PC Card system idiots guide?

[mholali]

Great forum guys!

I have had a TM1500+dish for 5years now and I am eager to start this hobby on my PC. Can someone provide a "one-stop" idiot's guide to setting up a PC card system? I don't mean how to fix/fit in PC and all. I mean a guide that would answer the following questions;

recommend a card/device hardware?
software for the hardware?
options available for CAMS and CI slots?
emulations?
decryption patches needed and how it fits with the device?
how and where patches are stored on PC?
packages available?
regular supports sites?
recommendations for PC system i.e. RAM, hard disk size, etc, etc.

I am sure the experts understand what I am trying to put across. I tried to piece all the above answers together by reading and searching around most of the questions posed on this section. There is always as far as you can get. Then one gets lost in the maze of answers and then suddenly it all gets confusing again.

Cheers guys!

Would be really helpful if someone's expertise and knowledge can be all put in words here and made into sticky.

 

[Low Profile]

Don't know about an idiots guide, but my advice would be to get:

Technisat Skystar 2, (be aware that if you want the HD version then you're going to need PC processing power)

DVBDream V1.4i (free software viewer which is good for a beginner because you don't have to set up audio / video graphs)

Nero 8 or Cyberlink (power DVD) codecs (these will be installed when you download either of the applications, and IMO give the best quality of all the codecs that I have tried)

Vplug, S2Emu and WinCSC (latest versions, put them in your 'C:\dvbdream\Plugins\pip00' directory

PowerInstall Softcam updater (will update keys automatically)

Finally, for your PC - the faster the better - particularly for HD, (the non HD versions will work fine with a 1ghz processor) but I would advise getting a video card with S-Video out so you can connect it up to your tv.

 

[mholali]

thanks Low Profile.

does the PowerInstall Softcam open all currently opened packages? is the support frequent?

where i get lost is the differences between "Vplug, S2Emu and WinCSC" and PowerInstall Softcam". what does what?

explanations will do. thanks a million. cheers!

 

[Low Profile]

Vplug and S2Emu are emulators.
PowerInstall Softcam Updater updates keys for VPlug and S2emu. (every couple of minutes when running in the background).
WinCSC allows you to connect to cardservers (in your wincsc.cfg file) though you will have to update this yourself. ( _http://kovsoftnr.webovastranka.sk/ sometimes has .cfg files).

 

[vinotinto]

Don't know about an idiots guide, but my advice would be to get:

Technisat Skystar 2, (be aware that if you want the HD version then you're going to need PC processing power)

Finally, for your PC - the faster the better - particularly for HD, (the non HD versions will work fine with a 1ghz processor) but I would advise getting a video card with S-Video out so you can connect it up to your tv.

What do you mean by 'PC processing power'? Is the 512M too weak to handle even a non-HD card?

 

[mhku]

Processor = the chip e.g. 3ghz (Intel or AMD)

Memory = RAM e.g. 2gb

You can never have too much of either...

 

[vinotinto]

Processor = the chip e.g. 3ghz (Intel or AMD)

Memory = RAM e.g. 2gb

You can never have too much of either...

Mine is 2.8GHz. Is that enough for HD?

 

[HB13DISH]

Mine is 2.8GHz. Is that enough for HD?

Every card has a system requirement.
Make sure that your PC meets the intended card SR.