Satellite HD?

[RyanW]

I'm finding threads that might pertain to the subject, but the satellite lingo is foreign to me so I may have ran across the answers and not realized it. And most threads that I've found seem to all be talking about SD, not HD.

I know Sage supports controlling satellite STBs via serial, but I just don't know about the capturing HD video aspect. Can I somehow use HD service from Dish Network or DirectTV with Sage? I'm currently just receiving OTA ATSC with my Hauppauge HVR-2250, but I'm investigating satellite (for the first time).

So here are the possibilities I presume exist. I haven't seen them succinctly answered anywhere.

Are there special cards that can directly tune in encrypted satellite?

Is there a Firewire connection to the STB like you can do with Cable?

Is there something akin to a cable card tuner solution for satellite?

Can a satellite STB generate an ATSC or Clear QAM channel I could feed to my HVR-2250, ala channel 3/4 from a VCR?

Can you fallback on component out video capture? If so, how's the quality?

Is there any difference in using Dish or DirectTV to accomplish this?

-Ryan

[GKusnick]

The answer to most of your questions is no. Satellite receivers are proprietary closed systems with no standard way of getting the unencrypted digital content out of the box. The one partial exception is the R5000 mod, which taps into the unencrypted signal and pipes it out a USB port, but this requires a hardware mod to be inserted into the STB and works only for some models of Dish receiver, and not at all for current DirecTV receivers.

So the best general solution is to re-digitize the analog component outputs. So far the Hauppauge HD-PVR is the only device that does this. There are numerous existing HD-PVR threads so I won't go into further detail about it here.

[sic0048]

Also, regarding channel changes via serial/USB connection - I am not an expert, but most of what I have read regarding this has always been on Cable systems. I don't think any of the major satellite companies STBs will allow channel changes via serial.

So that means we end up having to use an IR Blaster. I only have one box I am controlling, so I use the built in blaster on the HD-PVR. Many other people use the USB-UIRT which is a USB device that can blast out to three unique zones (meaning it can easily control three STBs).

I know DishTV allows you to change the IR code on their STBs. This allows you to assign a different IR code for each box so you can use a single IR zone to control more than one box. This is because box A (set to code 100) will ignore box B (set to code 101) codes (and vice versa) because they are completely different codes.

[RyanW]

I saw AverMedia has a $100 component capture card, but it apparently does not work with Sage, nor does it do hardware compression.

This is a really pathetic state of affairs. I'd want at least 2 tuners, probably 3. So I'd have 3 STBs and 3 HD PVRs. What a cluttered mess. Also, forking out $600 for 3 HD PVRs makes this project a LOT more expensive.

We need an internal card with 2 (or more) component inputs to cut this mess down to size.

I guess I'll pass for now.

Thanks for the details.

-Ryan

[Fuzzy]

Well, what is making you think you need 3 tuners? what do you watch mostly? If a lot of your shows are local broadcast, You can get a single HD-PVR, and an HDHomeRun. This will give you 2 OTA receivers for local channels, and one satellite tuner, for everything else. With as much as cable/sat channels re-air shows, you may not end up with very many conflicts.

[Clift]

Originally Posted by sic0048

Also, regarding channel changes via serial/USB connection - I am not an expert, but most of what I have read regarding this has always been on Cable systems. I don't think any of the major satellite companies STBs will allow channel changes via serial.

Cable TV channel change: IR blaster or Firewire
Satellite TV channel change: IR blaster or serial (DirecTV only)