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TEST REPORT DVB-C PC Card

DVB-C on the
PC – Thanks
to TBS
• at long last: cable TV on the PC or
laptop computer
• tuner with extremely low threshold
• works with many TV applications
thanks to BDA drivers
• CI available for subscription TV

62 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com www.TELE-audiovision.com — 01-02/2013 — TELE-audiovision International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志 63

TEST REPORT DVB-C PC Card

Now you can receive cable TV TBS 5680 USB box has the
IR receiver already built into
its box and hence does not
require an external unit. In-

on your PC or laptop computer stead, we found a USB cable
and an external power sup-
ply unit in the cardboard box
of the TBS 5680.
We started out with the
TBS 6618 which we con-
The TBS 6618 is a PCI-e known as Tenow) prod- TBS 6984 with no less than nected to our test center PC.
card with tuner and CI slot ucts have been presented four tuners. It was with The LGA 775 board we use
for CAMs. The TBS 5680 is in TELE-satellite in recent great pleasure that TELE- provided an available PCI-e
an external USB tuner which months and we even ran a satellite gave its ‘Innovation 1.0 slot. Since all TBS PCI-e
also features a CI slot and company report in TELE-sat- Award’ to this extraordinary cards are compatible with all
which is part of the QBox ellite 02-03/2011. The TBS product. versions, it does not make
product family. Both devices product portfolio comprises TBS is now launching two a difference which slot you
share a rather unique char- all types of PC receivers, more PC receivers that can use. Any will do, no matter
acteristic: They are designed such as PC cards with DVB- be used to process DVB- whether 1x, 4x, 8x or 16x.
for DVB-C, which stands for S/S2 and DVB-T/T2 tuners C signals on the PC. Many Slotting in the card was
digital television distributed like the ones we introduced manufacturers turn their easy peasy – its measure-
via cable networks. in TELE-satellite 10-11/2011. cold shoulder to DVB-C as ments fully comply with
A number or TBS (also Among them is the famous far as PC cards are con- industry standards and so
cerned, and you have to it fit into the existing slot
look long and hard to find space nicely. The TBS 6618
suitable products at all. But draws its entire power from
not everybody has access to the PCI-e interface, which
satellite television and the means no more cables have
range of digital terrestrial to be attached.
channels is nothing to write For all its Windows-based
home about in most regions. TV cards TBS uses so-called
Each of the two DVB-C PC BDA drivers. BDA is short
receivers arrived at our test for ‘Broadcast Driver Archi-
center in a neat black card- tecture’ and has become the
board box, complete with a Microsoft standard for ATSC
driver CD-ROM, an F-adapt- and DVB/ISDB video cards.
er and a remote control. The The interface is fully docu-
TBS 6618 comes with an mented and therefore allows
additional IR receiver with both hardware manufactur-
standard phone jack. The ers and software developers

to supply suitable drivers for
their products. What’s more,
programmers of TV applica-
01-02/2013 tions are able to make sure
their software is compatible
TBS 6618 & TBS 5680
Excellent hardware for watching DVB-C with different TV cards. TBS
with an extremely sensitive tuner. customers, in turn, can use
their cards with all stand-
www.TELE-audiovision.com/13/01/tenow

