Similarly, at home, I realised that I was getting fed up with multiple systems, separate TV and audio systems, lost remotes etc. And more importantly, my wife and kids were not benefitting because it was just to difficult for them to remember all the various switches, buttons, which remote worked with what system, and so on. So guess who ended up using these systems - nobody but me! I decided then that it was time to set up something new whereby everyone in the home, and even guests, could intuitively listen to music, watch TV, record anything they liked, view photos and so on without needing a degree in rocket science to do so.

Original HTPC System

In 2006 I had already dispensed with buying physical CDs and had begun playing with and configuring was is generally known now as a Home Theatre Personal Computer (HTPC). Onto this HTPC I began to transfer all my CDs (using a process known as ripping), and at the same time I began to also rip my DVDs to it. To manage all the content I used a product called Media Center, a Microsoft program which, back then, using a version of the XP operating system, was a niche application. Although this same product now comes as standard on Windows 7, suffice it to say it was a lot cruder and less polished in 2006! Anyway, given that we are based in the country, having no access to cable or high speed internet meant that, in TV terms, the only option was SKY via satellite.

So my original HTPC was configured to take the TV signal from the SKY digibox, and then the HTPC was connected to the TV in the living room. Voila, a HTPC system with TV, movies, music and photos. From a technical point of view, this was not too difficult to set up. The key component was a TV capture card in the HTPC, in this case I used something called a Hauppauge MCE150, which grabs the analogue S-Video signal output from the SKY Digibox. Bear in mind that back then, SKY+, which many are now familiar with, was still relatively new, but the benefit of using the TV capture card in the HTPC was that you could pause, rewind and record the TV signal on the HTPC using the Media Center software. In essence the HTPC functioned as a SKY+ box, albeit with one tuner. To complement this system, it had to be easy to control. This is where Microsoft came up trumps. They created a remote control and keyboard combination which, in my view, has still to be beaten. The first thing to note about the remote is the large green button in the centre, giving you instant access to the main menu in media center. Another key feature is the TV controls on the remote, yes you can configure both TV on/off and critically the volume up/down for your TV. And to cap it all, this original remote control and keyboard still works perfectly with the latest windows 7 operating system. What that translates to is one single remote which turns on the TV and then works the media center. Here's the remote control, the remote control USB receiver, the remote keyboard with integrated mouse and the TV capture card:

The back of the remote control USB receiver has additional sockets on it for "IR repeating" which send the "change channel" request to the external SKY Digibox, and all you do is stick the IR repeating bud over the remote control IR window on the Digibox. This appears to work well for a lot of people, me included, but was not so successful for others, who explored other ways to control channel changing on their external satellite/cable receivers. This system has been in use for almost 4 years, but now with the advent of high definition (HD) content it was time to review and see what improvements could be made so that

• HD content could be accepted by the HTPC
• we retain all the functionality as before and
• handle 2 channels so that we could watch one channel on the HTPC while recording another..

New HTPC System

SKY now offer a HD solution for those wishing to obtain better quality pictures. There are similar HD solutions available to cable subscribers. However, unlike the old SKY Digibox which could easily route a single channel using the Digibox output connections (SCART, S-Video), the only outputs on a SKY+HD Box capable of handling HD signals is a High Definition Multimedia Interface, or HDMI. HDMI has been used extensively since late 2008, and has now replaced the older SCART/S-video/component sockets on most hardware. The problem is that HDMI is a controlled handshake signal, and there are almost no HDMI cards that can replace the TV card I used above and work properly in a HTPC. The few that are available are used mainly for specific high end Digital Video editing and cost almost as much as a fully fledged HTPC!

So another solution was needed. I certainly did not want to ditch the HTPC in favour of the more simplistic SKY+HD box. Why? well for one thing, a SKY+ or SKY+HD box has a limited amount of space to record, and therefore immediately places constraints on the user. Added to that, there is no integration of other media such as music and pictures, and limited information about what you are watching. Having come from a HTPC background, I would not want to return to the stone age!

