Subscribe to AfterDawn's weekly newsletter.
Advice on a Dual Satellite PCIe PC tuner
#1
25 Jan 2011 @ 18:46
TrickTras
Send private message to this user
Newbie
I need some advice on a Dual Satellite PC Tuner - new to this aspect of computers and don't understand much of it - the whole field is ridiculously complicated
I've never used one and don't know the brands etc
I've been wading through the tech jargon and think I know the kind of thing I want, but I seem to have come to this at a time when there don't seem to be a lot of these
The end of my street in London gets a very poor reception, even for FreeView, so I've decided to put up a satellite dish myself and use my PC, Cable won't ever come down my street, I don't have a DVD player, or even a digital TV ATM
Currently got
8800 GTX - DVI out
E8400 3GHz
ASUS P5Q SE+ MoBo
Cheap Set-top FreeView box
Win XP SP3 ATM, but doing a clean install of Win7 Ultimate soon
(Mid range Gaming\multi-use self build)
At some point, I'll add a sound card, but might move to new socket CPU first....but meantime don't mind using the PC's onboard sound and speakers for the sound (HDMI carries sound and vision, right? I know the different DVI's don't)
What I want is
DVB-S (Perhaps an -SD if I have to, though frankly don't see the point of HDTV)
Dual Tuner - want to be able to record and watch
PCIe since it's so much faster than PCI
I'd like to be able to use it as a PVR as well as for pumping live TV to a new Digital TV
A 50cm Dish with Quad LNB - good enough for West London, I believe? Doesn't need to be bigger, does it? Is it easy to find the Satellite? (I've forgotten all my fractions, never mind trigonometry!)
A Full HD 32" TV - no onboard FreeView etc, DVI in, a spare HDMI for PC Gfx upgrades (in\out)
I don't watch that much TV, but movies and some 'Net TV\Live sport
I believe I'd be best getting a good quality Sony TV, but do I need HDTV? I won't ever bother with BluRay etc and don't believe I'll need to have anything other than the DVB-S to watch FreeView, right? I'll never subscribe to any service for TV. Sony seem extremely reliable and great build quality, but are there other brands worth looking at - I know nothing about TV's
Do I need to think of things like Refresh rates etc (which doesn't mean much to me when it comes to TV's - isn't 50Hz good enough?) Sony's contrast ratio etc always seem high spec - are there other things to look for?
I especially need advice on the PC Tuner
Which brands are worthwhile looking at? Which to avoid
I can't find one that does exactly what I want; too many analogue, DVB-T, Hybrid etc, stuff I don't want to pay for since it's not necessary
What's 'HTPC' stand for btw?
Any advice appreciated
Thanks
I've never used one and don't know the brands etc
I've been wading through the tech jargon and think I know the kind of thing I want, but I seem to have come to this at a time when there don't seem to be a lot of these
The end of my street in London gets a very poor reception, even for FreeView, so I've decided to put up a satellite dish myself and use my PC, Cable won't ever come down my street, I don't have a DVD player, or even a digital TV ATM
Currently got
8800 GTX - DVI out
E8400 3GHz
ASUS P5Q SE+ MoBo
Cheap Set-top FreeView box
Win XP SP3 ATM, but doing a clean install of Win7 Ultimate soon
(Mid range Gaming\multi-use self build)
At some point, I'll add a sound card, but might move to new socket CPU first....but meantime don't mind using the PC's onboard sound and speakers for the sound (HDMI carries sound and vision, right? I know the different DVI's don't)
What I want is
DVB-S (Perhaps an -SD if I have to, though frankly don't see the point of HDTV)
Dual Tuner - want to be able to record and watch
PCIe since it's so much faster than PCI
I'd like to be able to use it as a PVR as well as for pumping live TV to a new Digital TV
A 50cm Dish with Quad LNB - good enough for West London, I believe? Doesn't need to be bigger, does it? Is it easy to find the Satellite? (I've forgotten all my fractions, never mind trigonometry!)
A Full HD 32" TV - no onboard FreeView etc, DVI in, a spare HDMI for PC Gfx upgrades (in\out)
I don't watch that much TV, but movies and some 'Net TV\Live sport
I believe I'd be best getting a good quality Sony TV, but do I need HDTV? I won't ever bother with BluRay etc and don't believe I'll need to have anything other than the DVB-S to watch FreeView, right? I'll never subscribe to any service for TV. Sony seem extremely reliable and great build quality, but are there other brands worth looking at - I know nothing about TV's
Do I need to think of things like Refresh rates etc (which doesn't mean much to me when it comes to TV's - isn't 50Hz good enough?) Sony's contrast ratio etc always seem high spec - are there other things to look for?
I especially need advice on the PC Tuner
Which brands are worthwhile looking at? Which to avoid
I can't find one that does exactly what I want; too many analogue, DVB-T, Hybrid etc, stuff I don't want to pay for since it's not necessary
What's 'HTPC' stand for btw?
Any advice appreciated
Thanks
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 25 Jan 2011 @ 18:50
TrickTrash
AfterDawn
Advertisement
This discussion thread has been automatically closed, as it hasn't received any new posts during the last 180 days. This means that you can't post replies or new questions to this discussion thread.
If you have something to add to this topic, use this page to post your question or comments to a new discussion thread.
If you have something to add to this topic, use this page to post your question or comments to a new discussion thread.

