Hooking satellite to Media Center PC: How does it work? (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Unlike cable, you can't simply plug a
satellite coax into a TV and expect to
receive channels.

With satellite, you need to go through
a decoder box to receive your program
package.

I see this as a possible problem when
connection to a PC with a Media Center
tuner.

Last time I attempted to connect sattelite
to the Media Center tuner it had problems
receiving the channels.

The configuration I used was DISH FEED ->
SATELLITE BOX -> PC.

First thing Media Center does is scan all
your channels. Problem is, with a satellite
box you can only watch whatever channel the
box is currently programmed to. This caused
errors when Media Center was trying to do a
complete scan of the channel lineup.

Without Media Center, using a normal TV card,
I would simply keep the TV software on
channel 3 and use my satellite remote to
change channels. It doesn't seem lkike you
can do the same thing with Media Center.

Any suggestions?

 

[Patrick_S]

Sorry I can't help but I do have a question, what is a Media Center tuner? Is that a specific brand name of tuner card?

 

[ChuckSolo]

A media center tuner is usually a card inside your computer that enables you to watch TV from cable, over the air, or satellite on your computer. This can be either in a window while you work, or full screen. Pretty neat actually. I just installed a TV tuner card on my PC and was surprised at how good it looks. The card came with software called SoftPVR which acts kind of like a cable box PVR but has some limitations. In any event, it records programs to your PC's hard drive. You can run scheduling software so that you can record the shows you want unattended. Mine uses MPEG1 compression and a two hour movie is about 1.2 gigs in size.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Anyone have satellite hooked up to
their Media Center PC and can comment
on getting it all to work?

Thanks