Satellite (BBC) to Windows Media Centre - can I do this ?

shabbyroad

I'm not pushed about watching live TV with this proposed setup - it's more about scheduling recordings because Sky don't have BBC3,4 or ITV on the Irish Sky+ EPG.

Here's what I'm trying to achieve :

• use an oldish PC to host a card like this one (or similar)
  
• install Windows Media Center Edition on this machine
  
• get access to BBC3 and BBC4 as these are free-to-air and shouldn't (?) require any sort of card to decode
  
• have an EPG that allows me to flag programmes for recording
• record these programmes as some sort of MPEG stream
  
• playback these recordings via my Xbox360

what's the flaw in my plan ? it can't be that simple can it ?
I have an old PC that can run the equivalent of WindowsXP Pro, I have a legit copy of Windows MCE2005 and can get my hands on the associated remote/hardware
I have the Xbox360 and a (wireless) LAN
I have the available sat-dish connection next to where I want to house the PC

Now. Ideally what I'd really like to do is use my FTA Sky card and spare digibox to add ITV and Channel4 to this mix. Is there a way I can use the digibox with Windows MCE ? I recall hearing about a modification I can make to a Sky box that would allow me to output a DVB signal and input this directly into a PC with a suitable card. The advantage being that I'd get a better quality video file.
Is that something that's likely to work or am I going to spend days troubleshooting ?

ffocused

a sat pc card will get the FTA channels for you. If you want to connect a digibox you just need a a composite video input or s-video input on the pc and an rgb to s-video converter to connect the digibox to pc.

I have heard about problems with the s-video converters using old GFX cards though.

watty

You can get a retail Skystar2 from a real shop for that price. Better. Comes with a remote. ProgDVB and Digiguide will record/play and give listings. You don't need Bloated Proprietary MCE.

Decent Satellite TV is too high a bandwidth for many WiFi networks.

I use a SkyStar 1 compatile on a 933MHz PIII and record and also strream on LAN. I use Coax cable to connect to TV set.

Playback = Live quality. Also DVD writing possible.

shabbyroad

Thanks for that information.

I can use a wired network connection - that isn't a problem.

The only reason I'm considering Windows MCE is the integration with Xbox360. It's attractive to me to use it as a media extender and view recorded programmes remotely (and possibly live programmes if it allows).

watty

With ProgDVB you can watch remote via LAN on any PC (live or recording). The XBOX thing is a gimmick to sell MCE and Xboxes.

A video sender also allows remote wireless viewing with no PC or Xbox

Zaphod

shabbyroad wrote:

I have an old PC that can run the equivalent of WindowsXP Pro, I have a legit copy of Windows MCE2005 and can get my hands on the associated remote/hardware

You need to check out which sat cards are compatible with MCE.

shabbyroad wrote:

Now. Ideally what I'd really like to do is use my FTA Sky card and spare
digibox to add ITV and Channel4 to this mix. Is there a way I can use the digibox with Windows MCE ? I recall hearing about a modification I can make to a Sky box that would allow me to output a DVB signal and input this directly into a PC with a suitable card. The advantage being that I'd get a better quality video file. ?

Only mod for digiboxes I'm aware of is this:
http://www.irj-tech.com/skysdi.html

ITV is FTA just like BBC channels.

There are unofficial (and unguaranteed) approaches for getting C4, C5 direct on your PC.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054878624&

bk

shabbyroad, yes everything you describe should just work. With MCE you need to select a Northern Ireland address to get an EPG that will include all the UK channels, just get a postcode in Belfast off the web.

In order to use a freeview card to pick up C4 is a bit more difficult, but still very doable. To do this you need a Sky box with the freeview card, you connect the Sky Box to the MCE PC via a scart to s-video/video cable and then control the channels on the Sky box using an IR blaster that runs from the PC (you can often get this IR blaster included with a MCE remote).

Watty will now jump in at this point to say that the second setup will give you inferior picture quality due to the digital to analogue to digital and back to analogue conversion and he would be right, however I've a similar setup with a TiVo and NTL and I rarely notice any picture quality problems, the convenience of it all far outweights the downside.

The nice thing about the MCE setup is that you can use the MCE box as a media server, with it also streaming Music and Movies (decrypted DVD's, Divx, etc) around your home

watty

bk wrote:

The nice thing about the MCE setup is that you can use the MCE box as a media server, with it also streaming Music and Movies (decrypted DVD's, Divx, etc) around your home

The nice thing about a 933MHz PIII PC with 200G disk, DVD player, DVD dual layer writer, Analog TV card, Satellite TV card etc (and NO MCE) is you use the box as a media server, with it also streaming Music and Movies (decrypted DVD's, Divx, etc) around your home

I prefer XP with a best selection of non-proprietary technologies and excellent software packages. Bu tin the end most people will prefer home entertainment solutions that do all this with out a PC.

shabbyroad

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, advice and input.

I'll read up on everything and see what I can learn over the next few days.

watty wrote:

You can get a retail Skystar2 from a real shop for that price. Better. Comes with a remote. ProgDVB and Digiguide will record/play and give listings.

can you suggest a good (online) shop ?

bk

watty wrote:

The nice thing about a 933MHz PIII PC with 200G disk, DVD player, DVD dual layer writer, Analog TV card, Satellite TV card etc (and NO MCE) is you use the box as a media server, with it also streaming Music and Movies (decrypted DVD's, Divx, etc) around your home

Personally I prefer MythTV

The one thing that you must admit is very attractive about MCE is the media extenders, which are fanless and allow you to stream the content around your home.

