1. TEST REPORT Satellite PC Card
TeVii DVB-S/S2
PCI-E Card S470
Add Digital TV
Reception to Your PC
In the past several years one development in particular has the motherboard via a PCI-
become more and more popular: the incorporation of digital E slot. This is a modification
of the well-known PCI slot in
receivers in a PC and of course the digital receivers that much higher transmis-
with built-in PC’s. sion speeds are now possible;
We are keeping an eye out on the development of set-top perfect for HDTV reception.
PCI-E slots come in two dif-
boxes that, in addition to the normal function of receiving ferent hights, and TeVii even
digital TV and radio content via satellite, can also connect to provides the S470 with both
the Internet so that video clips or IPTV can be played back. brackets: the standard one
for regular PCs and the low
These home multimedia powerhouses would also be able to profile bracket, which is ide-
display your pictures, play back music and even allow ally suited for the new slim
you to play games. PCs.
At the same time, more and more homes are warming up to We began by installing
the idea of PC reception. There are a number of reasons for the card in a typical PC. For
this: receiving satellite TV through a PC is less expensive than us this turned out to be an
older Pentium IV 3 GHz PC
with a stand-alone set-top box, recording digital content can with 1GB RAM. According to
take place directly on the hard drive of the PC – this saves the manufacturer, the mini-
the user time when burning a DVD in that the data doesn’t mum PC requirements are a
2 GHz CPU for SDTV or 2.4
first have to be transferred over to a PC. Then there are those GHz for HDTV, 512 MB RAM
households that despite having an LCD monitor that they use for SDTV and 1GB for HDTV
with their PC’s, they still have an older TV that is used for as well as a graphics card
with 128 MB of memory. Our
normal TV viewing. And since watching HDTV programming test PC falls just within these
without a high resolution LCD or plasma TV makes no sense, requirements. Naturally, the
this content is also viewed through a PC. TeVii card supports the Win-
dows XP and Vista as well
as Linux operating systems.
The Taiwanese company The MyTeVii software is only
TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/...
Download this report in other languages from the Internet:
TeVii recognized this trend compatible with Windows;
Arabic ‫ﺍﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/ara/tevii.pdf a long time ago and has Linux users must find suitable
Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/bid/tevii.pdf strengthened their develop- alternatives in the Internet.
Bulgarian Български www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/bul/tevii.pdf
Czech Česky www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/ces/tevii.pdf ment of TV and radio recep- We were happy to see that
German Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/deu/tevii.pdf
English English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/eng/tevii.pdf tion solutions for PC’s. This TeVii included 64-bit drivers
Spanish Español www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/esp/tevii.pdf
Farsi ‫ﻓﺎﺭﺳﻲ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/far/tevii.pdf wouldn’t be the first time that for Windows.
French Français www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/fra/tevii.pdf
Greek Ελληνικά www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/hel/tevii.pdf TELE-satellite introduced a
Croatian Hrvatski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/hrv/tevii.pdf
Italian Italiano www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/ita/tevii.pdf TeVii product; one of these The TeVii card is delivered
Hungarian Magyar www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/mag/tevii.pdf was the TeVii S650 USB box. in a handy box. Included is a
Mandarin 中文 www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/man/tevii.pdf
Dutch Nederlands www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/ned/tevii.pdf remote control with batter-
Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/pol/tevii.pdf
Portuguese Português www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/por/tevii.pdf This time it’s the new S470 ies, an IR receiver, a software
Romanian Românesc www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/rom/tevii.pdf
Russian Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/rus/tevii.pdf PC Card. This new model is CD and fold-out installation
Swedish Svenska www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/sve/tevii.pdf
Turkish Türkçe www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0909/tur/tevii.pdf not connected externally; instructions. The TeVii S470 is
Available online starting from 31 July 2009 instead it is linked directly to plug&play compatible and for
42 TELE-satellite — Broadband & Fiber-Optic — 08-09/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

2. 08-09/2009
TEVII DVB-S/S2
PCI-E CARD S470
An elegant solution for normal
and HDTV reception on a PC
www.TELE-satellite.com — 08-09/2009 — TELE-satellite — Broadband & Fiber-Optic 43

3. Alternative Reception Software
for the TeVii S470:
www.progdvb.com
ProgDVB our test PC this meant install- The included remote control
www.dvbviewer.com
DVBViewer
www.dvbdream.org ing the card in an available sits very nicely in your hands,
DVBDream de
WatchTVPro www.watchtvpro-experience. PCI-E slot and then putting is clearly labeled and left us
www.smartdvb.net
SmartDVB
www.tsreader.com the cover back on the PC. with a very favorable impres-
TSReader
www.skygrabb er.com
SkyGrabb er sion in terms of its workman-
www.tuner4pc.com
Tuner4PC
We quickly connected a ship.
