Been on OTA for a while now. Looking to add to my 'free' stations - and to slowly get away from Rogers. Now i'm thinking of going into the FTA realm. Is anyone using their MCE system with an FTA setup -- internal PCI DVBS, or FTA set-top-box.

So far, my theory is that with an FTA stb, i can just input to my analog tuner card. MCE should be able to treat the FTA stb as a standard stb. Wonder how the guide will work? FTA doesn't really use a program guide (right??).

Does anyone know if MCE supports DVB-S tuner cards?

FTA doesn't really use a program guide (right??).Many (most?) of the FTA channels do have EPG.
Does anyone know if MCE supports DVB-S tuner cards?Yes, it does. But I had to use regular XP drivers for Twinhan, the BDA ones didn't work.

Diogen.

Thanks for the info..

So you couldn't get the Twinhan DVB-S working in MCE? They have one that 'says' it will work with MCE. http://www.twinhan.com/news_releases_2.asp?newsid=98

I was wondering if the AVermedia DVBS will work...

Do you think I can run MCE with an FTA stb and a Rogers stb at the same time? I'm doubting it.

So you couldn't get the Twinhan DVB-S working in MCE? Yes, I could. "But I had to use regular XP drivers."
I was wondering if the AVermedia DVBS will work...Don't know, never tried.
Do you think I can run MCE with an FTA stb and a Rogers stb at the same time? I'm doubting it.Never used an STB.

Diogen.

Thanks Diogen.

Awesome, so you got it working in MCE. I prefer using an internal card.

I can get a good deal on the Avermedia DVB-S card, but I got a message back from Avermedia.

"Reply:
MCE 2005 does not support DVB-S. Only ATSC in USA and DVB-T in EU"

So, for your Twinhan, you just installed the XP drivers, and MCE recognized it?

So, for your Twinhan, you just installed the XP drivers, and MCE recognized it?Yes. I'm testing MCE, don't run it full time.
But MCE does work for me with Twinhan 1020a when non-BDA drivers are used.
Whether it will work from the GUI - I don't know, it would be an issue with the player used (I use myTheatre).

Diogen.

OIC.... So you have it installed on your MCE machine, but don't use MCE for watching stuff from the DBV-S card.

hmm.. I'd prefer it to work inside the MCE GUI.

Thanks again diogen.

I've been running MCE with my veiwsat ultra with no problems, The guide seems to work ok but as far as the "free" channels go you can only sellect one provider i'm running tracking tree birds. The Picture quality is ok but I am currently upgrading to a PCI card to get the HDTV.
Cheers,
Sharkyle