64 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com

1

ard TV applications such as from Microsoft is practically is not always so easy. TBS 6618 all you need to do pied another PCI-e slot) and it seemed WMC was able to
DVBViewer or ProgDVB, to the only TV software not al- The first time you launch is call up TV Configuration had us select one of the two download transponder data
give just two examples. lowing installation of Soft- WMC you’re greeted by the under Settings. available cards to configure from the Internet. Even
In order to put the TBS CAM plugins. The obvious installation wizard. In case On our test PC WMC de- and pair with WMC. though, you need a lot of
6618 and TBS 5680 to their result is that pay TV recep- you interrupt that process tected the TBS 6618 DVB-C Even users without pre- patience for the channel
paces we tried them out with tion is simply not possible. or if WMC was already used card right away (as well as vious experience need not search that took some 20
a number of different soft- You’re left with watching before the installation of the a DVB-S2 card that occu- worry: WMC automatically minutes in our case.
ware suites. We had a go what is available free-to-air. downloads channel lists To be fair, we cannot
7
with the TBS 6618 first. • WMC tries so hard to from the Internet that corre- blame the TBS 6618 for the
Windows Media Center create a pleasant user expe- spond to the actual location. rather lame performance.
(WMC) has never gained rience it misses out on con- This way the channel search With DVB-C each provider
much ground and we only figuration options to make that follows is completed uses their own transponder
know a handful of people in the software work with a much faster. matrix, which means that for
Europe who use that soft- broad range of hardware In our first go, however, a complete channel search
ware. In our opinion, two products. Users are guided we had no such luck and all channels of the standard-
crucial limitations are to through strictly defined in- WMC could not find a sin- ised transponder table have
blame for that: stallation routines and can- gle channel. Apparently, no to scanned with all possible
• Windows Media Center not even freely edit their transponders were detected parameters: QAM4, QAM8,
2 3 channel lists. for our particular post code. QAM16, QAM32, QAM64,
Those restrictions aside, Of course we did not give QAM128, QAM256, and dif-
WMC is a very capable and up so easily and entered the fering symbol rates such as
user-friendly software prod- post code of a major town 6100, 6875 or 6900.
uct than can easily turn any nearby, instead of our local Nonetheless, chances
conventional PC into a multi- code. This did the trick and are the available channels
media box that cannot only are not found after all, be-
present TV channels but play 8 cause some cable provid-
back more or less all media ers do not use frequencies
files. It sports an intuitive that conform to the industry
user-interface and since it standard. This is why many
comes as part and parcel TV applications come with a
of any Windows7 operat- stupefying search mode that
ing system you don’t have tries out all possible modula-
to worry about troublesome tions and symbol rates one
installation. Ask any Linux after the other for each and
user with VDR and XBMC every frequency. One nota-
and they will tell you that life ble exception is ProgDVB,
4 5 and we’ll deal with that soft-
ware a little later.

ProgDVB
7. Easiest channel scan, even
our cable provider was pre-
configured!
8. Lots of functionalities in
an easy to use interface –
ProgDVB matured over its 10
years of existence
9. Just a software blind scan,
but still pretty good, in case
no pre-defined frequency list
is available.
10. CAM’s are recognized
and supported, thanks to the
integraded CI interfacecurrent
version is a limited OEM one.

9 10

6 DVBDream
1. Many optional modules may be selected
2. Though the TBS tuners are shipped with a remote, they don’t
require remote configuration in the TV application, since the
remote buttons are mapped as regular keyboard keys – very
clever!
3. DVBDream features so many modules, one is in doubt, which
to select…
4. Configuration goes on: what CODECs should be used? A little
technical insight is an advantage here.
5. Finally we can enjoy TV with a very clean user interface.
6. Sadly, most of the available buttons refer to the full version of
DVBDream and you only gets this message box, stating that the
current version is a limited OEM one.


At the end of the second cards are installed during dends tab in order to select pay TV channels or those
search run WMC once again the installation process. an appropriate transponder with unsuitable content.
had not found any channels. Next, we had to tackle the list. Next, we had to visit WMC
This was a clear indication DVBLink configuration. The The list on offer is quite again in order to reconfig-
that Microsoft had the US manual that is supplied with huge in comparison with ure it. This time it detected
market in mind when imple- the software gives very de- other TV applications we four new satellite cards, all
menting DVB-C. tailed instructions and you tested, even though for our of which carried the name
We tried to find the fre- should definitely make a cable provider (TV Cabo) we ‘DVBLink Tuner’. The next
quency table on our PC – point of giving it a read. The could not find an entry. How- step involved selecting any
yet, to no avail. We looked way DVBLink works follows ever, we quickly discovered of the available satellites,
for it with Windows Explorer a certain logic that is not so the transponder list directo- followed by choosing a uni-
and even with the Registry easy to understand without ry and simply created a new versal LNB. Given the fact
Editor and could not find some background informa- file for TV Cabo. we’re talking about DVB-C
anything. Our usual method tion. This is a self-explanatory here, we felt this was a de-
of last resort is an Inter- For software configura- procedure and we found it cidedly awkward configura-
net search, and this finally tion you need to launch a surprising that the new file tion process and you can im-
brought some light into the dedicated application called is automatically added to the agine our surprise when the
matter: WMC has all tran- DVBLink Configuration. You list of available entries. This signal quality of the selected
sponder data embedded in need to select TVSource as way we could start a chan- satellite was finally indicated
DLLs, which means there is source before you can pro- nel search right away, with- with 100%.
no way you can edit these ceed. In the Devices tab you out having to re-launch the It was only with the help of
data. then activate the TBS 6618 software. The search was the DVBLink manual that we
So once again we sifted before moving to the Hea- very swift, which is hardly figured out that no additional
surprising since the tran- channel search needs to be
sponder list only featured performed at this stage. In-
correct parameters which stead, we had to turn to the
simply had to be scanned. Extras menu of WMC, launch
Back in the main menu the DVBLink plugin and sync
of the DVBLink Configura- the channel list. Lo and be-
tion application we then had hold: At long last WMC re-
to set up the server in the warded our efforts with a list
lower tab. To the left you of DVB-C channels!
can see all found TV and ra- Whether or not so much
dio channels, which can be time and effort is worth your
copied into the list to the while is not for us to de-
right. All entries in that list cide. One thing is for sure,
are then made available by however: WMC looks simply
the server. stunning and once fully set
We think this clever layout up all members of your fam-
deserves special praise as ily will get the knack of it af-
it allows selecting individual ter only a short time. For us,
channels and filtering out some of the high points are

