[vdr] I'm a little stuck here: Which Budget-Card? What is it about the CI?

[post <post@mhr.at>]

Dear vdr-users,

I'm actually fighting with my machine containing a Hauppauge WinTV Nexus-S 
(with Hauppauge CI-Slot-Adapter 545) + TechniSat SkyStar2.

My problem: I am using Gentoo Linux with kernel-2.6.8.1 with VDR 1.3.14-r3 
(emerged from the gentoo-de ebuild), and I can't get the SkyStar2 to work 
properly, which seems to be a problem with the skystar.c FE-refactoring. I 
tried with actual dvb-kernel from CVS, and the older dvb-kernel that came 
with kernel-2.6.8.1. Either I get an "ERROR: video data stream broken" 
(skystar.c from CVS) or "ERROR: no lock for channel .. on device 2" (old 
skystar.c from kernel-2.6.8.1) with following emergency exit. The problem 
with the skystar FE is already known, as others are experiencing the same 
problem.

I just don't want to fiddle arround that much. I wanted a budget card as a 
second one, so that I am able to take a look at HDTV streams as well. Do 
you think a Hauppauge WinTV NOVA / NOVA-CI would be a better solution to be 
used with VDR and besides the FF card, than the SkyStar2? I am really 
willing to swap over to another card, if that one does not cause such 
troubles. Would you suggest the NOVA or the NOVA-CI? I also have access to 
a Twinhan Visionplus VP-1030 (budget card with onboard CI), but I assume a 
NOVA would be best, so that I don't have to load different 
frontend-modules, if it has the same like the Nexus-S.

So either I need a fix to get the SkyStar2 working properly, or a new 
budget card, and I would appreciate a little help concerning this matter. 
Or would someone suggest to go for a second FF card (but as I have read, a 
FF card is not really working with HDTV streams)?

The other issue, I am experiencing, is a strange behaviour with the 
Hauppauge CI-Slot-Adapter 545. I had three different CI-modules here for 
testing today:

IRDETO-CI ALL-CAM SE V4.7N (with ORF DIGITAL BetaCrypt Smartcard): Works fine!

ZETACAM YELLOW FULL-X2M MODUL (without smartcard): This one is a HW2.01 
with actual firmware-version. The module gets initialised correctly, and I 
can access the module menu. It also decodes the erotic-channel FULL-X3 M on 
Astra, but while the module is inserted, the whole time the screen swaps 
between normal and black&white picture. These distortions seems to occure 
randomly, but the interval is very short (just a few seconds between the 
toggles). When I tried a test-recording on an unencrypted channel, VDR 
reported "ERROR: video data stream broken" and performed an emergency exit 
(I don't know exactly, if this problem was related to the module, or the 
above mentioned problem with skystar.c, but I think it's a problem with the 
skystar-driver).

DRAGON CAM: That module also worked, but again caused those black&white 
toggles.

On the linux-dvb mailing list, it was mentioned that those CAM problem 
could be related to the fact, that the modules causing problems draw too 
much power from the CI-slot. Has anyone else experienced such a behaviour, 
and is there a fix for it (maybe a hardware-patch)?

(I'm crossposting the CAM issue from the linux-dvb mailing list, because I 
think more people on this list may have better experience with modules)

--
Sincerely,
Master One