OK want the following
Freesat operation Freeview operation.
Able to record two freesat HD channels at once, output via HDMI
I have no idea where to start
Thanks
You know me, MCE (actually VMC) every time.
Not come across a twin HD Sat card yet, so will need 2 cards for 2 sat tuners. A couple of twin DVB-T cards about.
VMC will need TV Pack 2008 to get multiple technologies working together, which is OEM only, or a download for Ultimate users. TV Pack allows up to 4 tuners (up from 2 in standard MCE/VMC - though a tedious registry job can increase this).
Not having HD Sat here, I can't say specs needed. I was able to run 6 freeview tuners under XP MCE on my 3.2G P4, 1G RAM without issue. Had to drop to 5 tuners when I went Vista (and add another 1G!), as I needed a better video card that took 2 slots. Mrs TheBoy's brother runs a single sat tuner and a freeview twin tuner in his VMC, similar spec to mine.
Many video cards have HDMI output, picking the audio up off the SPD/IF header on mobo. Unlike most HDMI devices, however, it will not automatically flick the TV to that input (thankfully!), which he may find a pain.
Specs for mine are
3.2G P4
915 chipset mobo from FIC (not that I would ever recommend them!)
MSI 8500GT video, with DVI/VGA/HDMI
2G RAM
1Tb Samsung Spinpoint F1 HDD
Vista Home Premium
2 x Hauppauge Nova 500DT twin tuners
1 x Hauppauge Nova-T single tuner
Cat5'd
I wouldn't get too hung up on HD at the moment though, MCE/VMC is a bloody good upscaler...
The downside of MCE/VMC is that it really needs to be a dedicated PC - throwing loads of shite on it leads to instabilities. Remember, this thing is on (or in S3 standby (a difficult state for machines filled with crap)) 24/7