There are some solutions on the market, one of which requires an older model of SKY+HD box with component outputs, but that sounded a bit hit and miss and only delivered one channel into the HTPC using an external HD-PVR box from Hauppauge. So emboldened by others who were attempting similar setups, I took a a gamble, and proceeded to purchase some hardware, without knowing in advance whether it would all hang together or not. Hey, did I say bleeding edge? Anyway, here are the key components of the new system:

The big difference with the method I am about to describe is that the SKY+HD box is not really used at all. The new PC cards shown above are called DVB-S2 satellite cards. What they do is accept the satellite signal directly, and the PC card then handles all the processing of the signal and sends it to the media center application. To the left is the HTPC, based around the Antec Fusion chassis, which has enough room for 3 Hard drives and Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive. On the right is a new satellite receiver called a DreamBox 500S, of which more later. Lets get into the nuts and bolts of this, as to be honest it is a much more complex setup than before. However, and again critically, the end result is that my wife and kids see no difference in operation once it has been set up, because it is still controlled by the same Microsoft remote and keyboard as before.

New HTPC System Components

1) Hardware #1: 2 x Satellite Card Tevii S470 DVB-S2 PCIe cards

My particular HTPC did not have enough PCI slots available, but did have 2 free PCIe slots. Also, and this is important - if you want to be able to watch one program while recording another then you need either a single DVB-S2 card with two satellite inputs or else dual DVB-S2 cards. As there were precious few PCIe cards on the market, and none with 2 inputs, I was very limited in my choices. The Tevii S470 single tuner cards were the only obvious candidates, so I ordered 2 of these. That's why I have shown the same picture twice! So bear in mind when SKY+HD is installed you are automatically given two cables to feed into your SKY+HD box, so these two cables are instead re-routed into the cards installed in the HTPC. With me so far ? 

2) Hardware #2: DreamBox 500S (DB500S)

DreamBox are a German company who make satellite receivers. The DB500 is an old model which is no longer made by them, but "clone" boxes are available new from China which are made to a similar recipe. Note: clones are much much cheaper than the original box so picture quality may not be on a par with original models. If you were planning to use this as your primary viewing method, then you would need to check the picture quality carefully. Also, this model does not handle HD signals, but there are other models such as a DreamBox 800 which I believe could do this. In any case, the primary function of the DB500S is simply to decrypt the signal from the satellite, rather than use the video from it. Yes I will say that again - the DB500S is not used to process the satellite video and audio at all. It is being used in place of the SKY+HD box to decrypt the SKY signal. Note that all SKY channels are encrypted to prevent unauthorised viewing. There are other uses of a DreamBox such as card sharing which I strongly disagree with. Please note that I am only detailing how I watch my own paid-for channels in my HTPC. 

3) Hardware #3: router/hub or crossover cable and serial-modem (null modem) cable

At the rear of the DB500S is an Ethernet port. This is currently connected to my hub. If you are totally new to home networking and don't yet have a network, you can also run a cable direct from your PC to the DB500S, this type of connection is called a crossover cable. Connecting the DB500S (whichever way you choose) allows the PC to talk to it and decrypt the channel currently being viewed on the PC. The 2nd cable, a serial-modem cable, will be used to update the DB500S software. 

Getting It Connected Part 1:

Believe it or not this humble DB500S, measuring a paltry 9"x6", is actually a fully fledged mini-PC, running on an operating system called Linux. You can obtain various new "images" which replace the default operating system. Ok so I realise we're getting much more technical now, time for the non-techies, girls etc to tune out (only joking!) ... Here goes -- you will need some knowledge of how to use FTP, of how to configure IP addresses, and how to connect to the DB500S to make sure everything is working. The information which follows is not intended as an exhaustive guide, but I think it covers the basics pretty well. And if I have made any mistakes in anything that follows please feel free to let me know, this was all new to me until recently....

You need to subscribe to a number of different satellite forums in order to get hold of various pieces of free software, as shown in the table below. I also found when beginning my investigation that it was not clear exactly what software resides on the DB500S and what resides on the PC. So first up, here's a list of what software we are going to use and where...

