Noob need advice

[HOG-MKL]

Well first hello to everyone .

Right where to begin very new to all this.Would like to set up my own sat system useing a pc as a reciever,any help or advice on what i would need to put in it.
Have several pc's that should be ok what card would u guys suggest?.
Will the card take a cam and do i need one that does?.
Will it be ok with HDtv
Presume that a sky digital dish would be ok to start with?.(will start looking on car boot)

Hope u guys can help me out,well of to do some more research now may go to pub

[Gav]

The SkyStar2 is one of the best/cheapest with lots of support. I own a broken one :roflmao:

[Jimdefruit]

Welcome to the forum HOG-MKL.

You can certainly get satellite TV on your PC by using a PCI sat card or a usb sat card.

The favourite is the Skystar 2 as mentioned by Gav. However it does not have a cam reading facility. There is however software to allow decryption of certain channels and it can clear all free to air channels.

The bad news is that if you stick on the Sky satellite (28.2 east) then you will only get a few channels that are free to air. ie. no channels 4 or 5 or many others. You can of course redirect a sky dish to one of the other satelites where more channels are available.

As far as HD goes, the SS2 card will allow reception of the dvb-s high def channels like BBC but not those transmitted in dvb-s2 which is the majority.

I should add that to clear the HD channels, you will also require a fast PC. My Athlon 3200+ is ok but only just.

[BGonaSTICK]

A warm welcome to the forum HOG-MKL

The Skystar 2 is great value and will hopefully provide you with hours of fun, whether you just want to watch a little Free To Air TV or get your hands dirty with the softcams and keys. A truly flexible and highly recommended card, and can be had for maybe £40 - £45.

I wouldn't be tempted with a second-hand one when new ones are so cheap (unless you know and trust the seller of course). Some of them have been abused, and some have been locked by Satellite ISPs.

[HOG-MKL]

1:Right where do i start still waiting for a good pci card have been advised that this one should do all i ask has anybody had any dealings with make of card ,this card is hdmi ready i believe should be able to get it for about £80
http://www.twinhan.com/product_satellite_s2_CI.asp
2:went out and brought sat system from B&Q after reading about it here (GOT IT FOR £59)have got it set up and running now to start playing and learning.
satelitte receiver with B&Q system is a skyline DSR4000 know its not hdmi but will it still recieve signal from sat and show hd channels in my listings ?.
3:Am based just outside Halifax west yorkshire have dish pointing at astra sats what others may i be able to get in this area?(looking at getting a bigger dish 80cm with twin lnb)
Look forward to your responces am finding all this quite addictive :roflmao:

[Gav]

About that Satellite card, it looks like a pretty nice model. The only trouble is it probably doesn't have as much support as others which mean you won't be able to decrypt channles using softcams, you'd have to use a real CAM in the CI slot.

Also, HDMI is a port/interface, like a HD version of SCART - this card is an input card and therefore doesn't have HDMI. I think you misunderstood this and thought that HDMI was a standard.

The good thing about this card is that it supports DVB-S2 - which the SkyStar doesn't. This allows for more channels (normally HD)

Also, looking closer it only has MPEG2, the same as the SkyStar and for that reason it is NO better than the SkyStar at HD.

The SkyStar 2 would be a better choice because you could use SoftCAMs instead of buying a CAM (£80?) and a SmartCard and then programming them seperatly.

[BGonaSTICK]

Your receiver should scan and list the HD channels OK, but just give you a blank screen.

You should be able to get plenty of other satellites in good weather including those at 28.2E, 19.2E, 13E, 5E, 5W and 30W to name but a few.

As Gav says, most HD is (or will be) DVB-S2/MPEG-4.