Twinhan StreamReader 1.20

Twinhan StreamReader 1.20 has been released. It features DiSeqC 4x support (like SS2 streamreader) and the fake PID 8192 which grabs the complete transponder stream (Not all Twinhan hardware is able to grab the whole TS).

It has been tested with recent SkyNet version working fine. As usual download it from http://joshyfun.peque.org

My Hard Disk Troubles

It is not related to the DVB topic but could help somebody.

A few days ago my primary harddisk starts to fail, one bad block here and there so I buy a new one, a Seagate ST3120813AS. My previous harddisk was a Samsung one it works fine and fast but the new Seagate presents a poor performance in regular oerations but all HD tests shows around 50 MB/Sec in average which is the expected speed. After some drivers updates and different tests I went to Seagate page, look at the specs and found that this driver is a Serial ATA II one (300 MB/sec) but as my motherboard's serial ATA interface is autodetecting, the SATAII interface is not a problem... Or maybe I'm wrong ? Yes, I'm wrong!! I set the jumper to force the hard disk to operate in SATAI mode (150 MB/sec) and now its performance is the expected, fast and quiet.

When you buy a new SATAII harddisk and your SATA interface is SATAI check that your new drive has the "SATAI mode" jumper or you could be in the same trouble.

My computer is:

Processor: Intel Pentium 4HT 3.0 Ghz
MotherBoard: Gigabyte 8IPE1000G (Intel Springdale i865PE)
Memory: 1 Gigabyte DDR Dual Channel
Graphics: Gigabyte Radeon 9200
ATA interface: Intel 82801EB
HardDisk: ST3120813AS (120G SATAII) and ST312026AS (120G SATAI)
Monitor: Nokia Multigraph 447Xpro (17 inch)
Other: A lot of funny and strange circuits :)

Poor Man's CAM (SECA) 2.60

Good news for the DVB PCI card users that have a subscription to a SECA provider, the new version of Poor Man's CAM for SECA is here. Some bug fixes like the UK TopUpTV non updatable card and some features has been added.

ProgDVB versions from 4.60.x to 4.62.4 will not work with PMCAM due a bug in ProgDVBEngine.dll that has been fixed by Prog in version 4.62.5 (Thanks Prog by the fix).

Here is a brief relation of changes, fixes and additions. For further details check the "changelog.txt" file inside the .zip file. Download from JoshyFun's web site

+ Added a "wizard" to set current card in a desired operation mode.

+ Added more selective log options and fixed the store of that option in the INI file.

+ Timer resolution in "Time to process an INS" is now much better using the high precision timer of your PC if it has one of course, if not fallbacks to standard one. It should be precise up to the millisecond.

! Fixed the "Write each INS to a file" broken for serial numbers and all cards when adding V9 cards support.

! Fixed a C1 40 generation bug. INS should look like C1401? and it looks like C1400?. This bug was in fact fixed the "04 Mar" with other bug (side effect). This bug prevents TopUpTV cards to be updated reporting 9002 instead 9702 error code. This problem also rises the cycle ECM bug described below. Thanks to Nick[D]vB for discovering.

+ When Cycle ECM is actived and it was unable to find a valid ECM it will retry them every 5/15 seconds to avoid fast PID switch.

! Fixed a bug in "Cycle ECM on error" which will cycle the ECM even when the INS that "launches" the error is a C1 40 (EMM). Thank you Nick[D]vB.

! Fixed some bugs in PID names display.

! Fixed some color issues when using WinXP themes.

! Fixed the "Log All cards to file" config. option.

+ SS1 record TV feature now working fine. MPEG generated files are not intented to be played with any SS1 based software, but it will play in most DirectShow based players. The main advantage of this file is that it can hold Video, Audio MPEG, Audio AC3 and Teletex, so you can record in example a channel with video, 1 MPEG audio, 1 AC3 audio and the teletext to get the subtitles, demultiplex them with ProjectX and you get the streams separated to be used. SS1 TV output is disconnected while recording due limitation in the data handling, I hope to solve this in a near future. SS1 record TV have a smooth record buffer that should prevent the lost of frames when the harddisk is a bit busy. TS with PCR format not working right now.

! Fixed a bug in filter handling that makes the EPG button become green when no EPG is available. It also could fix other non important issues.

! Fixed a little bug in the generation of INS to serial number noted in new V9 cards, but the bug does not affect the right instruction processing. INS with bug looks like "C1404?' instead "C1400?". V9 does not use P1 for anything so no problem at all.

~ Live update is no more saved in the INI file as if selected it could ruin PMCAM when too many instructions arrives very fast.

~ Now PMCAM should be more stable when changing channels.