Getting It Connected Part 2 : DB500S configuration

• I found and downloaded to my HTPC a suitable operating system (image) for the DB500S from a satellite forum. The one I am using right now is called is called NabiloDM500-V08-MAXVAR.
• I "flashed" this image to the DB500S using the DreamUp utility and the serial-modem cable, connecting one end to the HTPC and the other to the DB500S. It prompts you for the PC location of the image to upload, and takes appx 10mins to complete. I then removed the serial cable.
• I take one of the satellite cables out of the PC card and connect this to the DB500S satellite input. I also link the video cable provided with the DB500S to the TV composite input.
• I unplugged and plugged the DB500S back in, and then configured it to scan the Eurobird/Astra 2A/B/C/D satellite as part of the initial auto-setup that it presents on screen. If you have a standard SKY fixed dish then you choose the basic "no Disecq" option. This can take appx 40mins to complete and scans all channels available on the satellite
• I set the IP address of the DB500S to a new static IP address (I used 192.168.1.100) using the menu option (option 6, expert setup -> communications)
• I downloaded a suitable conditional access module (CAM software) from the DB500S menu, by pressing the yellow button twice on DB500S remote control. I selected a CAM package called CCcam_2.1.2 & newCS1.67 and downloaded them using the remote. I used the coloured keys to download and install  
• I then press the blue button once and select the downloaded CCcam_2.1.2/newCS1.67 as the default cam and save this. I get a message saying "starting CCcam_2.1.3 & newCS 1.67 (sticky)". You can specify different CAMs for different channels but I want to use the same for everything to keep it simple
• I noted the serial number from the bottom of the SKY+HD box, and then converted this to HEX using the NDS Box Key Creator
• I ran DreamBox Control Centre (dcc), set the IP address to connect to DB500S, and then within dcc I navigated to the /var/etc folder on the DB500S and replaced the default CCcam.cfg file with the following CCcam.cfg file which I created initially on on the PC:

N: 192.168.1.100 34000 CCcam CCcam 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
 

Then I navigated to the /var/tuxbox/config on the DB500S and replaced the default newcs.xml file with the following newcs.xml file which I created initially on on the PC:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<newCSconfig>
<readers name="Card Readers">
<device>
<name>internal</name>
<type>sci</type>
<mhz>357</mhz>
<node>/dev/sci0</node>
<parity>odd</parity>
<reset>normal</reset>
<export>yes</export>
<enabled>yes</enabled>
<blocksa>no</blocksa>
<blockua>no</blockua>
<blockga>yes</blockga>
<blockC0>yes</blockC0>
<boxkey>aabbccdd</boxkey>
<PTShandshake>no</PTShandshake>
<carddetect>yes</carddetect>
<newcamd_port>34000</newcamd_port>
<autosid>yes</autosid>
<pincode>0000</pincode>
<priority>round</priority>
</device>
</readers>
<cache>
<emm>20</emm>
<ecm>-1</ecm>
</cache>
<httpd>
<server>
<port>8080</port>
<enabled>yes</enabled>
</server>
<user>
<name>newcs</name>
<password>newcs</password>
<accesslevel>admin</accesslevel>
</user>
</httpd>
<debug>
<password>NewCSpwd</password>
<level>normal</level>
<type>init</type>
<output>console,tcp</output>
<console_options>normal,init</console_options>
<tcp_port>1001</tcp_port>
<tcp_options>normal,init</tcp_options>
</debug>
<newcamdserver>
<enabled>yes</enabled>
<name>newcs</name>
<deskey>01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14</deskey>
<user>
<name>CCcam</name>
<password>CCcam</password>
<au>on</au>
<spider>no</spider>
<sidoverride>off</sidoverride>
</user>
<user>
<name>user1</name>
<password>pass1</password>
<au>on</au>
<spider>no</spider>
<sidoverride>off</sidoverride>
</user>
<user>
<name>user2</name>
<password>pass2</password>
<au>on</au>
<spider>no</spider>
<sidoverride>off</sidoverride>
</user>
</newcamdserver>
</newCSconfig>
 

Note the highligted text in both files, and where they match. Firstly port 34000 is used here, you could use any port. The <deskey> value in newcs.xml matches the values in CCcam.cfg, although they are spaced differently.  The <boxkey> is the 8 digit hex key returned by NDS Box Key Creator when you input the 17 digit serial number. And finally there are two users: user1 and user2 set in newcs.xml and these will be used for the PC "client" to connect later.

