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[MGadAllah]

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[SatStorm]

Truman receiver?
You can't do much with this one: Use the yellow RCA for video (Composite) and the white/red for audio (stereo out). Don't use the RF.
An alternative is to buy a cheap DVD Recorder, connect through SCART and burn DVD-RWs. You can rip them on PC later and edit them.
AFAIK, you can't use the ethernet port with that receiver to bring the dvb stream to your PC. Not the same time you do cardshare at least (which I bet it is the case here).

For the free to air channels (Nilesat/ Badr), not the ones from Showtime Arabia / ADD (Art) / Al Jazeera Sports / Orbit (those are coded) a nice direct to PC alternative is to get a SkyStar 2 PCI card. Cheap and easy.

A third alternative is to buy a USB PVR reciever: You can use USB Sticks or External USB HDD and record there the channels. Then, you can hook them on PC and process the recordings. That way it is possible to record the subscription channels - if you have a subscription.

[lowellriggsiam]

If you hook the satalite to your tv using the cable out do you also get poor images?

[MGadAllah]

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[lowellriggsiam]

If you get brilliant quality on your TV with the "cable out" option, whatever appears to be happening seems to be caused by your tuner card. Do you have anything else you can plug into it, perhaps a vcr? It's likely the video capture/tv tuner is responsible. Computing is based on three things, hardware, software, and peripherals. In this case the problem exists somewhere between the hardware and software.

"Once you have eliminated everything that is possible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

[MGadAllah]

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[lowellriggsiam]

The cables themselves can easily be suspect, are they the same brand? The insulation/shielding can cause signal degradation.

[MGadAllah]

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[SatStorm]

The easiest way for you is to get a satellite reciever that combines ethernet and USB PVR fuction.

A Dreambox DM600 would be ideal for your needs: It does card share and you can:

1- Record the broadcast to an external HDD or even a USB memory stick. Then you hook the same HDD or USB memory stick to your PC and you can do whatever you wish with the recorded .TS files

2 - Record the broadcast to your PC through the LAN network, using VLC and Dreambox's web interface (very simply and easy to learn how it can be done)

3 - Install an internal 2.5" HDD and record the broadcasts there. You can use the LAN later to transfer them to your PC.

Alternatively, you can buy the expensive DM800 which is also a DVB S2 receiver (for the HD channels)

Beyond that, there are many other "brands" to search for: Vantage, Edision, Octagon, Opticum, OnLien, Arion, Q Box, AZbox, V-Tech, iNETbox, AB IPbox, Yamatu, Strong and countless others. All those do what you wish to do. The minimum you need is: UCAS, USB PVR fuction, Ethernet Port, Card share function, key editor function.

And also you need to write to a dedicated for satellite reception forum for more detailed info, because most of the functions you need, are "grey" or even prohibited/illegal for the Europeans.

[MGadAllah]

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[SatStorm]

There are different, not equal, and they almost do the same job.
Basically, most of those recievers are more like a dedicated PC for receiving satellite/terrestrial broadcasts. They also have firmwares based on Linux. The Dreambox receivers was the first ones,so they are more popular. Also they based on open source firmware, so many plug-ins can be found for them, with countless abilities.

On the other hand, there are solutions like the AZ Box: It has better hardware and great official support, but controlled firmware upgrades (the firmware is based on linux too, but it is not open source). Those models function far more stable any Dreambox model IFAIK, but (there is a big "but" here) you are totally controlled by the manufacture's choices and intentions. So, if - for example - they decide to stop the support (very usual in this market), or change something (a fuction for example), you can do nothing.

FYI, all those DVB receivers based on Linux, are also average to great media players: With a Dreambox DM800 for example, you can playback mkv H264 HD files with subtitles, and it is like having a WDTV in a way. You can even run a torrent client and download material from the internet, without the use of a PC. Another interesting thing, is that you can watch a movie channel in time shift mode and make the receiver download subtitles from the internet at the same time, so you can watch them subtitled in realtime. Or you can use your receiver like a slingbox and watch your channels through the internet from all around the world!

But, all those things are Grey Areas legally. They don't exist on the official firmwares and you need to upgrade manually to unofficial firmwares to energize them. The reasons are the copyright laws, the technical patents that they are needed for all this, the rights of using the codec themselfs (mpeg 2, H264, etc) in a non broadcasting form and countless other reasons, which I need many pages to mention and explain.
Installing an unofficially firmware on you DVB receiver, is on your own risk and you abandon the guarantee and the official support of your receiver.

Regarding the rules around here, I'm not a moderator any more so it is not up to me to judge if you violate them or not. But I have to say that:

- If you are not the producer of something, and you don't own it in any way, you don't have the rights to re-broadcast it in any way, except if the material fails to public domain or has a Creative Commons licence.

- Beyond the aspect of "Time Shift" all the other acts that relate video, audio and DVB broadcasts, are under patents and protection schemes so you have to pay for the rights to use them in any other way than simply watching them. Recording them to DVD-Rs also can not be allowed (that's why technologies like "Broadcast flag" exists)

But don't worry: nobody follows the above laws / limitations in the real world and bypassing them using "unofficial" solutions are the common rule and spread enough all over the internet. The problem is that some people report systematically the others, when they think that they do something illegal, probably because they are great supporters of the copyright law. And when they report you and technically or legally they are right, the moderators and the admins don't have any choice than to warn you for "violating the rules". So, don't make them happy and move on other, more dedicated and open minded forums for those specific subjects. After all, there are not so many satellite experts here to help you more.