through the manufacturer’s
website and finally discov-
ered the DVBLink software,
which addresses TV cards
directly through their BDA
drivers and provides all re-
ceived streams to other cli-
ents by way of virtual satel-
lite TV cards. This is a neat
detour around WMC’s insuf-
ficient support of TV cards.
While it took us some time
to figure out how this set-up
works we simply didn’t want
to do without this added
functionality.
The first step involved in-
stallation of DVBLink. For
our test we selected the
DVBLink Server and DVBLink
TVSource components. A to-
tal of eight drivers for virtual


1 8

automatic time-shifting and sisted of clicking OK when- Windows Media Center
the recording function, both ever possible. That turned
of which seemed to appear out to be a worthwhile idea 1. Installing the driver is straight forward…
out of nowhere just when since it led us to the chan- 2. After finishing the driver installation without a reboot, the Device Man-
we needed it. That’s what nel search quickly and effi- ager lists TBS 6618 as a BDA tuner.
we call a perfect interface ciently. 3. Even the start screen of Windows Media Center looks impressive.
between man and machine, DVBDream comes with 4. The user is guided smoothly through all configuration steps.
and at that point all our con- a pre-defined transponder 5. First attempt at configuring the DVB-C card and start a channel scan.
figuration troubles seemed list, but it was of no use to 6. But at the end, no channels were found!
like vague memories of a us since our cable provider
7. In a second attempt we chose the post code of the nearest big city and
distant past. mainly uses a symbol rate this time we could chose from different cable TV providers.
Unfortunately, DVBLink of 6875, while all pre-set
8. We did another channel scan, which again took almost 15 minutes to
stubbornly refused to iden- transponders were set at complete, only to find out that no channels were found. What was wrong?
2 tify any CAM we threw at it, a symbol rate of 6900. We 9 WMC does not support DVB-C outside the USA properly, so DVBLink fills
which is why we could not then tried a manual search the niche and provides a virtual DVB-S card for WMC.
check whether or not it is at 690 MHz – the frequency 9. Drivers for the virtual card are installed automatically.
generally possible to watch of a free-to-air transponder
10. The DVBLink server needs to be configured. This software does not
subscription TV with WMC in – and the software was able only make WMC work with DVB-C cards. It actually can do much more
combination with DVBLink. to identify all 14 channels and acts like a streaming server for many different devices or applica-
Another downer with this right away. tions.
solution is the fact that Inspired by this easy win 11. DVBLink provides many pre-defined frequency lists for DVB-C.
DVBLink does not come free. we added the transponder 12. The channel scan worked immediately.
TBS customers receive a to the transponder list and
13. Despite wanting to configure our DVB-C device, we had to tell WMC
10% discount off the regular initiated another search with that a DVB-S tuner is to be configured. Strange.
price and the DVBLink soft- network mode activated. We
14. All four virtual DVBLink tuners appear.
ware can be evaluated for a expected DVBDream to read
period of 20 days before you out the network information 15. Because we are actually using DVB-C, it does not matter what satellite
is chosen.
need to purchase a licence table that is transmitted on
3 key. the newly added transpond- 10 13
The second software can- er and to use that data to
didate we looked at was detect all remaining tran-
DVBDream, which is shipped sponders and channels as
by TBS as an OEM version well. Albeit, this didn’t seem
on CD-ROM together with to work and the number of
the PC cards. During instal- new channels remained at
lation and when the applica- zero.
tion is launched for the first We approached our ca-
time new users are con- ble operator and inquired
fronted with a multitude of whether correct NIT infor-
parameters that need to be mation was transmitted
adjusted. at all, but as the test with
Some of them are ambigu- TSReader (further down in
ous and so our strategy con- the report) later showed
4 6 14

