I have just started to use media centre with free view. Problem is I am unable to get a good enough signal so thinking about going down the free sat TV route; question is what do I need to buy? Is it possible to buy a decoding card for my pc which connects directly to a dish not a set top box decoder? If so what would you recommend are there any sites out there that sell exactly this. I know you can connect to separate set top decoders but I would like the ability to select programs directly for the media centre and record etc without having to select channels on two systems. Maybe I am getting the wrong end of the stick does Media centre change the channel on a sat decoder box when automatically when you change the channel of the media centre. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Depends on which version of Media Centre you have. I suspect you have standard Vista Media Centre. In that case then it does not natively support FreeSat cards, known as DVB-S. There are some cards which trick Media Centre into thinking the card is actually a Freeview (DVB-T) card and then it will work, but it's a hack. The officially supported way to do it is with a set top box, where Media Centre will happily change channel when needed. This is how I have my Virgin Media setup.
If you have Media Centre TV Pack then it adds native support for FreeSat cards. If you don't know what TV Pack is, then you don't have it. Nor is there any official way to obtain it except with a brand new PC. You might have luck finding it for download on tinterweb though, it has been leaked.
As an example, Hauppauge make DVB-S cards which will receive FreeSat signals. As I'm a cable subscriber I've never used one, but you might like to check http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_novasplus.html.
There is an update for Media Center and Freesat but at the moment you can only get the update from your PC supplier. You can also get a decoder box and Media Center will change the channel on the STB
so you are right in your thinking you can using Media Center with a STB
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