[Wylug-help] Advice/Recommendations wanted: Subscription Satellite TV on a PC

[Dave Fisher]

Hi,

People may have noticed that I've been dabbling in DVB recently
(frittering away some rare 'spare' time).

I now have free to air DVB-T and DVB-S recording working beautifully in
a PC with only 256MB of RAM ... and an immediate need for multi-terabyte
storage!

I have also access to subscription satellite channels via a traditional
standalone satellite receiver, but using it is pretty inconvenient.

Mostly, because the receiver has no recording capability, because it
only outputs analogue signals, and because its ability to do schedule
look-ups and scheduled channel switching are rubbish, i.e. automated
recording is practically impossible.

I could obviously buy a new Linux-based standalone receiver, like the
Dreambox series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreambox), but I'd prefer
to use a PCI card (less cash, less space, and simpler to integrate with
my current scheduling/recording set-up).

Unfortunately, I can't identify any PCI SatTV card with a CI smartcard
reader which is currently on the UK market and is definitely known to
work with Linux (I really have looked hard).  I've also drawn a blank on
eBay et al, when looking for those older PCI cards with Common Interfaces
which are known to work on Linux.

Does anyone on the list know any better?

Also, if anyone has experience of the Dreambox (or similar) kit, I'd be
interested in hearing about it ... especially with regard to automated
remote control and storage over ethernet. For example, is it possible to
mount an NFS exported drive on the receiver? Can one easily update its
recording schedule without directly logging into the box?

Dave