# DVB-S2 Tuner Card for PBS



## Bill Breland (Oct 25, 2012)

Need your opinions on a DVB-S2 tuner card. This will be used for doing recordings from PBS on AMC-21. For many years I have used a Twinhan 103G tuner card, TSReader Standard 2.7.45h and Windows Scheduler (calling .BAT files) for PBS recordings. Please recommend:

DVB-S2 tuner card
Method of recording
A playback device
A dealer and/or site to purchase hardware

I checked Rod Hewitt’s site (TSReader) and the supported hardware has not been updated in several years and contains no current DVB-S2 tuner cards.

I am considering a Popcorn Hour A-400 as a H.264 playback device, it could be my Panasonic DMP-BDT220 Blu-ray player will play the recorded files.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

I'm still using TSReader with many DVB-S2 cards; usually current card's manufactures providing BDA drivers and DLL for TSReader.
Lately using TBS cards: 6925, etc. 
Genpix's SW-3 would be good choice.


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## Bill Breland (Oct 25, 2012)

P Smith said:


> I'm still using TSReader with many DVB-S2 cards; usually current card's manufactures providing BDA drivers and DLL for TSReader.
> Lately using TBS cards: 6925, etc.


On another forum a member said:



> In addition to the dvbworld devices Chromer mentioned another PCI DVB-S2 card you might consider is the TBS-8920 card. I have one of these and it seems to work pretty well. Also, there is a driver for this card that can be used with Tsreader. *The only down side is it doesn't allow TSReader to do the tuning*. So, you must first launch DVBdream and use it to tune to the transponder your want. Then you launch Tsreader and it receives the stream. I had to contact tech support to get the TSReader driver.


Is it true that TSReader can not tune the TBS cards?

I assume TBS will provide their own software, if true, can it do scheduled recordings? Wake PC from standby, do recording and put PC back in standby state?


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

If he/you will tell me what Win driver version and what TSReader DLL version used.

I recall I used the card with proper DLL and TSReader did tuning OK.
Do you have the card ?

EDIT: Just install the card again (from my stash bin) - working fine under XP: driver v1.0.6.2, TSR DLL v1.0.5.7, TSReader v2.8.47.


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## Bill Breland (Oct 25, 2012)

P Smith said:


> Do you have the card ?


No, I do not. The TBS8922 is at the top of my short list to purchase.

Just renewed my TSReader to version 2.8.47b but will not install it till a new card is selected and purchased.


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## Bill Breland (Oct 25, 2012)

Purchased a TBS8922 and tried to install into my HTPC. It would freeze at the TBS8922.SYS driver install. Did some research and it seems others have had this same problem. One user believes it is the VIA chips, my motherboard is a ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe and it has a VIA IEEE 1394 controller. Disabled the 1394 controller in the BIOS and it still freezes at the TBS8922.SYS driver install. Tried the usual device removal, different PCI slots, etc. and nothing works.

Purchased a TechnoTrend TT Budget-S2 3200 off eBay and will try it in my HTPC.


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## Bill Breland (Oct 25, 2012)

Update: Have been using a Prof 7301 in Windows XP and TSReader 2.8.47c for a couple of months now without any problems. This setup is used for HD recordings made from AMC-21 (PBS), Tp 24. Below is a sample batch file:

@ECHO OFF
REM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------The following lines does the work

MD H:\MPEG4\Nova\Australia

START TSReader -s TSReader_DVBSBDASource.dll -r 3 H:\MPEG4\Nova\Australia\Australia4.TS 3720 12180 0 30000 10750 1 {1}


Windows scheduler is used to call the batch file at the desired time, it can do this while the PC is in the standby mode. After the recording is finished the PC goes back into standby mode. I really like this arrangement because the HTPC is in the media room and I can edit the batch files plus make any changes to the Windows scheduler from the office XP PC. Had to use a Global Caché GC-100-12 (plus a small external circuit) to put the HTPC back into standby mode after editing batch files and/or changing the Windows scheduler.

The HTPC Windows scheduler does not show up in my Windows 8 Pro office PC. Not sure why and have not looked into this.


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