This PCI-based digital satellite receiver, built around the SAA7146A PCI bridge, keeps system costs to a minimum by using software for transport stream demultiplexing and the host CPU for MPEG decoding.
The design requires only two key components, the DVB-S front-end and the SAA7146A PCI bridge. Satellite channel decoding is provided by a DVB-S compliant multimedia media tuner (Philips SU1200, Alps BSRV2, or Alps BSRU6).
The highly integrated PCI bridge SAA7146A includes multiple DMA channels, bi-directional audio/video capture and playback, and dual high-performance scalers. The industry standard for PCI-based multimedia upgrades, the SAA7146A allows for a multitude of feature enhancements above and beyond the core DVB-S reception capability of the design, allowing maximum reuse of software. Possible options for the SAA7146A include video editing, video conferencing, analog TV in a PC, and analog video capture.
The design works with NXP's BDA-compliant tuner and capture drivers that match perfectly with third-party application software and MPEG decode/demux filters, and Microsoft BDA components to form a complete system solution.