There is a program called DreamBox Config Creator which can create lines for you for the appropriate CCcam/newCS config files but I found it easier in the end to write them myself, so that the order was correct. Then I used the telnet option on the dcc menu and typed the following:

cd \var\etc
chmod 755 CCcam.cfg

• I set the DB500S to standby, and turned off the power.
• I inserted the sky card into the DB500S and turned it on again.

Getting It Connected Part 3 : DVBLogic TVSource Setup On Windows 7 HTPC

There's quite a few steps to go through for this, in order to get it structured correctly. First lets sort out the hardware side. I installed the DVB-S2 cards in the PCIe slots, I then loaded the drivers that came with them. I checked they had installed correctly by going into into device manager, selecting "sound, video and game controllers",  and confirming that there were two entries present for Tevii S470 BDA DVB-S2, and that the properties of each device said "this device is functioning properly".  If you are using another device such as a HD-PVR then you will need to configure that before continuing. If you had a previous tuner (such as the Hauppauge PVR150MCE like me), then you must disable this also, under the same section in device manager. If you don't there is a possibility that media center may still retain a link to it and try and use it when you select a viewing channel.

Next I turned off User Access Control (UAC), because I have been told the current version of DVBLogic TVSource software (v.1.0.2) does not work very well with this turned on. I believe this issue will be resolved in the forthcoming update of DVBLogic TVSource (v2). To turn this off type "turn off UAC" on the start menu command line and set the slider bar to the lowest level. Usually a reboot is required.

I have cut and pasted a larger number of screenshots from TVSource v1.0.2 setup, all 18 of 'em! below. I'm aware this will be totally obvious to some people but may help others new to this (including me!) understand what is going on. There is a pdf in the install package which replicates some of what I have listed below. Unfortunately, once TVSource moves to the next release (its already on V3 beta) the set-up process will have probably changed considerably. Great, more work for me to do....

So first I run DVBLinkServer.msi from the downloaded DVBLink package, which installs the DVBLink Server component. A reboot is required at this point.  After rebooting I run DVBLinkTVSource.msi.  After the installation completes, I am presented with a default screen with 1 TVSource presented. Because I am going to set up dual satellite feeds, I click on "TVSource" as circled below and change its name to TVSource1. 

Next, I click the green arrow at the left side as circled below to create a 2nd TVSource in the Sources box. I name this TVSource2.

Now my Server configuration looks like the the screen below. Excellent, lets move on...

Now Now I click on "TVSource1" in the Sources box, and click the "properties" box...

Now I am given the list of devices available. This will vary depending on what type of DVBLink product you have purchased. For TVSource, it shows the 2 DVB-S2 cards set up earlier. Both are currently listed as inactive, as in the screenshot. 

I tick the checkbox next to the first one, and that sets it to active. See, this is childs play...

On the top menu I click "Headends", and click "add" as circled in the screenshot below. I then set the LNB type, and most importantly select he correct provider from the dropdown list of satellites. Note that Sky is Eurobird 1 Astra 28.2, so it appears under E. Note that I set the "Diseqc" values to none as I am using a fixed dish. On we go...

I click "Scan" on the top menu, select all transponders and then finally click "scan" on the bottom right which requests a full scan of the satellite. By the way, this assumes you have also re-connected any satellites cables back into the PC card, otherwise the scan will not pick anything up!

I started to get worried at this point, as the first 2-3 scans said "tuning failed" but then it started to work. I think the reason is that the transponder scan starts from the highest frequency and works backwards, and most of the channels are on the lower frequencies. Panic over, as I now see information appearing about the provider, channel name etc, as per screenshot below. When the scan is complete it issues a message "totals xxx services found, xxxx new services found".

