a cpl newbie questions

[desiac]

btw thanx to all who read this,

i've been using hncplus for a while now and am contemplating moving to a stand-alone system, just have a couple of questions,

i have foxtel cable coming in atm, so i presume a stb connecting to it would be my best bet, rather than gettin a sat dish and then using a stb. Does anyone know if in Oz we can access DirecTV via sat?

1) Are there any major pro's or con's for each in comparision?

with both i presume i'll need a stb, card and a card r/w.

2) in regards to the card, i am a lil unsure on what is actually written to it, do we have to have an existing card to copy form friends, motel ... or can a card just be programed from scratch?

can anyone suggest a particular stb?

thanks again