PC Satellite TV Receiver

In order to get Satellite TV on your personal computer you need to purchase a Satellite DVB Card. These cards are pretty similar to TV Tuners, except they only work with satellite reception. And the video data doesn't go into an analog phase, its digital all the way, so the image and recording quality is identical with the source broadcast quality.

Skystar2 cards are the most popular you can use for PC satellite TV. Having the card and the proper software you can get quite a lot of content in many video and audio encodings. Skystar2 cards also allow the handling of motorized and multi dish setups.

Minimum hardware requirements viewing PC satellite TV content include a 1GHz processor with a powerful graphics card (AGP2x or more).

The Satellite TV content received is already encoded with MPEG2 (and possibly AC3 audio), so no re-encoding takes place if you want to record something. So unlike when using a TV Tuner connected to a satellite standard receiver, the recording software just takes the stream and puts it in a file. This file can then be viewed with standard software DVD players. Windows Media player can still have some trouble with this content, but you can use a tool like VirtualDub to re-encode the content with a standard MPEG4 codec, so you can use any video player to view it.

DVB card drivers

Like any other computer cards, DVB cards need updated drivers in order to get the most out of the hardware. You should check the hardware vendor's website and download updated drivers for your card. For the Skystar2 B2C2 drivers, you should check the Technisat website.

Satellite Tuner and PVR software

With the increasing popularity of PC satellite TV, there are a lot of software packages that you can use to get see your DVB content. Popular programs like ProgDVB, MyTheatre or DVBViewer can be downloaded for free from the Internet because of their freeware/shareware licenses. ProgDVB can enhanced by downloading plugins, there are plenty available online. If you get the B2C2 drivers from skystar, you will also get a full version of DVBViewer (that normally is shareware).

ProgDVB

Most people watching PC satellite TV use ProgDVB. You can categorize channels, record content, or control your satellite equipment using Diseq 1.0. Channels can be search automatically and you can also stream content in your network

The software can be configured pretty fast. Select the DVB and register the drivers during the install process. The satellite positions should be set from Settings> Diseq. Then search your channels for each satellite and you are ready to watch satellite TV on your PC.

You can also use ProgDVB as personal video recorder. Use Service> Record options to set the recording options, and then just click the record button after you have chosen a channel.

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