11

5 7 15

12


16
Windows Media Center 22. The timeline lets you go
back and forth in the time shift
– we never experienced a more
16. DVBLink recommends that comfortable time shift imple-
the Universal LNB is selected. mentation.
17. And we have signal! 23. DVBLink runs in trial mode
18. DVBLink installs a plug-in for 20 days, then you must
in WMC’s Extras menu. purchase it. Through TBS you
19. This is used to synchronize get a 10% discount.
the channels. 24. Because DVBLink didn’t
20. Finally we can relax and include frequencies for our
enjoy some TV cable operator, we just created
a new text file with the right
21. All functionalities you frequencies. The structure of
would expect from a media the file is easy to understand,
center are of course available. so this was no big deal.

17 21

18 22

19 23

20 24


1 2 5
only DVBDream is to blame this version is another great
for that flaw. feature that allows watching
This left us with only one two channels of the same
way out to add all channels transponder at the same
to the channel list: Start a time.
manual search for every While the pre-set channel
known transponder. While list clearly has satellite TV in
this worked out fine in the mind the channel search will
end we believe it definitely also accept DVB-C modula-
should not be the way to go. tions without further ado.
In its OEM version DVB- For the first time in our test
Dream comes with extreme- we seem to have reached
ly reduced functionality. common ground: Umpteen
What’s worse, all buttons different DVB-C transpond-
with inactive functions are ers are offered, divided up
still displayed and every according to countries or
time you click on one of modulation types. What’s
these an alert window pops more, new lists can easily be
up informing you that the added manually. Then again, 6
function you’re looking for is network search and blind
not available. In addition, an scan mode are not available.
earlier test in TELE-satellite While the TBSViewer soft-
10-11/2011 already demon- ware was not included on the
strated that the DVBDream CD-ROM that was shipped the software you’re looking application a try as well. It is 3
software is really made for with the TBS 6618, it was for you can always find the evident right from the start
DVB-S/S2 and therefore is available with the TBS 5680. missing pieces for download that this software suite is a
not an ideal match for DVB- This product also came from the TBS website. well-developed, sophisticat-
C. with the TBSVHID tool that As mentioned above, TB- ed and thought-through so-
Being a professional man- is required for the remote SViewer is an OEM version of lution. All installed TV cards
ufacturer of PC cards, TBS control, as well as a PDF file DVBViewer, which is why we showed up in the hardware
has its own TV software in with an electronic manual. gave the original DVBViewer options immediately and
store as well. It is called TB- Even if you buy a TBS card
SViewer and is essentially a that does not come with all
customised version of DVB-
Viewer with tailor-made ap-
pearance. Plus, it will only
work with TBS cards.
The user interface
sports a pleasant layout 7
and the channel list is
displayed as soon as
the cursor approach-
es the right window
frame – this makes
for a channel selec-
tion that is both
convincingly sim-
ple and genuinely 4
elegant. The PiP
(picture-in-pic-
ture) function
available in

8

TBSViewer 3. Scaning all transponders
4. Listing all found channels
1. TBSViewer allows an easy 5. Nice and simple interface.
selection of the desired card,
in case you have more than 6. Many functions like a full
one installed. EPG are available in this free
software.
2. Many pre-defined fre-
quency lists – these allow for 7. CAM’s are recognized.
a very quick channel scan, 8. Amazing for a free TV appli-
as all tuning parameters are cation: even PiP and EPG can
known. be used


