FTA Ku Band System Access Outernet Data

Othernet Hardware
#1

I currently have a Free-to-Air (FTA) system consisting of a 80 cm dish with a KuBand Quad Polar LNB running to my OpenBox receiver connected to my HD TV.

I see Galaxy 19 very well, and would like to know how to extract your data from Galaxy 19 using my FTA gear. Presumably I need to add Raspberry Pi device to the output of the OpenBox receiver somehow, but I can’t find any details about the “hows and intracacies” of doing this - - like a DIY approach to the answer.

Thanks all, Ken

#2

We’re currently only supporting the case where you connect a tuner directly to RPi. Unless you can trick RPi into seeing your STB as LinuxTV-API-compatible device, I don’t think you can use your OpenBox.

#3

Thank you, Branko. That’s truely unfortunate for the worldwide collection of FTA folks looking at information being broadcast from outside their cultures.

I’ll have to wait for the Lantern device I ordered to arrive next Summer. Thanks, Ken

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#4

Hey Ken,

It looks like Openbox is just a basic satellite receiver, so there is nowhere for a computer to connect in order to decode the digital bitstream.

What I would suggest doing is upgrading the KU band LNB on your satellite dish to one that has two outputs, then you could connect one output to your Openbox like usual and connect the other to a PCTV 461e USB receiver. If you have a steerable dish, the Openbox would still control your DiSEqC (or whatever) motor controller, but the PCTV 461e would receive the digital bitstream from Outernet.

Here’s one on Amazon.com that I plan on trying to use on my setup: http://amzn.com/B00AWHGYVK

#5

Good point DarkStar - what I was planning on doing since I have a Quad Polar LNB (Invacom QPH-031) with a DiSEqC, was to either:

  1. Point to Galaxy 19 with my system then disconnect the single cable feed from the LNB/DiSEqc/dish to the OpenBox and plug it into the PCTV 461E USB receiver and go from there, or
  2. Point to Galaxy 19 and connect the PCTV 461E USB receiver to the OpenBox rf output connector and go from there.

What do you think, and by the way, what Raspberry Pi package have you successfully used? Ken

#6

You can do it ether way, however if you are only using one of the linear outputs on the QPH-031, I would connect the PCTV 461e to the other linear output.

If you want to use the RF output on the Openbox, I believe you’ll need to use a DC block between the PCTV 461e and the Openbox. The Openbox will be controlling the LNB.

I’ve successfully installed Arch Linux on a Raspberry Pi Model B along with their ONDD, Librarian, and TVHeadend. I also manually loaded the Outernet archive and just today got a TL-WN722N wifi dongle to configure as an access point.

I’m still waiting for my PCTV 461e to arrive from overseas, but I should be ready to go once that shows up.

#7

Thanks, DarkStar. I have ordered my hardware and await its arrival.

I’ll start with the most basic setup connecting (as you suggest) to one of my spare vertically/horizontally polarized LNBs at the satellite dish after I have pointed it with my OpenBox, and disconnected the OpenBox/DiSEqC cable.

If that works, I’ll move inside and pull the signal out of the OpenBox rf port with a dc blocker (I plan to use a a 2-way Digital RF Splitter [5 - 2400 MHz]). Will advise.

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#8

As a follow-up, the Geniatech HDStar TV box I ordered from Hong Kong was cancelled for no apparent reason. I was fortunate to contact Hauppauge’s New York office and discover that the PCTV 461e is now available in the US thru Hauppauge USA. One is on order now, and on the way finally. Ken

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