satellite cable from one of
our signal distributors to the Software Setup
IF input on the card and last When the TeVii software is
but not least connected the started for the first time, it
IR receiver. Now it was time initially greets the user with
to play. After turning on the a blank screen. A prepro-
PC, Windows XP immediately grammed channel list isn’t
found the new hardware. activated nor does the soft-
Instead of letting Windows ware ask the user to perform
search for matching driv- a channel scan. Considering
ers, the installation CD was that the TeVii S470 is being
Main MyTeVii window with all channels inserted into the appropriate distributed around the world
drive. The installation assis- and that a preprogrammed
tant appeared and began channel list would probably not
installing the necessary driv- make sense anyway, it would
ers as well as the MyTeVii have been nice if the user was
software. directed to an automatic or
manual channel scan.
At this point it is also pos-
sible to select whether just The TeVii developed user
the drivers and MyTeVii soft- interface provided us with
ware should be installed or a very clean and organized
if the TeViiData program impression. On the right side
should also be installed. This are the channel list and avail-
program permits the use able satellites; the currently
Main MyTeVii window – Channel list sorted by transponder
of Internet via satellite ser- selected channel is displayed
vices but more on that later. to the left. An EPG bar at the
After clicking the OK button bottom of the display window
it takes only a few seconds provides information on the
before all of the required currently running program.
data has found its way to our The size of the playback
test PC. If for any reason you window can be adjusted to
don’t happen to like the TeVii your liking; the TV picture can
software, a demo version of also be viewed in full-screen
ProgDVB can also be found mode.
on the installation CD. We
will have more on this pro- Clicking the right mouse
gram and other alternative button opens the Options
Perfect SCPC reception of TÜRKSAT at 42° east programs a little later. menu giving the user access
Even ProgDVB works perfectly with the TeVii card Alternative Software WatchTVPro Experience
44 TELE-satellite — Broadband & Fiber-Optic — 08-09/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

4. to all of the necessary set- a receiver that comes with
tings. The TeVii software itself so many satellites to choose
is very international; it can from that are also for the
communicate with the user most part very up to date.
in a variety of languages: Thanks to the easy to under-
English, French, German, stand OSD structure it is
Arabic, Chinese, Finnish, Ital- quite easy to match the nec-
ian, Polish, Russian, Span- essary parameters (DiSEqC,
ish and Swedish. With this LOF, etc.) to each individual
A preprogrammed list of 177 satellites at your fingertips
many choices, no one should satellite. It’s also just as easy
have any problems finding a with just a few mouse clicks
matching language. to access, delete or edit tran-
sponders. The same holds
The settings menu comes true for the satellite settings.
with a variety of options and
settings possibilities. Nearly To make sure that the
every aspect of the software signal from the LNB can be
can be matched to the users processed correctly, it is
requirements, such as, how necessary to provide the
content is displayed, the stor- correct local oscillator fre-
ing and operation of the chan- quency (LOF) and switching
nel lists, the control of LNBs, point between low and high
the use of multiple moni- band. The MyTeVii software
tors, setting up recordings comes preprogrammed with
and time shifting, the video a number of LOF values for
and audio Codec’s, the IR the Ku-band and C-band and
Various system settings let you match the MyTeVii software to your receiver, the parameters for if you happen to be using
needs
the EPG display and last but an LNB with a non-stan-
not least an Expert menu that dard LOF, it can simply be
provides access to the basic entered in manually. When
parameters of the software. all the parameters from your
Despite all of these settings antenna system have been
possibilities, the Main menu entered, the next step takes
has remained clear and easy you to a channel scan. At
to understand. TeVii accom- this point you can perform a
plished this thanks to the manual transponder scan or
window architecture that is let the TeVii S470 handle all
part of MS Windows. It would of the scanning work auto-
not be possible to clearly matically.
