[Knuck]

What's the best card ot capture and display satellite, both NTSC and HDTV?

 

[GaryHDTV]

The Technotrend/Siemens DVBs PCI card also sold as the WinTV-DVBs works very well for recording digital satellite broadcasts. It will do PAL or NTSC. There are no HDTV satellite cards that I know of.


The DVB-S cards are not sold in North America but can be ordered from the UK.

http://www.pcupgrader.com

 

[RTK]

is there a way to use these for dtv or dish or do they only work for fta satellite?

 

[GaryHDTV]

There is an optional Common Interface CAM module for certain program providers, but Dish Network doesn't authorize it. DTV's equipment is not compatible with the DVB standard, so the card would not work with that provider anyway.


Dish does broadcast some test channels FTA occasionally and the card will receive those.

 

[Scott Tallal]

You might want to check on Microstar's WinDVB (MS-8401). I don't know if it's out yet but they do have specs and a manual posted on their website, www.msi.com.tw/products/multimedia/dvb/8401.htm. Note: it only demods QPSK.

 

[GaryHDTV]

That card is very much like the budget WinTV-DVB Nova-S card. It differs from the WinTV-DVBs by not having an on-board hardware MPEG2 decoder or CI option. It uses a version of WinDVD for software MPEG2 decode. It's one advantage is it's ability to send the entire transport stream over the PCI bus.