[mythtv-users] DVB-S: Hauppauge nexus-s versus Twinhan/Skystar cards

Allan Stirling Dibblahmythml0015 at pendor.org
Tue Jun 28 17:50:12 UTC 2005


Johan Reinalda wrote:
> All,
> 
> I am looking at replacing my external DVB-S/FTA receiver with a dvb-s 
> card in my myth box.
> 
> As there is roughly US$100 difference in cost between the high-end 
> Nexus-s with hardware mpg2, and the low-end Twinhan/Skystar cards, I 
> would like to know what the CPU load difference is between the 2 types.
> 
> I understand that the low-end cards will have to split PID on the 
> transponder in software, but considering the stream is already mgp2, I 
> wonder how much work/cpu-load this really is. Does anyone have any 
> comparisons for these two type on roughly equivalent hardware?
> 
> I am running myth on an AMD64/2800+, which during all my myth-usage 
> stays in the lowest cpu speed of 1GHZ; recording with PVR-150 uses about 
> 2-3% cpu, playback on FX5200 card uses roughly 18% cpu; this makes for a 
> reasonably quiet system, and I'd like to keep it that way. (I do 
> transcoding and compiling 'after hours' and then it runs at full speed 
> and 'full noise' :-) )
> 
> Any information would be appreciated.
> 

No difference at all. The Twinhan cards do (As far as I know) have 
hardware PID filters. The "Fully featured" cards have a MPEG decoder on 
board.

However, I have had poor experiences with Twinhan (specifically, the 
DVB-S CI version) recently. You may be better trying to get hold of a 
second-hand dvb-s card (Budget card) from ebay.

Cheers,

Allan.


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