI blower or fan mounted near the tuner to prevent overheating which will cause the card to not work.