If you’d like to add a possibility to watch and record satellite TV to your Linux-based compact HTPC (ASRock HTPC with XBMC, for example) the Qbox S2 USB DVB-S2 card can be an option for that. It’s supported by both VDR and MythTV and have a reasonable price – €68.68. TBS also is planning to release a version with CI if you’re interesting to watch encoded channels.
Started thinking about DVB-S(2) card for the new LinuxMCE hybrid core. After visit to the DVBShop I found two variants which seem suit for me – Technotrend Budget S2-3200 HDTV-S2 and S-1500. The last one is 100% working solution for Linux and LinuxMCE with VDR 1.6.0. But DVB-S becomes the history and now DVB-S2 seems more perspective. Especially for the coming HDTV. So, S2-3200 in that case will be better solution then S-1500. But from other point of view it’ll need more work to bring it up under VDR 1.6.0 and Kubuntu 7.10.
Well, currently I rate both cards by 50%. But the S2-3200 is tipping the scale little by little. I think that it’s more perspective solution. And it’d be good to experiment with it a bit 🙂
