Advice Needed Sat tuner card replacement?

jeallen01

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Just finished (well, I thought I had!) configuring a "newish" Win 10 Pro 64 bit HP Z230 "Tower" (4th gen iCore 7 cpu, 16GB of RAM, SSD, etc.) and fitted the DVBSky S952 that came out of the old EliteDesk - only to find that that card appears to now be totally dead (not even showing up in Device Manager).:(

Therefore, as one reason for getting the Z230 was make more use of that card, then it looks like I need to get "something else" to replace it - and preferably something that can handle stuff like Crazyscan, and so, in conjunction with the "extra power" under the hood from the processor.

I'm sure that some of you guys who have used the TBS, etc., cards will have some suggestions, and so I'd be grateful to hear them - BTW a dual tuner card would be nice but a decent single tuner one would probaby be OK (and a bit cheaper).

Thanks in advance.
 

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If you're not bothered in getting your old card going again I'll buy it off you.
 

jeallen01

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If you're not bothered in getting your old card going again I'll buy it off you.
Somehow I doubt you'd be able to get it going because this is what I found after multiple re-insertions in 2 different PII-E slots in the m/b:
- not showing in Device Manager (whereas it used to show up clearly in "Sound, video and game controllers", and did work, in the other EliteDesk desktop )
- not recognised by the manufacturer's own DVBSky Player app when that was installed (again, several times)
- the connector on the power cable showed that the card was getting the required 12V
- no obvious physical damage to the card or connectors
- therefore I suspect it is component failure (maybe from ESD from me not being careful enough)

However, if you do still want it, then you can have it for £5 to cover the p&p - and "good luck" with it!

PS: Still looking for a new card to buy!
 

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I have had problems with newer PCs not seeing older PCIe cards. Can you test in another machine?
 

jeallen01

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I have had problems with newer PCs not seeing older PCIe cards. Can you test in another machine?
The Z230 is a slightly earlier generation PC than the Elitedesk - so I wouldn't suspect that to be the issue.
 

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The best card for dvb-s2 receptions at this time is tbs6903 and it has full support for Crazyscan.It can also be used with all dvb applications (EBS,IQmonitor, etc) and DVB players(SmartDVB, AltDVB, DVBViewer,ProgDVB, etc).
For receptions with S2X extension,there are several cards,but despite some shortcomings,I would recommend the tbs6903x card.
I must add that both cards have two built-in tuners.My recommendations are especially valid if you are an enthusiast(dx).
Of course it's good to listen to other users who use dvbs cards.
(Because it's not my money,please take my recommendations cum grano salis :) )
Regards
 

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My HP Pavilion desktop 595 also does not see a TBS 6925.
It can't be solved, probably chipset is not backward compatible to older PCIe versions.
Have TBS 5927 now, so via USB.
 

jeallen01

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TBS6903 & TBS5927 prices are rather too "rich" for me:eek:

Anything cheaper but still reasonably capable?
 

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I've got a TBS6928 for sale which was sold to someone on ebay but he's refusing to pay. If you're interested, give me a shout.
 

jeallen01

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I've got a TBS6928 for sale which was sold to someone on ebay but he's refusing to pay. If you're interested, give me a shout.
Thx, I'll "take a look" at that card - but, if you would be kind enough to tell me, what can it do and can't. and why you decided to sell it.
PS: having done a bit of further investigation, is it the earlier 6928 or the later 9828SE version?
 
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Channel Hopper

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Somehow I doubt you'd be able to get it going because this is what I found after multiple re-insertions in 2 different PII-E slots in the m/b:
- not showing in Device Manager (whereas it used to show up clearly in "Sound, video and game controllers", and did work, in the other EliteDesk desktop )
- not recognised by the manufacturer's own DVBSky Player app when that was installed (again, several times)
- the connector on the power cable showed that the card was getting the required 12V
- no obvious physical damage to the card or connectors
- therefore I suspect it is component failure (maybe from ESD from me not being careful enough)

However, if you do still want it, then you can have it for £5 to cover the p&p - and "good luck" with it!

PS: Still looking for a new card to buy!
Done

Pm me with bank detail, unless I have something here you are after for your back garden.
 

jeallen01

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Still looking for a replacement sat tuner card - any further suggestions for something up to £100 or so?

Thx in advance.
 

jeallen01

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Having had a "look around", the only possibly-suitable card at around my "max price" point, and is actually available, seems to be the TBS 6902 - does anyone have any experience with that card?

And one specific question about that card: even on the TBS website, the subject of DiSEqC compatibility is a little "hazy" as to whether or not it supports USALS - can anyone clear that up for me?

Thx in advance.
 

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Whilst I don't have one, some Amazon reviews do suggest Win 10 support for the 6902 is also 'hazy'.

