API's and hardware communication. Newbie

[Grayham]

Hi all

I am new to this group so 'Hello All'

I have a PC which is running linux and in it have installed a digital
satellite card. I would like to write some software to access the card,
tune it and bring back video. Basically a home brew DVB-s application.

Being a non/new programmer (apart from some basic too many years ago) I
decided to teach my self Python as from what i have read it's an easy and
powerfull language to learn. I have been at it a few weeks and am getting
on OK and finding it reasonably OK to pick up.

The problem is i can find little to no information on programming for DVB
cards or on how to access the Linux tv API in Python but I can find lots of
information in C. This is making me think should i bother with Python and
just learn C even though this will probably take a lot longer.

Can some one help me or point me at a resource somewhere or would it be best
to just learn C instead.  

I am aware this is a complicated little project for someone just starting
out but it will be a multifaceted program with loads of interesting
classes, functions and loops and i don't have to start with the really
difficult stuff first. I just want to know if it's possible under python to
access the DVB card and if so how?

Cheers
Grayham