Moving onto the final "channels" tab, this is where I decide how many of the available channels I want to use. I expand the provider tab on the left side, and then list the channels by name, and I get a list of channels which now make sense to me, as per screenshot below. Then I choose the ones to appear on the right using the green arrow.

Below is the list of 12 channels I have selected. I'm not going to do the whole lot for this purpose as it takes too long. I've simply chosen a couple of free to view channels, one or two HD channels and a few SD channels. To test that the signal is present, I highlight one of the channels and then click the preview button as circled below. Note that preview is not built into this version of TVSource, so in order to check that a valid signal is present I need to use an application like VLC from Videolan, by opening a network stream from http://127.0.0.1 on port 4000. Sounds complicated but its not. Choose a free to view channel such as BBC 1 to test initially.

I'm taken back to the configuration screen, note that in the screenshot below that the "mapped TVSource channels" now says 12. Press OK and that information is now saved.

And finally I'm back at the main configuration page. I'm having so much fun I don't want to stop now, so I click on "TVSource2" in the Sources box, and click the "properties" box....

Looking familiar? Here we are on the 2nd TVSource configuration. So again we click on the "..." icon as per below...

and again we get to the device screen. This time we set the 2nd tuner (index 1) as active. I thought the first tuner should say active as we already used this previously, but no, all we are doing is setting the active tuner for this TVSource selection. (TVSource2). And here's the big difference, when I click "active" on the 2nd tuner tick box I now have a button available on the bottom left to "import settings". I click this, and then I get a popup window asking which TVSource to import from. I select the default TVSource1 and select "import".

This time, as per image below, we are taken straight to the end of the TVsource2 configuration, with all 12 channels mapped, identical to TVSource1. You don't have to do this, if you explicitly want different line-ups on both channels. But as this is how the 2 SKY channels would work, I'm simply setting up the process in the same way. If you want to make life hard for yourself, be my guest!

Press ok to complete, and again we taken back to the main server configuration. That's DVBLink TVSource completed. I now click close to close this, and I will be prompted to restart the DVBLink Server, which I do.

One final step for TVSource is the setup of the plugins, which handle the card decryption requests to the DB500S. In the folder that TVSource has been installed (e.g. \Program Files\DVBLogic\DVBLink\Sources\), I note that two folders now exist, one for TVSource1, and another for TVSource2. So in the TVSource1 folder I create a new folder and name it "plugins". Into this I dump the contents of the Acamd 0.6.1.8 zip file. Then I edit the cardclient.conf file using notepad and add the following line:

        newcamd:192.168.1.100:34000:0/0000/0000:user1:pass1:0102030405060708091011121314

I save the file and then create another plugins folder in the TVSource2 folder. And again I copy the Acamd 0.6.1.8 files to this folder. I edit the cardclient.conf file using notepad and add the following line:

        newcamd:192.168.1.100:34000:0/0000/0000:user2:pass2:0102030405060708091011121314

Note the ip address and ports to link to the DB500S, and the different user and password in both files. Both plugins will talk to the DB500S using their own user and password, which must match the user and passwords set up earlier on the newcs.xml file on the DB500S!

Getting It Connected Part 4 : Media Center TV Setup & TVSource Integration

I run the TV Setup in media center now, by navigating to tasks -> TV -> Set Up TV Signal, as per screen shot below.

Now you will be presented with a confirmation, as per screenshot below, that you want to use the TV Guide as supplied by Microsoft. There is plenty of information and guides on the internet to using TV Guide from external providers, but I am going to stick with the Microsoft service for now. I may decide to change this later if the guide data proves too inconsistent. So click on "I agree" and continue.

Next we are shown a lit of the tuners available to media center. Top of the list are the new DVBLink tuners we set up in the previous stage. 4 are listed but we have only configured two. It is crucial that you do not select both tuners, doing that will not work, you must do both tuners individually. So we click on DVBLink Tuner #1 and proceed...

