Need advice on hardware to buy to receive DBS on my computer...

[Ashlee112]

Hi everyone !
Right now I have a radeon AIW 9600 pro and the drivers are really buggy with WinXP sp2 and I'm ready to move onto a different video capture card. I also have seen DBS PCI cards and I was really interested. If my thinking is correct this card is a lot like my directv box just inside my computer. These things below are what is most important to me (what I'm trying to accomplish on the pc)
1) Buy a pci card that controls my directv
2) Be able to have a wireless remote control like I have now on my radeon
3) Be able to record (set my computer up as a DVR
4) I need to be able to receive atleast OTA HDTV broadcasts, I know I will need to buy a decent powered antenna.

If you have any insight on how I can do this please let me know. I don't know if what i'm trying to do would require one or two pci cards. Thank you for your time.

 

[Jim5506]

There is NO legal card that fits ANY PC that will decrypt a DirecTV or DishNetwork satellite signal. If you were successful in doing this you would be red meat for the satellite police - heavy files and possible jail.

On the other hand there are cards that will allow you to receive Free To Air satellite broadcasts, for what they are worth, but they CANNOT and DO NOT decrypt scrambled satellite broadcasts.

 

[jegrant]

FWIW, it's disappointing that in the USA, there is no legal solution for receiving paid-for programming with a PC peripheral of some type. Overseas, there are DVB receivers for computers that have card slots so that subscription cards may be inserted - these DVB receivers are available in both DVB-S(atellite) and DVB-T(errestrial) flavors.

 

[Carbon]

I think that it was announced at CES this year that the PC solution is coming.

 

[Jim5506]

The problem is that neither DishNetwork nor DirecTV has any incentive to produce such a card, and without their permission and cooperation it will not be done. They have sole rights to their encryption technology.