TV/DVB/Satellite Card

[LaxG]

Can I get a TV tuner card that will let me watch Digital TV as well as let me input my analogue Sky dish into it? Preferably, an all-in-one system with a remote.

[Funkstar]

By Digital TV do you mean terrestrial digital (ie. Freeview)? and when you say analogue Sky dish do you mean you have an old Sky dish or just the analogue outs from a Sky Digibox?

There are loads that will take a terrestrial arial input along with composite or s-video inputs. The Nebula Electronics DigiTV cards are good, not the cheapest solution by a long way, but their software is much better than most you get with £40 cards.

http://www.nebula-electronics.com/

Of cousr you won't be able to control your Sky box with this solution, it will still be controlled with the regular sky remote.

[LaxG]

Yes and yes!

I mean digital terrestrial Freeview and I have an old sky dish I want to plug direct into a card.

[-ChEM-]

there are things you can do with your ntl feed and a standard analogue tv card, i sent you a PM

[Funkstar]

I don't think you get dual DVB-T and DVB-S cards, could be wrong though, but if you do they will be more expensive than two seperate cards.

Is the Sky dish analogue? i have no idea if you get tuner cards for these. perhaps a WinTV type card can handle this :shrug: no idea what kind of signal analogue satelites send down the wire so i can't really help you there.

Digital Satelite (non SkyDigital) is becoming more and more common in the Uk at last. There are loads of stations you can pick up without subscription.

[LaxG]

Hmm... I'm pretty sure the Sky is analogue.
When I moved in not to long ago the previous occupiers left the sky dish and STB behind.

Although I use NTL Cable for TV I was wondering if I could make use of the Satellite dish.

What's the best/quickest way to find out if it's digital/analogue?

Funkstar - sorry about the cross post.
ChEM - cheers for the PM

[jamena]

there are things you can do with your ntl feed and a standard analogue tv card, i sent you a PM

I'd be interested in this sort of info too Got telewest cable and am building an HTPC type thing ... was wondering about receiving telewest via the pc?

[directhex]

as far as i'm aware, without a subscription, the only channels you'll get access to with an analog sky box are the free-to-air Astra channels-which are almost exclusively in german. you'd need a TV card (ideally with an MPEG2 encoder, like a Hauppauge PVR-series) and an IR-Blaster (plus software to manage the IR-Blaster for you). but you can't use it without the box. you could always go with a basic (CPU-whoring) tuner card rather than a PVR card, in which case you could get a combination Analog-Digital card (i think Twinhan make them)

for DVB-S, there's a little bit more wiggle room (a CI-equipped card for a Sky subscription, or a much wider range of channels on Astra at any rate), but i doubt your current satellite could connect to digital without some modification by an engineer- but there are no combined S/T cards

[Funkstar]

no idea how you tell analogue from digital satelites

personally i don't think you'll get very far if it is analogue, and by what directhex said, i don't think you would want to

if you do want free non-sky satelite you can get a dish and STB from Maplin for about £100. Basic DVB-S cards can be had for about £60. You would probably be best with one that can handle CAM slots and access cards though.

[directhex]

http://www.ses-astra.com/backoffice/...y=0&tvRadio=tv shows the choice of channels on subscriptionless analog

[directhex]

http://www.ses-astra.com/backoffice/...y=0&tvRadio=tv shows subscriptionless digital

http://www.ses-astra.com/backoffice/...y=1&tvRadio=tv for paid digital

[directhex]

http://www.ses-astra.com/backoffice/...y=0&tvRadio=tv shows subscriptionless digital

actually, careful trusting this - some of the free channels are free-to-air (unencrypted)

some are free-to-view (require a valid CAM and suscriber card, such as a freeviewfromsky card, to decrypt, though there's no fee)

[Funkstar]

good links there directhex.

i'd really like to get into satelite TV, but i think that'll have to wait, not really practical where i live right now.

[Lakeuk]

I don't think you get dual DVB-T and DVB-S cards, could be wrong though, but if you do they will be more expensive than two seperate cards.

KWorld have the DVB-S 530 which is a 4 in 1 card supporting DVB-T, DVB-S, Analog and FM, I fancy one of these but have yet to find anyone in the UK selling them , I know Aldi used them in there last PC offering under the Medion brand.

It does seem a HTPC builders dream card - now where can I get one, Scan don't sell them

http://www.kworld.com.tw/en/kworld/b...e/DVB-S530.htm

[Funkstar]

Interesting card. No provision for a CAM slot, unless you can use an external USB one or something. I wonder what their software is like.

[directhex]

softCAMs are generally dangerously close to "illegal" territory, since it's so trivial to hack them. i'd sacrifice an extra PCI slot for a proper CAM-equipped card

plus, that kworld card doesn't do DVB-S2 (HDTV)