I also recall that many of the TBS cards do not have blindscan capability, which immediately narrows down the choice.
 

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Whilst I don't have one, some Amazon reviews do suggest Win 10 support for the 6902 is also 'hazy'.

I also recall that many of the TBS cards do not have blindscan capability, which immediately narrows down the choice.


I have found that the Win10 drivers for the TBS690A card are bad and keep boot-looping the PC.
This is possibly due to the lack of a digitally signed driver and Windows 10 applying stricter control over use of unsigned drivers. Changing the O/S back to Windows 7 results in the TBS690A card working perfectly.

For the TBS6902 card in a Win10 PC, I have a couple of setups running this combination and they seem to be running OK without any boot-looping.
This would lead me to believe the Win 10 drivers are OK for the TBS6902 card, based on my own personal experience.
The card occasionally glitches in BlindScan2 mode and misses a frequency, repeating the scan in BlindScan1 mode generally finds the missing frequency.

As for USALS, I have no idea with respect to any satellite card. I have never used USALS in a receiver or with a satellite card.

The TBS6902 is reasonable, it captures 16APSK satellite feeds OK, I can personally confirm this. For the money it is probably an acceptable option and it does have blind scan functionality.
Personally, I prefer the TBS6983 (no longer produced) and would rate this as the best, followed by the TBS6903.
 

jeallen01

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Channel Hopper & Moonbase

Thanks for the comments & info - looks like this card could be a solution that I am "willing to afford" :D

Moonbase: w.r.t. Win 10 drivers & Blindscan, this page on the TBS website appears to have the dedicated Win drivers, and also a Blindscan download - are those the ones that you are using?

OTOH: this still leaves the USALS issue "un-solved" - maybe the answer will be to buy the card and see what it does or doesn't do (and send it back if it doesn't support USALS adequately)
 

moonbase

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Moonbase: w.r.t. Win 10 drivers & Blindscan, this page on the TBS website appears to have the dedicated Win drivers, and also a Blindscan download - are those the ones that you are using?


TBS6902.jpg


The blind scan download on the TBS site is for the custom TBS blind scan tool, it is a pile of wánk, not worth disk space.
Install CrazyScan, DVB Dream or EBS Pro and use the blind scan option from those tools.
 
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jeallen01

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Whilst I don't have one, some Amazon reviews do suggest Win 10 support for the 6902 is also 'hazy'.

I also recall that many of the TBS cards do not have blindscan capability, which immediately narrows down the choice.

View attachment 134484


The blind scan download on the TBS site is for the custom TBS blind scan tool, it is a pile of wánk, not worth disk space.
Install CrazyScan, DVB Dream or EBS Pro and use the blind scan option from those tools.
Many Thanks again - stored this page on a PC (not the Z230) for future reference! :D
 

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Many Thanks again - stored this page on a PC (not the Z230) for future reference! :D
Another thought (prompted by TJ when I was asking about remote operation last week), why not - for a similar price as a PC card, install OpenwebIF and use a receiver such as the SF8008 ?

I know it is normally used for remote accessing content, but unless you are trying to do something specific with a PCI card within the PC housing, all other functions should be available with a standalone receiver that is compatible , streamreaderex should manage the Crazyscan advantages Jeallen is looking for.

I'm sure there was a thread on here a couple of years ago that mused on this, including use of a Win10 operating system.
 

jeallen01

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Another thought (prompted by TJ when I was asking about remote operation last week), why not - for a similar price as a PC card, install OpenwebIF and use a receiver such as the SF8008 ?

I know it is normally used for remote accessing content, but unless you are trying to do something specific with a PCI card within the PC housing, all other functions should be available with a standalone receiver that is compatible , streamreaderex should manage the Crazyscan advantages Jeallen is looking for.

I'm sure there was a thread on here a couple of years ago that mused on this, including use of a Win10 operating system.
Thanks for suggestion, but there are several reasons why I want to go the PC card route:
- I have now almost literally run out of space for another standalone receiver under my "workarea" desk in the "office", and the desk is already "cabled" up to simply connect to a PC card tuner, as was the case when the Elitedesk was there before my main laptop got trashed by a Win 10 update and errors on my part (a "long story" and not helped by the brother-in-law "extreme issues" we suffered at the end of last year and the begining of this one!).
- The "plan" was always the PC card route anyway, and that was one of the reasons the latest Z230 was bought, because I'd simply like to have another go with the various sat card control packages (Prog DVB, DBViewer, etc.) that I installed on the Z230 (and had been on the Elitedesk and the earlier ACER desktop, at various times over the last few years) before I found out that the old card wouldn't work in it, and may well be "dead".
 
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