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In our new office I would like to allow some people to view satellite channels by setting up a streaming server and then allowing clients on different OSes (Windows, Linux & Mac) to view this stream in an application preferably VLC.

At one time there will be a maximum of 10 clients viewing the stream.

I also want to enable clients to change the channel.

I have two satellite dishes and their analogue lines running to my server room. What are my options here? As far as I know I have 2 main options:

1- Use 2 Dreambox(es) and stream to clients. But I heard they have a lot of issues when changing channels, and they tend to be slow

2- Setup a small server with minimal hardware and install two DVB cards. I highly prefer if I can run this under Linux. What cards should I get? and what software is out there to run this kind of setup.

Ammar
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  • You will need to check the terms of service of your satellite provider. They may prohibit this or charge extra for licensing. Also, have you looked at Slingbox? I have no idea whether it's suitable. – Dennis Williamson Dec 13 '09 at 21:35
  • Your biggest problem will be licensing and copyright. I know a number of satellite TV providers will probably come down very hard on you for breaking their terms of service in this way. – Tom O'Connor Dec 13 '09 at 22:50
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    This is not an issue, as all of these are free to air channels. – Ammar Dec 14 '09 at 10:40

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I suggest that you get this dual tuner DVB-S2 card, and that you use VLC for receiving and streaming the channels. If your office network supports IGMP snooping or if the majority of the clients will be using the streams I suggest that you use multicast streaming as well. It will minimize the hardware spec on the server and the combined load on the network.

There are of course cheaper cards as well, browse the site and have a look, but linux compability could be an issue if you pic a random card. Most cards will work, it's just the effort to get it working that separates them ;-)

Intenso
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