DVB-S2 card recommendation (1 Viewer)

[d3cadent]

Dear members,
although being a long-time MP user, so far I have no experience with sat tv. Currently I am with analogue and DVB-T.
I am considering switching to sat. One important thing for me would be the possibility to receive 2 (or, even better, 4) programs simultaneously (currently I use 3 analogue tuner cards). I am aware of the fact that I'd need a multi-LNB dish head for that - but what would be a preferred, DVB-S2-capable tuner card for the task? Are there 4-way cards on the market? 2-way?

Another issue is the decoder smartcard that's provided by the TV company. Since I have no experience on that, my question may sound lame. If I have a CI module in my HTPC, will all tuner cards be able to take advantage of it? Or do I have to buy as many subscriptions as tuner cards there are in my computer?

 

[DragonQ]

TBS and BlackGold are probably the most prominent makers of tuner cards. BlackGold have a dual DVB-S2 card, TBS have a dual and quad DVB-S2 card, and both of them have DVB-T2/S2 mixed cards.

As for decoding encrypted channels with a smartcard...that's kind of a minefield. You can either get a card with a built-in CI module (TBS have some) and then install a CAM with your smartcard in it, but then I think only the tuners on that card can decode channels. You can also get a separate card reader (e.g. Dreambox) or a USB one combined with software decoding.

AVForum has a lot of good stuff on this.