Well playback, ripping, and recording of dvds can be done easily on a PC as long as you have a DVD-ReWritable drive and the necessary software. Now days these drives start at $30.
Music can be handled by software like Itunes, Windows Media Player, Media Monkey, Winamp, etc. If you are going to use a nice receiver for audio you might look for a motherboard or soundcard with an optical or coaxial SPDIF output. You didn't mention which satellite dish system you are using?? Technically a feed from something like DirectTV and Dish Network can't be decoded by anything other than their own receivers because the streams use a proprietary encryption. Since you must use their receiver to decode the signal, you could get by using any method that would allow input from an analog video (s-video, composite, or coaxial) + audio source into the PC. This could be a PCI, USB, or Firewire capture/tuner card from the likes of Hauppauge, ATI, Avermedia, etc. Check this link on newegg.com for some ideas http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=47 In order to decode the signal straight from a satellite dish you would need a DVB-S card. These DVB-S cards are mostly intended for use with FTA (Free-to-Air) broadcasts. TwinHan is probably the most popular manufacturer of this type of product at the moment. (http://www.twinhan.com/product_satellite.asp) - - I know some people have had some success in getting DVB-S cards to decode streams from DTV and Bev/Dish but I dont think you'll get any help with this on the list. Not publicly at least :) Since I'm not doing any recording from my Dish Network sat receiver in my home, I just use a Slingbox so I can watch and control my sat receiver from any PC in the house. The three problems with a Slingbox is that only one computer at a time is allowed to log in, the picture quality is not stellar since it is being transcoded and streamed, and the slingbox software doesn't let you capture the stream. I think the latter problem can solved with 3rd party software though. If I had not already built my own HTPC or felt I needed something that was wife proof, I would be much more likely to go with something like an AppleTV (<$200 on fleebay), modded Xbox, or one of the other UPNP media devices available from D-link, Linksys, Netgear, etc. With something like this you can stream media (music, video, online radio) stored on your pc to a set-top box that is made to just play media files and nothing else. On the other hand these devices are meant for playback on a TV which may not fit what you are looking for... uh hrmm... ever consider replacing your existing monitor with a LCD TV and a Tivo??? :) -Tharin O. K Humrich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hello everyone! I am working on changing my room with all new speakers, tuner/DVD, and a PC Card for Satellite TV.. Well everything needed to allow me to run the line in from the Satellite dish, and be able to play TV/Music/DvD on my PC OR on my TV, and use a PC card so I can store everything on my PC's harddrive, write things I like to DvD's and so on.. <snip>