present so many settings in
a standard set top box. Once Since the S470 is a PC
all of the needed settings are solution, the size of the chan-
taken care of, the TeVii card nel memory is for all practi-
Recording Settings must then become acquainted cal purposes unlimited and
with the antenna system with almost begs to be filled with
which it will be used. channel data. The card is both
DVB-S and DVB-S2 compat-
Since the card works with ible and therefore, in addition
all the different DiSEqC pro- to QPSK modulation in DVB-
tocols, it can be used with S, it also supports 8PSK in
a typical multifeed antenna DVB-S2. The “Auto” setting
(DiSEqC 1.0), a Wavefron- switches between the two
tier antenna with up to 16 by itself. An automatic scan
LNBs (DiSEqC 1.1) as well as of HOTBIRD at 13° east was
a motorized system (DiSEqC completed in just a little over
1.2 and USALS) without any six minutes in our tests. Not
problems. The S470 comes bad at all considering this is
with a large selection of pre- a PC solution. The TeVii card
programmed satellites that also gallantly passed one of
includes 170 American, Euro- our toughest tests with the
pean and Asian satellites. It’s horizontal transponders on
Settings for the Professionals not very often that we see NILESAT at 7° west. The S470
46 TELE-satellite — Broadband & Fiber-Optic — 08-09/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com

5. also performed perfectly with ware is only further confirmed The TeVii software can result was as expected: the
our SCPC test; it was able to in the channel list. It can be store recordings as a trans- card was able to realize its
process the narrow band sig- sorted and modified a number port stream or in MPEG com- full potential and played back
nals on TÜRKSAT 42° east of ways so that, for example, patible format so that it can HDTV in 1080i format without
without any difficulties. channels can be grouped by be played back with any video any problems at all. With that
package, transponder or sat- player. The EPG was designed in mind, we want to make it
Everyday Use ellite or Favorites lists can be with clarity and simplicity clear that the manufacturer’s
Thanks to the extremely filled with channels that you in mind. It displays all of hardware requirements for
fast data connection through watch more often. Unwanted the information provided by HD reception are really the
the PCI-E bus, the S470 can channels can be marked and a broadcaster in an easy- minimum requirements.
switch between channels very deleted with just a single to read and logically sorted
quickly; it makes channel surf- click. Adult channels can be format. Ideally, this would let If you are more experienced
ing a lot of fun. It doesn’t locked out with a PIN code so you see programming infor- in handling your software set-
matter if you’re switching that kids can’t accidentally mation up to seven days in tings and if your video card
between HD channels or SD stumble on those channels. advance with data on each supports H264 acceleration,
channels or if you’re switch- individual program such as then TeVii has some tricks
ing from HD to SD or vice It is quite practical that the content, provider, etc. on hand, how to bring down
versa, the switching time is editing of the entire channel processor load significantly.
just a little over one second. list takes place directly in the For the most part, the TeVii This is what’s needed to do:
This is actually quite good MyTeVii software window thus software appears to be per- Go to main menue: Settings,
considering this is a PC solu- making any changes immedi- fect, but TeVii kept in mind Directshow Filters, Cyberlink,
tion and it even leaves some ately visible. In addition to the that good can always be made Video and in the properties
set top boxes in the dust. playback of live TV, the S470 better. For this reason the mark “Use Hardware Accel-
When in Windows mode, the naturally also comes with engineers included a plug-in erator” or “DXVA” (depending
software, if desired, blends in recording and time shift func- interface that with the help of on your system). Apply the
EPG information on the cur- tions. For one thing, record- the software will let you add a changes and go to the main
rent program at the bottom ings can be manually started. variety of extra features. settings menu of MyTeVii, go
of the display. They can also be started at to Autograph and proceed like
a specific time through the How much of this: If you are using Vista or
It is also possible to make EPG or programmed manu- a load does this Windows 7 choose “Enhanced
this EPG information as well
as channel data visible on
ally. Thanks to the time shift
function, you won’t miss any
card put on the Video Renderer”.
are using XP choose Video
If you
the on-screen display. This is of the action in that movie processor? Mixing Renderer 7. That’s all,
especially practical when the you’re watching should the A big question is this: if you close settings windows, and
PC monitor is being used in telephone ring. The movie plan to do other work with your restart MyTeVii. Note that the
full-screen mode as a TV and is simply paused and when PC while the TeVii software is enhanced Video Renderer is
the TeVii software is being you’ve had enough of talk- playing back video, how much not compatible with the IVR
controlled from the couch via ing with your favorite Aunt, does this TV reception affect mode and thus will work only
the remote control. The per- you can pick up watching that the running of other pro- in simple mode, this means
fect design of the TeVii soft- movie where you left off. grams? In SD mode, a PC with no OSD.
half way decent hardware will
have no problems at all. But Alternative
with HDTV the outlook is dif-
ferent. If it involves HDTV in
Software
720p format, our older Intel The only feature that was
Pentium IV did not have any missing from the TeVii S470
problems and was able to PCI-E card was a CI slot. For
produce an interference-free you, the end user, this means
picture with a processor load that PayTV reception is not
of about 75%. possible. However, there are
two solutions to this! You may
But in 1080i mode, video wait till 3rd Quarter 2009 and
dropouts were the norm and TeVii will introduce the S475,
the CPU load climbed to nearly which is a DVB-S2 low profile
100%. At the same time, PCI-E card with CI daughter
doing other work on the PC board. It will feature a CAN
was not really possible while tuner with a loop through.
