Satellite Capture card Recommendations

[Bannor1]

I have been searching for a good capture card that will work with Dish Network Satellite. The only one I have been able to find is a Hauppauge WinTV PCI DVB-S Capture Card Internal Satellite Digital TV & MPEG card from a company in England called Novatech http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?HAU-PCDVBS
Unfortunately I bought a capture package TV@nywhere Master not realizing it will not work with Satellite.
I have emailed the Novatech Sales and Support for any help or information but they will not respond. On their web site the capture card lists for 155 pounds. I don't know what that is in American dollars. I am willing to pay around $300 if possible. Can anyone recommend a comparable capture card that is readily available in the States. Since I cannot get a response from the Novatech people I certainly don't want to put in an order with them until I can make contact with someone. I appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks

[ronnylov]

I found this shop for north american market:
http://www.dvbwholesale.com

Mabe you also can find some info on http://forums.dvbnetwork.com
I don't know if it will work on Dish Network.

[Abbadon]

Hello Bannor1

I would recommend very much that before you spend your money, you do some more research. I have been trying to do the same thing, capturing Satellite using a DVB card, however, Dish Network and DirecTV use an encrypted signal that requires a CAM module, the CAM then requires a Smart Card to decrypt the signal and let you watch the channels.

So, in theory, you would need to purchase a CAM module that connects to your DVB card.

As far as I know, it is possible to do this in Europe with the WinTV Nexus-s from Hauppauge (some users report that the card gets extremely hot).

Take a look at this information:
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/dvb_s.htm

http://www.linuxtv.org/mailinglists/linux-dvb/2001/11-2001/msg00053.html

http://www.htpcgear.net/sat/

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Since I cannot get a response from the Novatech people I certainly don't want to put in an order with them until I can make contact with someone
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Maybe they don't want to open the possibility of litigation from part of the US Satellite provider.

Good Luck

[Bannor1]

I want to thank everyone who replied to my post. After reading the links I believe it just isn't worth the hassle let alone the cost just to watch and record from a satellite. I am not about to subscribe to cabel just for that. I will try once again to get some support for the TV@nywhere Master and capture from the VCR and Handycam for now. It will capture fine but I do not get sound.
Once again thanks everyone!
Bruce

[Warlock_THR]

I am looking to buy a card, was eyeing up the ATI TV Wonder Pro card. I have DirectTV and want to record from it. Would the ATI card work without all the extra gadgets if I don't run direct?

Right now I have the TV/DVD/VCR/DirectTV running through my AV Receiver, I was just gonna run a line from it to the PC... would that bypass the need to buy extra equipment?

[Abbadon]

You are welcome.

[gmatov]

Bannor,

The MSI card will capture satellite programming, but it must go through the box first. That is your decoder-descrambler.

You can split the lead out from your box to TV and cap card, and watch/cap the same thing as is on the TV.

If you pay an extra 5 bucks a month, you can get a second box and dedicate it to the cap card so that you can cap a second channel from the one you are watching on the TV.

You will have to select your audio source, line in, short audio cable (supplied) from audio out on the card to line in on your sound card, then go to the audio mixer for your sound card and enable line in.

With my MSI and onboard sound I get terrible audio, all scratchy, have yet to install my better sound card, hope that will improve it.

Cheers,

George

[Warlock_THR]

Cool thanks, I was gonna get the ATI TV Wonder Pro, nice thing for that is that it has the built in audio jack. Hopefully I get some info in my other posts regarding capturing from video tape.

[ctech2004]

check dvbnetwork again look in North America, I got my card for $100 (SkyStar2) and get DISH fine assuming you have a subscription (for legal reasons), If you have a slower computer get the Nexus-S it has the onboard decoder, but its like $215, you can get it up and recording pure mpeg2, its great becasue no need to reencode for DVD and looks great