MCE setup for a friend with Sky satellite

FrankGrimes

A friend has called in a long outstanding favour and asked me to build a HTPC for him to give to a couple as a wedding present. He's loaded and they were mad about Vista Media Center when he showed it to them, so he's asked me to build them a fairly close to top of the range machine. They have Sky satellite and the house is down in Tipperary so I won't be there to do the installation (I think my mate will be sufficiently savvy to do this bit).

I've built 3 htpcs running MCE before, but all were fairly standard using NTL digital or analogue cable. I've no idea how to handle Sky satellite. Paying for a second STB won't be a problem if that's required to have 2 tuners. I reckon they'll need 2 DVB-S tuners (based on my limited knowledge), but how will the htpc control the channel changes, epg etc.?

Budget is probably anything up to €2,500, so what would you recommend? I have an Antec Fusion case and it's lovely, but am open to suggestions of snazzier cases that can still pack a powerful and quiet machine.

It doesn't necessarily need HDDVD or Bluray now, but being able to pop one in later without needing to change gfx card might be an advantage. I'm thinking 1000GB hard-drive space (or even 1500?), 2GB RAM (is 4GB overkill or would 2GB of faster stuff be better?), but would love to hear thoughts, especially on what tuners, CPU, mobo (will want hdmi out and optical audio out for at least 5.1), PSU, and pretty much anything to make it a snazzy machine. He may also be using it to control their Harmony X-10 setup, so any thoughts on snazzy remotes would be great. Thanks!

mathias

Should be no problem , Ive done this before ,

First off , the output from the sky box to use is the RF out on the back. The direct feed from the satellite wont work , thats encrypted and there is no legal way to record off this. So its dual analog tuners you want , like the hauppage MCE models. The Sky Epg is available for Media Center.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=315274 ( 2 of )

You will need a second STB for two feeds ( watch one record the other , or record both etc.)

The STBs are controlled by the MCE remote , this comes with IR blasters that you attach to the IR sensors on the STB's to control the channel switching. Its a basic remote media center remote though ,the only extra functions it controls are sound and volume on your amp or TV , so if you can find a snazzy multi device remote thats compatible with Vista you may prefer that.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=309575

For your budget , which is very generous by the way and should get you anything you want , I'd aim for a case like this ,

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=329922

or one of these , I particular like the Zalmans by the way , but its up to yourself,
http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?bn=10553

A core2duo processor and motherboard ,

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338957

A passively cooled graphics card with HDMI out ,

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=336746

And some silent cooling for the processor , like this ,

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=320110

The OS of course , note that Vista Basic and Business dont have Media Center , so you want home premium or Ultimate

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kc.aspx?bn=10335


Then just add hard drives and DVD/ blu ray drives.

All that should work just fine.

FrankGrimes

Wow, thanks for all the info mathias - it's a big help.

Your setup sounds like one I've built before: 2 NTL digital cable set-top boxes separately connected to a Hauppage PVR 500 MCE card (with the add-on header plate), and the IR emitter leads controlling the channel changing (unsatisfactorily though). Am I missing something, or is it simply a case of change the NTL STBs for Sky STBs and it's good to go? Do I need a PVR 1300 card, or will the PVR 500 MCE do? Actually, 2 150s are cheaper - any cons going for those?

It does seem a pity if it's not possible to get Sky satellite working through DVB-S cards, but from what I've read it seems like a minefield, so might be best left till further down the track. Did you have any loss of signal quality with your setup?

That is a mighty fine case, though is out of stock and I can't find much about it on the web, though something along those lines is perfect.

Given the big budget I was planning on going for 4GB RAM and a higher-end mobo, CPU, and gfx card (one that will handle HD no problem while still being silent) - any thoughts?

ffocused

If a second sky box is on the cards, you should just get 1 sky+ box. it can then be hooked up to media center for archiving by s-video which gives a far better picture then RF.
I have a sky box with UK FTV card connected to vista mce and because of the way sky boxes change channels (ie 3digits for tv and 4 for radio), sometimes the channels do not change correctly, so a sky+ box would be more reliable, not to mention cheaper (as a second box would require an extra EUR15 a month subscription)

mathias

Am I missing something, or is it simply a case of change the NTL STBs for Sky STBs and it's good to go?

Yeah , Thats pretty much it ,

will the PVR 500 MCE do?