Now we are given the choice of what satellite we want for this tuner. Again if you were using external guide data this would not be relevant, as you would overwrite with listings configured elsewhere. But for me, this is important because if I select a different satellite to the one I need then the guide listings will be incorrect. So again we select "Astra 2A-B-D Eurobird" as the satellite, and click Next to confirm.

Now it moves on to select the LNB, which again will be "universal". Select this and click Next.

And that's the first tuner completed, as per screenshot below. It also gives a rather vague dark blue signal quality bar for the satellite, which does not tell you very much because you cannot judge what the maximum signal strength would be. Never mind.... 

Now you are shown a summary screen confirming one tuner has been set up, as shown below. We now configure the 2nd tuner by selecting Yes, and off we go again:

In the list of tuners available, note that the 1st tuner is not shown, as that is already setup. So we now select the 2nd DVBLink tuner as per below and proceed as before:

We are then given the same 3 screens to complete, firstly "select satellite":

and then LNB type again:

and the satellite summary screen:

So, with both tuners now set up, when asked to set up further tuners, we click "no", and proceed, as per screenshot below:

Media Center confirms what we have done: we choose next to confirm:

And we get a final confirmation of the 2 tuners that we have configured:

Summary: at this point we have gone through the configuration of DVBLogic TVSource which understands the channels "outside" media center, and we have now configured media center to manage the channels "inside" media center. Now we take the steps which map the set of channels "outside" to those "inside", if you get my meaning. When we installed DVBLogic TVSource, it added a component to media center which can be found in the extras library, as shown in the screenshot below. This is where we head next....

There are a few options in here, the important one that we will use is the "synchronise channels", so we click on that option as shown below ....

A warning screen is presented to ensure media center is in window mode before continuing. Window mode means that it is open in a window but is not in full screen....

We are then shown an external screen which reminds us of the 12 channels we configured way back in TVSource. We click next, as per screenshot below, to assign these now.

So in the screen below, in the "merge mode" options on the right, I choose to "combine using channel names", and in the "sort mode" options I choose "by channel name". This ensures that even though I have 2 tuners I only see one channel in media center for that name. So on the left you can see "BBC 1 London" is shown as 1 entry, even though it is available on both tuners (blue and red being the separate tuners). We click next to continue..

And now we can assign the channels in the DVBLink TVSource to the media center channels. I highlight a channel on the left and then double click on the right side and than information is mapped across. This will of course take a good deal of time if you want all Sky channels, but I will only need to do it once because we are managing the overall channel maps for both tuners. I click the finish button once all my channels are mapped.

The external window closes and the media center application confirms the actions taken, as per summary screenshot below:

Now we reboot to ensure that the plugins we added to TVSource will work correctly. And that's the setup complete for now.

New HTPC In Operation

Once all configured, I give the remote back to my wife, this is the acid test. She changes channel, and it works, she goes to the guide, selects a different channel, and it works, with channel changes in the region of 2-3 seconds. I notice on occasional "tv signal is scrambled and cannot be viewed" message for a few seconds, which probably indicates some latency on the network? I will need to check this a bit more. But the channels work, and the added benefit is that even the SD channels look way better than before. This is because the signal path is shorter; previously the satellite signal was going in and out of the old Sky Digibox and then into the old analogue MCE150 PC card, now it goes direct from the satellite to the digital DVB-S2 cards, hence less signal degradation all the way! The HD channels also look very good on my trusty Pioneer Plasma.

Media Center Extenders

An extender is an additional piece of hardware that functions as a media streamer. The current model that I favour is from Linksys, named the DMA2100. It has no moving parts, totally silent, and replicates 90% of the functionality that you see on the HTPC. Although it has wireless capability, like most streamers it should be always be used in wired mode to get a proper media experience - wireless mode is a waste of time if you are serious about consistent sound and vision, so you need to think about stripping out that old coax cable and replacing with some category 6 Ethernet cable instead.

The DMA2100 essentially operates as a "remote desktop" instance of media center. You can connect up to 5 extenders around the house. By doing this, your media libraries (movies, music, recorded TV and pictures) remain centrally on the HTPC but you access them from wherever the extender is located. The real benefit again come from the integration - the exact same screens are shown on the extender, and the remote control which works the main media center on the HTPC also works the extenders (you get a separate remote control with the extenders, I've never even taken them out of the shrink wrap!).

