Compro s350

[Nebulous]

I have a cheap (lidl) satellite dish and box that have been in service for almost 2 years now.

Recently when building a new computer I bought one of these satellite cards. It had a few issues in setting up, but these were resolved with the new Windows 7 drivers, from the Compro website.

However Windows media centre has been a real eye opener. It tuned in quite a few channels, including BBC HD, which was my main reason for buying the card, as my box is only SD.

The most exciting bit is the EPG though. It gives me a 14 day channel guide and allows several recording options, including picking a programme to record, and recording of the whole series. I thought you needed Sky or Freesat to get anything other than now or next on satellite. Is anyone else using this? What do you think of it?

James

[aljaxon]

I have a cheap (lidl) satellite dish and box that have been in service for almost 2 years now.

Recently when building a new computer I bought one of these satellite cards. It had a few issues in setting up, but these were resolved with the new Windows 7 drivers, from the Compro website.

However Windows media centre has been a real eye opener. It tuned in quite a few channels, including BBC HD, which was my main reason for buying the card, as my box is only SD.

The most exciting bit is the EPG though. It gives me a 14 day channel guide and allows several recording options, including picking a programme to record, and recording of the whole series. I thought you needed Sky or Freesat to get anything other than now or next on satellite. Is anyone else using this? What do you think of it?

James

ive got a 350 but im disappointed that it only gets about one in ten feeds in dvb s2 or hd that are posted on satelliweb.com
i can get itv and bbc hd. but am on xp. i cant get it to work on server 2008 and havent got windows 7 yet.
will windows media centre power a motorised dish?

[Nebulous]

Hmm

I'm on a fixed dish pointing to Astra 2a, 2b and 2d I think.(28.2 E) Unfortunately they are not listed on that website you gave so I have no idea how many channels I should have.

The Compro software picks up 614 stations 204 of them unlocked, so I can access them.

Windows throws Eurobird into the mix but it gives what I think must be Sky numbering convention, with BBC 1 starting at 101. Numbers go up to about 1200, but I can't be bothered counting live ones.

The great thing for me is recording to hard disk and the EPG. I've been able to set it to record the whole series of "The thick of it" for instance.

It has some problems, I had to give my postcode but it still doesn't give me BBC1 Scotland by default for example.

No idea about motorised dishes. Everything I've read seems to suggest that running a motor through a PCI card is not a good idea anyway.

[cragllo]

I have a S350 too, It's not a S2 card so wont ever be able to tune S2 channels, BBC HD and ITV HD are not S2 and I'm happy with them for now.

My setup works with my new white Sky card and I am able to view Sky1, Bravo etc using DVB Dream software with NDSCam and a cardreader. Overall I am very happy with this satellite card, it was cheap and I have had no problems whatsoever under XP, planning on upgrading to 7 so am hopeful all is well then too.

[portly]

Well im suprised you got bbc hd as i couldnt get it, on my win7 pc with there software , had to use dvbdream 1.5 beta

[Nebulous]

Did you try the Windows 7 updated software from the compro website?

I've just rescanned it and got 634 channels, 210 of them free to air.

However I don't really use the Compro software - tending to use Windows Media Centre. I really like it for the EPG, and the ease of recording films etc. That's where I get BBC HD, on channel 108. Recording it and then playing it back through my TV gives a better picture than my SD box does. It's the best £25 I have spent for some time!

[portly]

Arh this is why you can get bbchd then i used win7 media center too and got it with that , but compro software is crap, dvbdream works ok if youve got the right codecs but not bad for the money, just a shame about the software