DVB in the USA

First off, I love Media Portal. Great job to everyone who has worked so hard on it.

Here's my question/problem. I am pretty much a newbie to the whole concept of DVB cards. I have sattelite TV and would like to use the TV functions of Media Portal with my sattelite service. From what I understand, I would need a DVB card to do this. When I go to my local electronics store, everyone acts like they have never heard of such a thing and tell me that they have no card that can tune a sattelite TV signal. When I search on the internet, I find lots of people selling DVB cards, but most seem to be outside of the USA, making me think that they are either illegal here, or simply won't work with the services provided in this country.

So basically, can anyone fill me on the basics? Am I totally on the wrong track here? Will any DVB card work with any sattelite service? Do they work with the sattelite services provided in the USA? By the way, let me assure you that I don't want to do anything illegal. I am perfectly willing to pay the sattelite company for their service, I just want to involve my computer in the process

[jdiffend]

DVB cards are legal for free to air signals. Dish Network and DirecTV won't support you.

I do know some people out there have figured out how to access their signals but there's that whole legal thing. If I remember right, it used to be legal IF you figured out how to do it yourself... but you can't tell anyone or sell it. Not sure if DMCA changed that.

So by "free to air" I assume that you mean publicly broadcasted digital TV?

[mPod]

free 2 air = not scrambled

[jdiffend]

For DBS type questions you should check out these forums:
http://dbsforums.com/
That's mostly digital sat related. I know there are others.

I think there are links on it to sites listing all FTA (Free To Air) satellite signals and they show what programming is on a given satellite. There's actually quite a bit... but it's spread all over the sky and I'm not sure how much would be of interest to you.

I'm pretty sure there are more forums dealing with FTA but it's been a few months since I looked into it.

I did know someone that is recording TV from satellite this way and it was pretty cool but I've lost track of him.

[jdiffend]

http://www.dvbnetwork.com/

[Legolas]

Originally Posted by coctyle

So basically, can anyone fill me on the basics? Am I totally on the wrong track here? Will any DVB card work with any sattelite service? Do they work with the sattelite services provided in the USA? By the way, let me assure you that I don't want to do anything illegal. I am perfectly willing to pay the sattelite company for their service, I just want to involve my computer in the process

I guess you are wondering if you can use your existing E*or DTV w/
MediaPortal? This is possible. You will have to have MP setup to change
channels on your satellite receiver and input that signal to your video
capture card. This is going to be my setup (and I probably believe lot
of others who use any htpc w/ satellite or digital cable)

Hope that helps