To do the same with MythTV I need to hack an xbox with Linux (ah the sweet irony) or build little MiniPCI boxes.

I would agree that most people don't want a PC at all, instead they want a standalone box like TiVo or Sky+. It'll be interesting to see what Sony do with the PS3.

watty

shabbyroad wrote:

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, advice and input.

can you suggest a good (online) shop ?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=50909188#post50909188

http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php/info/p12_Technisat-Skystar2-2-6D-incl--remotecontrol.html

For viewing, recording, streaming etc I recommend ProgDVB.

If you want to create a web site of teletext pages from all the channels then use the technotrend software. www.technotrend.de (They make many of the badged cards inc Skystar range)

ffocused

I have to agree with watty in that a non MCE machine will work better, but you have to know your way around a pc to set it up properly.

I also agree with BK in that MCE is simple to use and works after a simple step by step set up.

I am using a HTPC with MCE and have a digibox with FTV card connected through a RGB scart to S-video converter and i find the picture from this to be better on my 37" LCD then my Sky+

MCE can be quite slow to start something but with the EPG is very simple to use and you also get a remote to do everything you want.

To sum up, get MCE if you are an average joe or get other programmes if you are a pc expert

watty

Or buy a dedicated PVR/ Sky+ / HDD-DVD PVR or whatever dedicated media center if you don't want a PC whirling in the living room.

Another issue with MCE is that it supports a tiny fraction of TV tuner/capture, Cable, DTT and Satellite cards that work perfectly on Win XP, never mind Win9x and Win2000.

I think also that any new PC out of box with XP or MCE is very poorly configured. Usually I can reduce RAM usage by 80% to 50%, double user percieved performance, make it 100% safer for internet and much, much less likely to crash by simply reconfiguring services, settings and a few registry entries. Putting a bunch of free 3rd party SW helps too.

I have a legitimate copy of Office XP Premium and starting to prefer the Open Office 2.0 instead. Microsoft is trying to make MCE the media equivalent of MS Office, for everyones sake I hope they fail. Unlike Open Office/ Star Office vs MS Office the free media alternatives (and some, not free but low cost and very good) are more mature and better than MCE.

watty

If you feel you REALLY have to make a very rich man richer and use Microsoft MCE instead of real PVR, then at least get one of these

See
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/02/23/shuttle_unveils_m2000/

shabbyroad

So two months on here is what I did (for the benefit of anyone else going down this route)

I ordered a Technotrend S-1500 card, installed it and the necessary drivers.
Using information I gleaned from avforums.co.uk I setup the EPG so it just displayed the channels I wanted (BBC1,2,3,4 and ITV 1,2,3,4).

Using my Xbox360 in the living room I am able to view live or recorded TV streamed from this PC (a simple 2.8gHz Dell Dimension 1100). I can also dump those recorded programmes onto DVD-R.

In addition I installed 'transcode360' which lets me view XviD and DivX video files on my 360

I didn't do any tweaking to the system and was determined to just plug it in and let it run.

It is possible to buy a daughter-card for the S-1500 and with the addiition of modules/software etc you can put a legit Sky card into the system. I've not gone down this road because I can't be bothered.

Michael Collins

watty wrote:

I think also that any new PC out of box with XP or MCE is very poorly configured

Can't agree more with this. Recently I had to set up a PC with MCE on it and it was a complete nightmare, I really don't like this new idea of not shipping the OS on CD but using a seperate partition on the HD for it. That's all fine until you try to change the HD :rolleyes:

bk

shabbyroad wrote:

Using my Xbox360 in the living room I am able to view live or recorded TV streamed from this PC (a simple 2.8gHz Dell Dimension 1100). I can also dump those recorded programmes onto DVD-R.

That is interesting, how do you find the fan noise from the xbox360 when in Media Centre Extender mode?

shabbyroad

Fan noise ? I can't say I notice it at all.

Twodogs

shabbyroad wrote:

So two months on here is what I did (for the benefit of anyone else going down this route)

I ordered a Technotrend S-1500 card, installed it and the necessary drivers.
Using information I gleaned from avforums.co.uk I setup the EPG so it just displayed the channels I wanted (BBC1,2,3,4 and ITV 1,2,3,4).

Using my Xbox360 in the living room I am able to view live or recorded TV streamed from this PC (a simple 2.8gHz Dell Dimension 1100). I can also dump those recorded programmes onto DVD-R.

QUOTE]

Shabbyroad

Did you install XP or MCE on your pc? How did you stream to the 360?

bk

shabbyroad wrote:

Fan noise ? I can't say I notice it at all.

It is very loud and noticeable when playing games, wouldn't want it during quiet parts of movies. Maybe the fan shuts down in Media Centre Extender mode due to lower power needs, which would be very good.

shabbyroad

I installed MCE (and the service packs) on a fresh partition on the PC.

As a 'media center extender' the Xbox360 simply connects to the PC - it's all available from the system menu on the xbox. You are given an 8-digit key to enter on your MCE PC to confirm connectivity and it goes through a wizard that checks network etc etc.

Transcode360 is an add-on (free) and it allows you to select a DivX, XviD file and play it.


Regarding fan noise I can't say I've noticed it during Media Centre use. The fan only appears to come on when a disc is put into the console. I'll check it tonight and confirm.