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A card that lets you watch pay-TV on your PC, sounds totally illegal doesn't it? Fear not, Hauppauge's WinTV-CI lets you do just that, and it's entirely legal too.
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Read more.Quote:
A card that lets you watch pay-TV on your PC, sounds totally illegal doesn't it? Fear not, Hauppauge's WinTV-CI lets you do just that, and it's entirely legal too.
Pinnacle released a Satellite version with a CI years ago, didn't they? The PCTV Sat CI? Pinnacle PCTV Sat CI TV Tuner Review in TV Tuners at Review Centre
there are a bunch of CI-capable cards. i have an old technotrend at homeQuote:
Originally Posted by nichomach
and the elephant in the corner with this product is: you can't legally use it for Sky or Virgin Media. same goes in most countries. Poles will be able to use it for Cyfrowy Polsat without issue, though.
perhaps more interesting from hauppauge recently is the hauppauge hd pvr which will capture HD video over component and encode it on the fly into h264 (and comes with an IR blaster so you can piggy-back it onto sky hd or virgin hd)
oh, and worth noting, this hauppauge CI thing is software-based. which means it's trivial to crack and use with non-hauppauge cards. and also trivial to crack and use to pirate pay tv
I have to say, I gave up the idea of home-brewing a DVR, being on cable, and my V+ arrives on Saturday (fingers crossed). With any luck it'll be a bit more stable than the POS Pace box I've got at the mo. I really think we ought to have some form of legislation/regulation to force the pay TV companies to allow the use of a choice of hardware, though; something like a "wires-only" service, and you can either get their box or supply your own (and I'm DAMN sure I could build a better mousetrap...).
not happening in the uk, unfortunatelyQuote:
Originally Posted by nichomach
sky are currently fighting the italian government over this though, for the exact reasons you give
Sky are way too paranoid to allow third party hardware to decode their streams. The fact is (too) they just don't need too - plenty of sheeple will carry on donating to the murdoch fund regardless of the quality of the set-top boxes.
I don't miss sky a bit - freeview/media center is fine for me - but they sure seem to miss me (i'm thinking of inviting some of their telesales staff round for tea).
i'm gonna rig up DVB-S when i move house, get some freesat lovin'. with channel 4 going free in march, the "good" channels will be available for free, with fewer reception woes than DVB-TQuote:
Originally Posted by dangel
I know. Barstewards.Quote:
Originally Posted by directhex
Good on the Italians, say I. If they get a win I'll learn Il Canto degli Italiani - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, just to congratulate them :).Quote:
Originally Posted by directhex
DVB-T is fine for me - but I guess your mileage varies according to where you live - mines stupidly strong and I got a proper aerial put up when I made the switch. My old sky+ now gets 'free' channels but oddly the selection is somewhat limited as compared to freeview. It may be because I need to 'pay' sky for a new card to enable it properly - tbh I can't be bothered as the box is basically unused. In all honesty i think i get better reception on DVB-T in heavy rain - sky would bomb out but that might be down the the minidish (although I did fit a decent quad lnb) size.Quote:
Originally Posted by directhex
What's on freesat by comparison that's worth having?
not a huge amount. i like the idea of bbc hd and some of the "zone" channels thoughQuote:
Originally Posted by dangel
and if you want all-weather support, use something better than a 45cm elliptical!
personally i need to use 2 signal boosters just to receive any DVB-T channels, and i get skips on all of them
http://www.nichomach.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/SETI.pngQuote:
Originally Posted by directhex
Yeah, that would do it :)
a round 60mm dish should be enough for sky in rain. a well-fixed 80mm should be fine in a tropical storm.Quote:
Originally Posted by nichomach
Boosters are never a good solution for DVB-T IMHO - i'd always go the high gain antennae route first where possible. Still, I appreciate it's a post code lottery for some.Quote:
Originally Posted by directhex
I wasn't willing to hang a massive dish on the house (hence the minidish being so popular) versus whacking up a proper mast antennae (which has better WAF too). Still i'd be interested to see how you get on with freesat - part. if there's HD content available.
Well yeah, the V+ is good (as good as sky+), but its no TiVo.Quote:
Originally Posted by nichomach
Tivos can now be bought for around £100 (with lifetime sub) on ebay, and mode0 sorts out the picture uqality issue.
only bbc hd for the moment. POSSIBLy channel 4 hd, when they go FTA in march, but their current transponder appears to be for Sky channels (their other transponders appear to be "theirs")Quote:
Originally Posted by dangel