Each extender will connect to the HTPC and use its own resources, and if one of the TV tuners is in use it will use the other. If both are in use it will allow you to choose to take over a TV tuner and control it yourself. Clever stuff. Yes there are many such products in the market that allow you to stream media to other locations around your house. Show me one that is an integrated and as simple to use as this..... Wife Acceptance Factor = priceless. PS: the extender functionality is also built into the XBOX360, a fantastic piece of kit, if you don't mind listening to a jet engine late an night. Don't get me wrong, I used to own one and although it gives you 99% functionality of the HTPC, in the end the noise it created was its downfall. If Microsoft would just release an "extender only" device then I will be first in the queue....    

Cost of new HTPC Setup

The extra SKY+HD subscription costs EUR15 per month, but in reality, that now gets me a 2nd satellite feed with some HD channels included. So that's not too bad is it!  The SKY+HD box cost EUR80 but I may sell this in time if all goes to plan. The DB500S cost appx EUR80 delivered. The biggest cost was the new DVB-S2 cards which cost EUR175 delivered, i.e. EUR87 each. DVBLink TVSource cost EUR28.

Keeping The Card Alive

One of the things that happens behind the scenes with a SKY card is something called "entitlements". These are set on the viewing card when you have a paid-for subscription, and they allow the card to keep authorising channels to be viewed. The card must be present in the Digibox or SKY+HD box for this to happen, and these entitlements are generally refreshed anywhere from 3-15 days before they are due to elapse. But now we have an issue - the card is no longer in the SKY+HD box because it is happily sitting in its new home, the DB500S! So, what we need to do is to swap the card back to the SKY+HD box at least once a month otherwise the viewing card will stop working.

I can actually connect to the DB500 to check when the entitlements are due to expire: all I do is open the newCS server on port 8080, on a web browser: e.g. http://<local_address>:8080. When I log in as newcs/newcs and click on the entitlements it will list the expiry dates for the card. So when these are getting close I plan to swap the card back to the SKY+HD box to see if the entitlements will update overnight.

I am still working on a method to ensure that the DB500S receives the entitlements itself and updates the card. This would be a much better solution and may require a different softcam configuration on the DB500S. But it would make sense if we had a 3rd satellite feed running to the DB500S, in case this will be required to update the card. This means that you will need what's called a quad LNB, which allows up to 4 feeds from the dish. 

Known Issues With This Setup

Ok, I admit, there are a few downsides to all this...

Managing channel changes/updates is more complicated than before. If a channel needs to be changed then it is done via the DVBLogic icon within media center, but totally new channels wont present themselves because the set of known channels is fixed from when the transponder scan was done when setting up DVBLink TVsource. So this may require a periodic rescan of the satellite signals. Also, getting the guide data absolutely right is something all media center enthusiasts fret over, and its no different here.  There are various methods to add additional XML feeds to supplement the guide data, but that's outside the scope of this article and would need its own dedicated page!

Media Center extenders are currently unable to handle the display of HD content, until an (unlikely) firmware update is available. This is not really an issue for Live TV, because we can simply choose the SD channel equivalent, and also the quality of HD content is lost on the smaller bedroom/kitchen TVs anyway. But for recorded TV it represents an issue because we either need to record an additional "SD" version of the program, or else re-encode the HD recording to an "SD" recording suitable for playback on the extenders. Luckily media center identifies that HD content is available and allows you to choose recordings based on different quality, i.e. SD preferred, HD preferred and so on. Neat.

Softcam setups on the DB500S will need to be managed and changed as better and more integrated solutions arrive, so there will always be an element of tweaking involved with the system.

Thanks...

...to some of the forum members at the following websites: DVBlogic.com, AVforums.com, theGreenButton.com and Digital-Kaos.co.uk who helped with my understanding of all this, and who tolerated (and even answered) some very basic questions! Without these guys this project would never have got off the ground.