Need suggestions on capturing satellite output from Dish Network

[Mordimar]

These forums and most users here have been very helpful on various other home projects I've worked on, so thank all of you in advance for any help.

Project: Use this software to display satellite video as well as HR related information to linked coax televisions.

Software: http://www.viscomsoft.com/products/avmanager/

Initial testing: Everything has worked for what we need it to do using the demo Networked version software. The scheduling package works pretty well etc. The only sticking point, and the reason I'm posting here, is that I'm trying to stream in the video feed from a satellite (Dish Network) top box through a PC to an AV Auto-switching RF modulator connected to a few coax chained televisions. Currently, I have the satellite piped in just using the AV RF modulator.. then when we use it for meetings etc.. it auto-switches to one of four channels depending on which one is sending the video feed. Now I just need to capture that satellite video into the AV Manager software to duplicate what is the primary selling point of the software for us. That is to display video and office information at the same time like this photo here:

Inquiry to the company: I contacted the company to see what would be required to reproduce the same effect. Primarily this was the response -

Hello,

av manager support cable tv tuner card only, not a satellite.

I suggest you use PCI PCTV capture card or another cable tv tuner card. make sure you input correct country code in system configuration.

For a simple test, you can connect your web cam, do you see the video? Please let me know if you need any further support.

Problem: I have read here that in order to "capture" video from the coax line you must decode it. I am in the States so we don't have free market decoders like Europe. I fully understand that, but is the signal that is already coming to the television from the top box not already decoded? I was just hoping to patch that single feed to the daisy chained televisions in our operation. I do not want to change the channel and I only want to "marry" our HR related information with the live video stream from whatever channel we leave the satellite top box set to. The company is excessively cheap.. frugal.. otherwise we would have invested more money into a much larger system that is a single package. As it is, I'm piecing this together and learning as I go what works.

If the signal from the satellite top box is already decoded, can I not just get some type of capture card to feed that video signal to the software? I guess possibly the limitation is the AV Manager software. If we had cable instead of satellite the AV Manager software is supposed to be able to take the video feed and do as we need. I have yet to test my idea just to use a capture card that AV Manager probably supports (Haupegge [sp].. or ATI All-in-Wonder) to send the signal. I also do not have a webcam to test as they suggest here.

Given the current information, do any of you have suggestions? Different software?

Again, thank you for your help or suggestions. I have considered changing to cable also to get past the satellite limitations.
-Mordi

[Krispy Kritter]

I'm not familiar with the software in question. To answer you question, yes, the video from the SAT box is already decoded. At this point, you simply need a capture card to accept the video signal.

The point I believe the rep was trying to make, is that since the capture/tuner card cannot tune/decode the signal on its own, any DVR type capabilities will not function.

[Mordimar]

Thank you Krispy, I understand. We're just wanting to send the captured video with the chopped up content (using AV Manager) to the linked televisions. No DVR capabilities (other than capturing for AV Manager) needed. Do you recommend a particular capture card <$150 that could do this? Oh.. I forgot to mention that I'm planning to use a DB15 (computer video out) to coax converter (maybe a Belkin product) to get the computer display signal out of the PC and back to the AV auto-switcher for the televisions. So far I've been using a DB15 to TVone to S-Video to the AV auto-switcher and the signal isn't fuzzy. It's not the best but it's a boosted signal and looks ok for Power Point. Anyway, this is cheap, and meets the requirements. Any suggestions for capture cards or PC to coax are welcome!

Thank you again for confirming the decoded signal.
-Mordi

[Krispy Kritter]

Haupage has some of the best cards on the market. However, just about any TV Tuner card would likely be sufficient for your use. Some cards have more inputs than others, such as S-Video, component, composite, etc. Though in your case, you likely only need the coax connection. Prices start at about $20.