From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-path: Received: from bld-mail15.adl6.internode.on.net ([150.101.137.100]:56980 "EHLO mail.internode.on.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932433Ab0ECPin (ORCPT ); Mon, 3 May 2010 11:38:43 -0400 Message-ID: <4BDEEE35.6040308@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 04 May 2010 01:39:33 +1000 From: Jed MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Linux Media Mailing List Subject: Re: ideal DVB-C PCI/e card? References: <4BDE5AA1.1050000@gmail.com> <87pr1dbf1q.fsf@nemi.mork.no> In-Reply-To: <87pr1dbf1q.fsf@nemi.mork.no> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: linux-media-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Excellent response, & thank-you for so much detail! I apologise for my anaemic response, but it is very late here now, that's my excuse anyway! ;) Just curious, why did you pick VDR over MythTV? I would rather use the later + OSCam (maybe) if feasible. Thanks again for the excellent feedback, it's heartening to know there's other videoguard2 users out there! Good-night. On 3/05/10 5:49 PM, Bjørn Mork wrote: > [answering this in private since any details about softcams etc usually > is unwanted on mailinglists] > > Jed writes: > >> I was wondering if someone could recommend a decent DVB-C tuner card? >> Ideally it would be a dual DVB-C card, but I'm not sure they exist?! > > I've been looking for the same, but not been able to find one. The > closest is the foilware from Netup, but it is probably going to be too > expensive when/if it is available anyway. > > Nor does there seem to be any DVB-C PCIe cards or USB sticks with Linux > support. There are rumours about working external USB boxes. I haven't > verified those, as I didn't really want any external box adding to the > cable mess... > >> I have a subscription to a PayTV provider here in Australia that uses >> an encryption scheme called NDS or Videoguard2. >> So I'll also need the right card reader and combo of software in order >> to decrypt and then capture. > > I'm doing much of the same here, also using NDS/Videoguard2. Unless > I've missed something, this excludes using any (official) hardware CAM > so you don't have to worry about CI slots :-) > > I am using two budget cards ("budget" is a must, as they are the cards > capable of delivering a full TS to the host): > > 1) TerraTec Cinergy C PCI: > > bjorn@canardo:~$ lspci -vvnns 5:0 > 05:00.0 Multimedia controller [0480]: Twinhan Technology Co. Ltd Mantis DTV PCI Bridge Controller [Ver 1.0] [1822:4e35] (rev 01) > Subsystem: TERRATEC Electronic GmbH Device [153b:1178] > Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx- > Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium>TAbort-SERR- Latency: 64 (2000ns min, 63750ns max) > Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16 > Region 0: Memory at fcfff000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K] > Kernel driver in use: Mantis > Kernel modules: mantis > > 2) Mystique CaBiX-C2 (available from www.dvbshop.net): > > bjorn@canardo:~$ lspci -vvnns 5:1 > 05:01.0 Multimedia controller [0480]: Philips Semiconductors SAA7146 [1131:7146] (rev 01) > Subsystem: KNC One Device [1894:0022] > Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx- > Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium>TAbort-SERR- Latency: 64 (3750ns min, 9500ns max) > Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17 > Region 0: Memory at feaffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512] > Kernel driver in use: budget_av > Kernel modules: budget-av > > > > The TerraTec card is working very well, but requires the mantis driver > which entered linux in 2.6.33. This means that there are few > distributions providing it at the moment, as most of them are going for > 2.6.32. > > The Mystique card also does it's job, but I have had a few problems with > the driver when some other part of the system is failing (in my case, a > SATA disk). The driver seems to be very fragile wrt timeouts, and is > far too eager to fill the log with identical useless messages. I'm > planning to fix this as soon as I get around to it, but... > > If I were to buy the cards a second time, then I think I would buy two > Terratec cards. > > For smartcard reader I am using a simple and cheap reader from OmniKey: > > bjorn@canardo:~$ lsusb -s 5:2 > Bus 005 Device 002: ID 076b:3021 OmniKey AG CardMan 3121 > > > I've also tested with another CCID USB reader, SCM SCR331, which also > worked just fine. What you want to look for is a reader supported by > libccid ("apt-cache show libccid" in Debian/Ubuntu will show you the > list). You may also want to check out which voltages the readers > support. Modern cards tend to lower their Vcc all the time, and there > are a few stories of burnt cards (I assume that's because of running a > 3.3 V card in a reader only capable of providing 5 V). > > >> This stuff I can mostly work out for myself..... >> But if you have any knowledge or experience in that area, then I'd be >> most appreciative if you can share. >> As it definitely isn't for technical minnows! >> >> Oh and in case you're worried, doing this sort of thing is not -yet- >> illegal in Australia. > > That's the situation here in Norway as well, provided that you actually > pay for the subscription. At least that's my interpretation of the > legal status :-) > > When I started this project, I briefly tried sasc-ng. I did work OK but > I disliked the need to use the dvbloopback module. Mostly a principle > wrt out-of-tree drivers. But I would probably have continued to use it > if I hadn't discovered that VDR provided everything I needed (I > initially rejected it because I got the wrong impression that it > couldn't run on a headless box, which is what I do). The VDR softcam > plugin eliminates the need for any in-kernel hacks. It's all just > userspace. > > So now I am happily using VDR with vdr-sc. I could not make the > videoguard2 smartcard driver for vdr-sc working (didn't try hard - > probably only a minor configuration problem on my side), but am instead > using vdr-sc as a cardclient against oscam. I've built oscam with PCSC > support so that all card communication goes through pcscd. > > This setup works for me, but I'm still not 100% sure that card updates > are working. There is something weird with the interface between vdr-sc > and oscam. So there are certainly some bugs to sort out, both in vdr-sc > and in oscam. But one of my main reasons for choosing these over other > options is the open source. This does make it possible to fix bugs and > contribute. And both packages do have active developers who respond to > the reports and suggestions they get. > > The list of mostly working features: > - decrypting multiple channels simultaneously. Of course limited to the > two frequecies which I can tune, but there doesn't seem to be any > other limit on the number of channels I can use > - both HD and SD decryption (also when using a subscription card from a > SD only STB!) > - automatic configuration of the smartcard/STB mating. This is > currently a bit flakey but work is on the way to improve it. You > can always work around it by configuring "BoxID" manually, so it's > not a big problem anyway > > Hope this helps. Looking forward to hearing how things go. The more > open source Videoguard2 users we get, the better :-) > > > Bjørn >