1 4

TSReader both the TBS 6618 and the
1. TSReader fully supports TBS 5680. Beginning with
both DVB-C tuners from TBS. the TBS 6618 we reduced the
2. Channels can be viewed signal level from 55 dBµV to
through streaming to VLC. 32 dBµV dBµV. Conventional
3. All details of the transport DVB-C receivers will look in
steam can be analyzed. wonder at such a weak sig-
4. This transponder features nal and will not be able to
12 channels! produce a usable picture at
5. In this chart one can see the all. Your TV screen will stay
signal drop, when our artificial
attenuation was activated.
blank and the receiver in all
The tuner of the TBS 6618 was probability will not even be
amazingly able to regain a in a position to get a signal
lock after under one second! lock.
6. Naturally the pictures is full Out reference meter
of artefacts – no other DVB-C shows a BER value of <1-
tuner was ever able to get a
lock on such a poor signal, not 0e-8 when the signal has its
2 even our meters
5 original level of 55 dBµV and
consequently identifies all
channels of the transpond-
cessfully identified during
ers flawlessly. Once the re-
our test.
ception level is reduced to
One of the most popular
32 dBµV, however, our refer-
TV applications is ProgDVB,
ence meter cannot lock the
which is available in two
signal any longer and hence
versions: free and profes-
cannot give out a BER value
sional. We only looked at
either.
the free version and what
Given the above, we could
we found speaks volumes.
hardly believe our eyes when
On the market since 2002,
the TBS 6618 nonetheless
ProgDVB is something like
managed to get a signal lock
a classic and it’s no surprise
and was even able to whizz
after ten years of continuous
up a picture on our screen
development that this soft-
at times. We obviously could
ware seems to have more
not expect faultless video
features and functions than
but we were surprised that
you will ever need. But this
some picture artefacts ap-
is only one side of the coin.
3 What contributes hugely 6 peared at all, which is im-
pressive proof of the tuner’s
to the enormous popular-
capabilities.
ity of ProgDVB is that it al-
Next, we checked whether
lows developers to program
both models would allow re-
plugins. While it is true
cording an entire transpond-
that DVBViewer also offers
er. Since it is a single tuner,
that option, it is only with
the TBS 5680 happily re-
ProgDVB that programmers
corded all data, even though
are not faced with any re-
it is connected through a
striction whatsoever, which
USB 2.0 interface with its
means that SoftCAM plugins
inherent data rate restric-
can be installed and used
tions.
as well. This in turn allows
We finally looked at the
watching encrypted chan-
NIT and were in for quite a
nels in connection with a
surprise: All transponders
valid smartcard. The free
used by our cable provider
version in itself offers a host
transmitted the relevant re-
of functions, and ProgDVB
ception parameters, which
Pro adds premium features
means it is indeed possible
such as picture-in-picture,
to perform a successful net-
mosaic screen, recording
without any additional con- in the home network pro- transponder lists, which are should be! have a look at the ProgDVB first go. This software re- work search. Why none of
and streaming.
figuration requirements. vide great value for money rather limited. While this is ProgDVB even offers blind software. quired that reception pa- the software solutions we
Here again detecting and
We particularly liked that if you opt for the DVBViewer a problem that can easily scan, although this is with- Strictly speaking, TSRead- rameters of the selected tested was in a position to
integrating the two DVB-C
channel lists can be grouped software that must be pur- be solved, it still tests your out hardware support. To er is not software for transponder(s) must be en- also put this information to
tuners was as easy as A-B-
and linked to a correspond- chased. patience as you need to per- circumvent that limitation watching TV but a high- tered manually, but once practical use is beyond us.
C, and of all tested applica-
ing TV card in case more We found that the soft- form a search across the ProgDVB scans the entire performance professional that is accomplished you Now that we had checked
tions only ProgDVB provided
than one card is connected. ware met all our expecta- entire frequency range and frequency range in pre-de- application for analysing are immediately presented out the TBS 6618 with all TV
useful transponder lists by
Obviously, DVBViewer tions: No matter whether with all modulation types fined steps (2 MHz by de- transport streams. In TELE- with all transponder stream channels available to us it
default. We even found a
works very similar to TB- it’s EPG, teletext, time-shift and symbol rates to make fault), which takes forever satellite 06-07/2012 we al- details. We found that truly was time to turn to the TBS
dedicated list for TV Cabo,
SViewer, but a great deal of viewing or recording, eve- sure you don’t miss a sin- (we’re not talking minutes ready presented TSReader impressive! 5680 as well.
our cable provider in Por-
additional functions such as rything performed up to gle channel. This may easily here but hours) but in the and its creator Rod Hewitt. Rather than for watching Basically, this is an exter-
tugal. This meant the chan-
a streaming option or dis- standard. The one thing that take 10 to 20 minutes, but end delivers a result. Those Thanks to the BDA DVB-C TV we used this application nal USB version of the TBS
nel search was done with
tributing the currently re- could use some improve- at least all channels of our of you who haven’t already profile setting up TSReader to have an in-depth look at 6618 that will find users in
in a breeze, just the way it
ceived signal to other clients ment was the pre-defined cable provider were suc- done so should definitely was successful in the very the reception capabilities of the laptop computer com-


Tenow

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