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Do you know a top-notch TV-Card ?

on 18-10-2007

This is a question which i hear and read nearly every day.

The amount of available TV-Cards is simply overwhelming. But the quality of hardware, firmware, drivers and the support is "variable".

I had many different cards, from many different manufacturers over the years.

If you aks me today "Do you know a top-notch TV-Card ?" , then i would tell you to have a look at the products from Digital Everywhere.

Hardware, firmware, drivers and especialy the communication between the team and Digital Everywhere is just great.

Recently they released their new Floppy-DTV-S2 and the FireDTV-S2 cards which are already supported by the MediaPortal TV-Server and work like a charm.

If you do not want to mess around with dozens of different driver versions to get your tv-card half working, then have a look at the products from Digital Everywhere.

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Users' Comments (14)

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Posted by pmcguire, on 19-10-2007, , Registered

1. Unknown Error Occurred

I have the S2 card and after standby I get "unknown error occurred" when I try to watch sat tv. Any idea what might be causing this?

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Posted by tomeliten4, on 20-10-2007, , Registered

2. few seconds after channel change

I have very long channel change time on the S2 card, even with the new firmware. A few seconds after channel change, the channel that I am watching starts playing the same part that i was watching just a few sec. ago before it changes channel.

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Posted by mdsflyer, on 20-10-2007, , Registered

3. I'd recommend the SS2

When i first started using MP 2 years ago many of the developers seemed to have a Technisat Skystar 2 so i bought one of those. I'm really glad i did as it has worked really well and realiably through all that time. I'd definitely give it the thumbs up.

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Posted by markrb, on 22-10-2007, , Registered

4. US Market

What about the US market?

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Posted by synthdood, on 24-10-2007, , Registered

5. Does it work for Dutch UPC cable FTA ch?

Has anybody successfully used a FloppyDTV to receive the Free To Air on the Dutch UPC network? I know that UPC sometimes has the basic package FTA and sometimes not and I also know that it is impossible to get the encrypted channels (The UPC smartcard only works in their own box) but FTA should theoretically work.

DTV cards are relatively expensive and I don't want to buy only to find out it doesn't work with my cable provider.

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Posted by einstein72, on 25-10-2007, , Registered

6. FloppyDTV

I'm using the Digital Everywhere FloppyDTV and couldn't be happier! Coming from a Hauppauge analog tv-card with almost no support to this digital card with great support and development is great. Using Ffdshow to further enhance my live picture quality, the combination with Media Portal makes it mindblowing!

Firm recommendation!

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Posted by Noelix, on 03-11-2007, , Registered

7. ATSC

That doesn't solve the question for anyone needing ATSC in North America. Is digital everywhere working on a product for this market or should I plan on looking elsewhere?

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Posted by MPUserFromGER, on 03-11-2007, , Registered

8. FloppyDTV-S2

@all how are recommending the FloppyDTV-S2:

Can you please confirm that it still works in 100% of the cases after standby/hibernate? Please state if you are using FTA and/or scrambled channels.

I read in the FireDTV forums that there is still the sporadic "no signal" issue after standby/hibernate. I owned a FloppyDTV-C some time ago and I experienced this issue as well. I own now a TT S2-3200 but this card has as well issues after standby/hibernate. I would immediately buy a FloppyDTV-S2, if it would work 100% after standby/hibernate...

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Posted by magiardi, on 09-11-2007, , Registered

9. "Top notch" forVideo cards would be nice

It would be nice to give similar advice for the video cards that work best with MP, because many cards are "gaming" cards and it is not true that the higher level card produces better video and TV playback. Examples
- video quality
- judder-free playback of PAL TV on 60 Hz LCD
- dual-screen support
- real HDMI

The choice is as difficult as with TV cards ....

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Posted by synthdood, on 13-11-2007, , Registered

10. FireDTV first experiences

Got the FireDTV card two weeks ago and been playing with it for a bit now. This is indeed a lot better than the analog Hauppauge cards. For those of you in the Netherlands with UPC cable: I can confirm that you can watch the FTA channels.
I do find that you need some post processing to get a nice sharp image. A little ffdshow Blur&NR followed by some sharpening does wonders!

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Posted by Fred, on 18-11-2007, , Guest

11. Floppy DTV S-2

Floppy DTV-S2 doesn't work with TVServer on the dutch canaal+ channels in combination with my (magic) CAM. But allso other cards have this TVServer error (No video/audio detected). It works (very) fine with the delivered software.

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Posted by dipswitch, on 22-11-2007, , Registered

12. technisat again

i too bought a technisat skystar, just wanting a card that always worked and gave me no hassle. and surprise suprise, the skystar 2 is the only real "works always" device in my htpc (the rest ain't that bat eather ;-)

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Posted by Dandy, on 12-12-2007, , Registered

13. FIRE DTV-S2

This card works absolutly fantastic. Fumbled a long time with the SS2. No comparison, this card is a different class. Thge driver fits perfectly to MP. It is expensive but worth it. Definatly a recommandation.

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Posted by Kezaworld, on 15-12-2007, , Guest

14. Top Notch Card

For the UK market check out the nebula electronics digitv pretty fab if in the UK

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