This guide describes actions that may or may not be legal in your location. I do not advocate, condone, or practice satellite TV piracy. It is not my fault if you use this information illegally.

Should you choose to watch signals from a "bird" with pay channels, and decrypt them, you legally can only watch the channels you pay for, meaning you have a set top box hooked up to your TV as well. I suggest deleting the channels you don't pay for from the channel list in the program I discuss below, so you aren't tempted to watch them illegally.

This is aimed at Dishnetwork, but will work with other providers. I do hope you only use channels/provider(s) you pay for, and have legal rights to watch! It isn't my fault if you break the law.

1. A computer, at least 1ghz or so, and 512megs or more ram suggested
2. A DVB satellite card. eBay is a good source for these. Mine is a Twinhan VisionDTV, USB model 7021. Anywhere from $50 on up.
   
    
3. A satellite dish that is pointed at a Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) bird in your view of the sky, with at least one KU band lnb. See http://www.lyngsat.com for a list of satellites and their relative locations in the sky. If you are having trouble, see Dish's guide here.
   
   
4. ProgDVB - http://www.progdvb.com/
   
   
5. vPlug - This plug-in decrypts the Crypted words from the incoming ECM stream.  The actual descrambling of the video stream is done by a special chip on the DVB card (CSA).  This chip is available with "premium" technotrend chipset cards like Nexus.  Budget cards like the WinTV Nova lack the chip. In this case you have to use software decrypt (CSA.dll) which requires a decent CPU. (-> http://csa.irde.to/) And it is a built-in feature of many DVB apps. ;)
   For example ALT-DVB uses windows version of FFdeCSA. By using this version, your system's CPU usage will be very low comparing to normal CSA.dll.
   
   
6. DVB Stream Demuxer (install k-lite codec pack, make sure to select 'Main Concept' filters installers checklist)
   
   
7. a SoftCam.Key file - You can find these, and I will not host one. I may cough up a couple links here for most providers cough and here for dishnetwork.You have to update these every so often, sometimes daily. To update the dishnetwork keys, get the keys here, and put them in the proper slots in your softcam using notepad. Note: If you don't pay for Disnetwork service, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT DECRYPTING THEIR STREAMS, IT IS HIGHLY ILLEGAL, WITH UP TO 5Yrs in PRISON, and a Felony! 

Note:The ProgDVB Manual has screenshots illustrating many of the steps below.

Make sure your DVB card, whether internal, or external USB, is already installed, and connected.

Make sure that the coax going from your switch/LNB is connected to the coax plug on your DVB card!

Install ProgDVB to the default path in C:\ProgDVB, and extract the vplug rar file into the ProgDVB root directory. Make sure it recognizes your DVB card. Once complete, run ProgDVB. Then, go to Settings > DiSEqC. If your satellite dish has a switch with two or more lnb's, choose accordingly. For my Dish 500, I choose mini, because a mini switch has two LNBs, as my dish does. One is pointed at Echostar 7, and one is pointed at Echostar 5. Note:MAKE SURE YOUR DISH IS ALREADY POINTED!

Now, Click Add LNB. If you are using a Dishnetwork LNB, select circular, and set the LOF to 11250. Otherwise, the default should work for you. Then, simply choose the name of the bird you have your dish pointed at. Repeat for multiple LNBs, if you have them.

Once complete, hit ok. Then go to channel list > channel search. Select one of the satellites. A window with two multicolored bars should show up. No bars means you don't have proper reception, aren't pointed correctly, etc. Up to 15 min later, you should have a list of channels pulled down. Again, repeat for the other satellite.

Once you have a channel list, I suggest deleting the channels you don't pay for/the adult channels at your own discretion.

All you have to do then is click a channel, wait for vPlug to decrypt the ECM hash, and then you should have video. I know that with my card, I have to select a channel, wait for the little lock in the left hand bottom corner to go from red to green, and then restart the program to get video. I think this is my card's fault, and not ProgDVB's.

ProgDVB can record, too.

There are unencrypted (Free to Air) channels too. You can legally view those with no legal stuff to worry about. They appear green in the channel list.

Point any questions you may have to one of the sites below:

http://dvbn.happysat.org/

http://www.dvbskystar.com

You can do other cool things with these cards, like intercept/grab a copy of satellite internet streams as they come down. This is a form of packetcatching, and therefore illegal. I haven't attempted this, but people seem to be doing it and grabbing movies and things. Sounds cool, and were it legal, I would try it. I neither advocate, condone, or practice this, though.