TV playback was in operation. The other possiblity is soft-
We therefore decided to test ware. There are quite a few
the card in a more modern TV viewers available that
PC (Intel Core2Duo). The work well with the TeVii S470,
TeViiData for Internet via Satellite
www.TELE-satellite.com — 08-09/2009 — TELE-satellite — Broadband & Fiber-Optic 47

6. Processor Load PC Card HDTV 720p
the most popular and most net or starts a download, the
widely used of these would request is sent via modem to
of course be ProgDVB. Obvi- the Internet via Satellite pro-
ously, ProgDVB can’t magi- vider which then retrieves the
cally pull a CI slot out of a hat, data via a high-speed connec- Processor Load USB Box HDTV 720p
but it is possible to access tion and routes it to a satellite.
another receiver through card The customer at the other
sharing using a valid Smart- end only sends the informa-
Card. It could work like this: tion request via modem to his
you have a valid PayTV sub- provider; the information he Processor Load PC Card HDTV 1080i
scription card that is inserted needs is sent back to him at
in a receiver in your living high speed via satellite.
room. You set up your PC in
such a way that it has access The only drawback is
to this receiver through a that every person that can Processor Load USB Box HDTV 1080i
network connection. With the receive the same satellite
proper plug-ins, this will let can also receive the data you
you access the SmartCard in requested. Yes, the data is
your receiver with the TeVii encrypted and only meant
S470 and thereby share that for you to receive but there down to personal taste. The the advantage that it doesn’t
SmartCard with your living is software available that will USB box is clearly more flex- need an external power supply
room receiver and the TeVii bypass this encryption so ible and can also be used on and doesn’t have an external
card. that the data can be seen by camping trips together with a box that takes up valuable
others as well. In our tests, laptop. The PCI-E version has space on your desk.
ProgDVB isn’t the only data reception using the TeVii
one out there. There are a software functioned flaw-
number of other programs lessly. We didn’t expect any-
Expert Opinion
that together with the S470 thing else. +
will provide you with TV The TeVii S470 PCI-E card is an excellent solu-
reception. Refer to Table 1 What’s better? tion for receiving SDTV and HDTV via satellite on
your PC. The included MyTeVii software is very
for the necessary links. In
meantime, the new MyTeVii
PCI-E Card or easy to use and functioned perfectly during our
4.xx software, which was not USB Box? tests. Thomas Haring
TELE-satellite
yet available at time of this Thanks to the plug-in interface it can easily be Test Center
Unlike the S470 PCI-E card, Austria
enhanced and at the same time the S470 can be
test, will also support all kind the TeVii’s S650 is externally
used with alternative reception software. With the help of the
of plugins including softcams, connected to a PC via USB proper Codec’s, feeds in MPEG 4:2:2 format can also be received.
card sharing and so on. We 2.0 and powered by an exter- This should make DXer’s especially happy.
also don’t want to forget the nal power supply. We were Another plus is TeVii’s constant work in improving their prod-
radio lovers out there. The interested to find out which ucts, especially the MyTeVii software.
TeVii S470 is not just for TV of these versions would be Updates can be downloaded directly from the manufacturer’s
reception; it naturally can better for the end user. To web site at no charge.
also be used for top-quality this end we checked the pro-
satellite radio reception. And cessor load on our Intel Pen-
-
just like TV channels, radio Processor load can only be brought down by experienced
tium IV PC in SDTV mode as
channels can also be recorded computer users
well as in HDTV (720p and
and digitally stored. 1080i) mode. We discovered
that both the USB version and TECHNIC
TeViiData PCI-E version placed about DATA
TeVii doesn’t only specialize the same load on the PC. Manufacturer TeVii Technology Ltd. Taiwan
in satellite TV and radio recep- Email Sales patricia@TeVii.com
tion products; there’s also a As you can see in the pro- Email Support peterson@TeVii.com
completely different applica- cessor load screen shots, Model S470
tion. The magical phrase here both values are in the same Function PCI-E card for TV reception on the PC in SDTV and HDTV
is Internet via Satellite. The range. The variations that Channel memory unlimited
technology behind this is quite can be seen are due to Satellites 177
simple: the user sets up a con- smaller changes in the video Symbol rates 2-45 Ms/sec.
nection via modem or ISDN. (the same scene shown for a SCPC compatible yes (tested > 2.2 MS/s)
The speed of this connection longer period of time) result- USALS yes
can be a mere 56kbps but it ing in less of a load on the DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
only plays a very small role. processor. For the end user EPG yes
If the user surfs the Inter- the choice ultimately comes C/Ku-Band compatible yes
48 TELE-satellite — Broadband & Fiber-Optic — 08-09/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com