MediaPortal Wiki 
Tv Cards Supported
In general the tvserver supports
any analog card with h/w encoding onboard
- some analog cards which use s/w encoding
the SkyStar-2/Airstar-2/!?CableStar-2 cards when using WDM drivers
The following table shows which special features are supported for which card(s)
DVB-S(2) cards
Feature |
CI/CAM support |
CI menu support |
LNB selection |
?DisEqc Positioner |
DVB-S2 support |
Multi channel decoding |
Remarks |
FireDTV-S |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Manufacturing of this card has been stopped and support has been reduced to the minimum |
FireDTV-S2 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Manufacturing of this card has been stopped and support has been reduced to the minimum |
FloppyDTV-S |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Manufacturing of this card has been stopped and support has been reduced to the minimum |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Manufacturing of this card has been stopped and support has been reduced to the minimum |
|
Twinhan |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
FTA only |
(driver >=1.2.3.8) |
Cinergy S2 + CI |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
FTA only |
|
Technotrend |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
(driver >=1.073) |
KNC |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
YES |
(driver >=1.9.812.2, requires VC2008 runtime Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package |
Mystique SaTiX-S2 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
YES |
same card like KNC one, uses same driver like KNC |
Hauppauge + WinTvCI |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
FTA only |
with optional WinTvCI USB module, which can only descramble ONE channel at the time! |
Skystar-2 |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
FTA only |
Not compatible with most Nvidia nForce4 chipset based motherboards |
Prof Red 6200 |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
FTA only |
|
Prof Red 7300 |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
FTA only |
|
Prof Revolution 7500 |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
FTA only |
|
?TeVii |
unknown |
unknown |
Yes |
Yes(?) |
Yes |
unknown |
DVB-C cards
Feature |
CI/CAM support |
CI menu support |
Multi channel decoding |
Remarks |
FireDTV-C |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
- |
FloppyDTV-C |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
- |
Twinhan |
Yes |
No |
FTA only |
(driver >=1.2.3.8) |
Technotrend |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
(driver >=1.073) |
KNC |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
requires VC2008 runtime Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package |
Hauppauge + WinTvCI |
YES |
Yes |
FTA only |
with optional WinTvCI USB module, which can only descramble ONE channel at the time! |
Cablestar-2 HD |
Yes |
No |
FTA only |
- |
DVB-T cards
Feature |
CI/CAM support |
CI menu support |
Multi channel decoding |
Remarks |
Azurewave DVB-T CI |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
?MantisDriver = V1.1.0.400 |
FireDTV-T |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
- |
FloppyDTV-T |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
- |
Twinhan |
Yes |
No |
FTA only |
(driver >=1.2.3.8) |
Technotrend |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
(driver >=1.073) |
KNC |
Yes |
Yes |
YES |
requires VC2008 runtime Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package |
Hauppauge + WinTvCI |
Yes |
Yes |
FTA only |
with optional WinTvCI USB module, which can only descramble ONE channel at the time! |
Airstar-2 |
No |
No |
FTA only |
- |
X3M TV-Tuners |
Yes |
Yes |
FTA only |
Devices tested: TU1100 and HPC2000 |
ATSC / QAM cards
Feature |
ATSC (8VSB) |
QAM 64 |
QAM 256 |
Hauppauge HVR-1600/1800 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Airstar HD5000 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Explanation of the features
CI/CAM
Some cards have a CI/CAM slot as you can see here
The CI/CAM slot allows you to insert a smartcard and watch paytv channels. Without a CI/CAM slot and smartcard it is not possible to watch encrypted (paytv) channels. Note that in many countries the 'normal' local tv channels are also encrypted and can only be watched if you have a smartcard and a card with a CI/CAM slot.
For many supported cards (see tables above) there is also a CI menu available, to access CAM settings, parental control a.s.o. There are two different ways to access the menu:
- from ?TvFullscreen context menu
- from ?SetupTv
LNB selection
When using DVB-S, your setup can contain 2 or more LNB's Each LNB can be tuned to a single satellite, so if you have more LNB's this allows you to receive 2 or more satellites. To make this work the tvserver has to select the correct LNB when tuning to a satellite This is done via DisEQC which is the standard protocol for selecting the correct LNB. Here is an example of a setup which uses 4 LNB's to tune to 4 different satellites:
. 
DisEqc Positioner
Another option to tune to more then 1 satellite is by using 1 LNB and a diseqc positioner. A diseqc positioner is a small motor which drives the lnb and dish to the left/right to tune to the correct satellite as shown below
. 
DVB-S2
DVB-S2 is the new generation of DVB and is used to transmit HDTV H.264 channels. Due to the better compression and new modulation methods the H.264 HDTV channels can be transmitted using the same bandwidth as a normal SDTV MPEG-2 channel. To receive DVB-S2 channels you'll need a card which has a DVB-S2 tuner like the Technotrend DVB-S2 3200 card.
Multi channel decoding
Multi channel decoding allows you to view/record multiple tv channels with just 1 tv card. The tv channels should be located on the same transponder offcourse since the card can only tune to 1 transponder at the same time.
QAM 64/256
64-QAM and 256-QAM are often used in digital cable television and cable modem applications. In the US, 64-QAM and 256-QAM are the mandated modulation schemes for digital cable as standardised by the SCTE in the standard ANSI/SCTE 07 2000. Note that many marketing people will refer to these as QAM-64 and QAM-256.
ATSC 8VSB
8VSB is the 8-level vestigial sideband modulation method adopted for terrestrial broadcast of the ATSC digital television standard in the United States, Canada, and other countries.