Receiver or PC Card?

[Pullet_Surprise]

I'm still fishing about trying to suss' the best setup to receive satellite TV. I want to watch satellite TV on my pc upstairs. Now I know i can do this with the WinTv DVB-s card. The trouble is eventually my nearest and dearest is going to want watch satellite TV downstairs through the TV.

The other thing is If I have a reciever and a pc card hooked up to the same dish can you only watch one channel at a time?

The problem is if I shell out for a receiver I still need a pc card to watch it via my pc and those winTV cards aint cheap. Anyone know of a good setup to perform the above?

Cheers,


P

 

[s*t*a*r*m*a*n]

Hi, You seem happy enough to go for the WinTv DVB card. If i was buying a card again "i have a penta media", then i would make sure the card i would go for was compatible with the multidec emulator so as i do not need to buy several cams which would save me a few hundred and have the potential to broaden my tv viewing if you know what i mean A cam is required if your card has an addon for receiving pay channels and not just free to air. The viewing card
slots into it. They are all about £80 and upwards each and each cam is required to decrypt the encryption system along with a valid or unofficial viewing card. With a PC card fitted you can watch tv on your pc and then feed the signal down with some digital cable from the room upstairs into the back of your tv/video, there are several ways of doing this ofcourse, the way i do it is by taking the output connector from my card into my scart video sitting next to it then feeding the wire down behind the tv then just plugging the aerial in to the downstairs tv when i want to watch it downstairs. I can ofcourse also watch it upstairs at the same time but only the same channel. "To watch 2 channels at once would require 2 receivers". I just watch 1 channel at a time so if your wife wanted to watch something else on another channel on the same satellite then yes i suppose you could also buy a sat receiver standalone model then share the cable from the one dish and feed it into both receivers but it would be a bit expensive i think?? (2 receivers? for the occasional tv viewing by your wife?) anyone disagree? and if your wife wanted to watch something on another satellite then you would need to either go motorised or use a bracket and fit 2 lbms to the one dish pointing to both satellites and use a diseque switch to choose between them or so i believe. It all soon adds up. Standalone receivers are easier i guess and more convenient that pc based systems as pcs can and often do go into unexplained fits of "im not going to work for you today you tos**r

Just my opinion

 

[Channel Hopper]

A receiver anyday, unless you have a serious space issue in the other room

PCs have a nasty habit of hanging when multitasking at a critical point in a film and you have to restart the programme

 

[Pullet_Surprise]

Thanks guys,

@Starman,

I though the hauppauge card was best for multidec after reading other posts etc. Are you saying it needs a cam interface ISA/PCI slot in cam/card as well? I thought that was done by softcam?

Now then... The only way to interface a sat receiver into a PC is with a sat video card i.e pent or Haup' DVB etc?

The thing is I want to buy a reciever full stop. But I still need a suitable card to run it through my pc. Eventually I want to move the receiver to a TV, use a twin output LNB and have one feed to TV and one to my PC. I may have missed the whole story but, is multidec the only way to receive 'quality';-) tv through a pc sat card?



Regards,

P

 

[rolfw]

No, using a Hauppauge or similar Multidec compatible card is the cheapest way of getting free multi-encryption TV. Any other receiver will require some sort of CAM, embedded or otherwise. If you want to watch separate channels on both computer and TV, then you will of course need a second receiver, so perhaps the Hauppauge or similar would be a good starting point.

If all you want to do is watch the same programming as on the TV, then a simple analogue TV card in the PC (£25 or so) will suffice, with a feed from the satellite receiver.

Rolf

 

[Pullet_Surprise]

Thanks Rolf,

Ive got an analogue TV card at the moment its not bad but wont take sat. Im still a bit confused at Starmans comments about multidec needing a cam?

P

 

[rolfw]

No what he is saying is that if he had his choice again he wouldn't buy the PentaVision card as its not compatible with Multidec.

Rolf

 

[s*t*a*r*m*a*n]

Yes Rolfw that is what i am saying