Advice on a Dual Satellite PCIe PC tuner

Discussion in 'Home Theater PC' started by TrickTras, Jan 25, 2011.

  1. TrickTras

    TrickTras Member

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    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
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2011
  2. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    moved to correct forum as not a hdtv discussion issue.
     

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