Yeah , theres no real point in getting anything with digital tuners as they will be useless with the sky box's , the sky feeds from the dish are encrypted as I said and they cant be legally unencrypted so digital tuners are no good.

Given the big budget I was planning on going for 4GB RAM and a higher-end mobo, CPU, and gfx card (one that will handle HD no problem while still being silent) - any thoughts?

No worries there either , but watch out for high end graphics as they are really really loud , you can always replace the stock coolers but this can be a big job on some high end cards as they have the cooler mounted the whole length of the board and they arnt exactly easy to get off.

For a HTPC the card I posted will handle HD no problem , Id seriously think about it as its really big advantage is that its quiet.

With regards to 4GB of ram , it will go unused unless you have a 64bit OS , and they can be tricky with drivers , so hunt the drivers down before parting with cash. Vista Ultimate or Home premium would be your 64bit OS's with media centre.Im not sure if XP has a 64bit version with MCE.

you should just get 1 sky+ box

Quoted from Ffocused above , not sure this would work ,at least not on any sky + box I have seen to date.
The idea of having two sky STB's is that the RF out on each is independant , this is not the case with a Sky+ box , it has two independant feeds , but not two independant outputs.
In this case then , the HTPC would only have one input , and that would mean that most PVR functionality would be lost , as you could only watch or record one channel at a time and if you were recording then live pause would be disabled ,

Of course you may know a sky + box with independantly working outputs ?
Of course the Sky + box with subscription would do the job on its own, but that kind of makes the HTPC redundant for recording TV

And off topic but ...... 1000 posts .... yay !

ffocused

Thereis no sky+ with dual outputs, i meant using a sky+ as the pvr instead of the htpc.
I would recommend a sky+ instead of a htpc as a pvr as i feel the sky+ is more reliable, and a second digibox will require a multiroom subsription of EUR15 a month.
I have a sky+ with my sky sub and a HTPC running vista HP with a digibox using a UK FTV card, and the sky+ is the more reliable of the 2 for recording.
I find that because of the way digiboxes change channels (ie 3 digits for tv and 4 for radio) sometimes channels do not change correctly. I have had the same problem on 2 HTPC's.
The HTPC stil has other uses other then the pvr.

Congrats on the 1k posts Mathias, heres hoping for many more.

FrankGrimes

Thanks again to both of you for all the great info and yep fair play Mathias on the 1000 posts.

So he's only gone and thrown a spanner in the works by saying he wants it to have the ability to playback Blu-ray discs, while also being able to burn DVDs and CDs. I'm thinking a Pioneer BDC-202 will do the job for €200 - does anyone have any experience with them?

I've done some reading up and it seems I underestimated that gfx card as it seems to fit the bill for MCE perfectly and will handle HD/blu-ray playback over HDMI so that's a great card for the price - thanks.

So here is my provisional shopping list.

Does this PSU look right or over/under kill? I choose it as it's fanless but has a backup fan for safety.

The mobo with the upgrade kit mathias suggested seemed to have some issues based on reviews, but I'm not sure if the Abit AW9D-MAX mobo I'm opting for is overkill. Basically, it needs to be silent and have PCI-Express (only one I think), PCI (2 if using PVR150s, 1 if PVR500), 7.1 audio (with optical out), Core 2 Duo support, firewire, plenty of USB2.0 ports, GBLan. Would this one seem suitable? There's a serious range of options so it's hard to tell.

Many thanks again for the input, think I'm pretty close to a finalised list and it'll be interesting to get this beast up and tested.

* 338938 2 x Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM [ SPECIAL OFFER ]
* 324815 ABIT AW9D-MAX, I975X, Socket-775,SATAII, Silent Otes,2xGbLAN,DDR2,ATX, 2xPCI-Ex16
* 326866 Apevia PSU Tester, Aluminium, for HDD, Floppy, SATA, P4/P8, PCI-E, 20/24pin
* 302888 Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5 Gram
* 334571 Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC8500 2048MB CL5 ,Kit w/two matched BallistiX 128Megx64
* 328901 Hauppauge! Full height bracket for PVR150MCE low profile card.
* 315270 Hauppauge! WinTV-PVR-150MCE, PCI, Low Profile, Tv-card w/radio, Bulk
* 338084 Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHz 1333Mhz Socket LGA775, 4MB, BOXED w/fan
* 321058 Logitech Ultra Flat Keyboard, USB/PS2, UK Layout
* 307397 Logitech X-230 2.1, 2 Satellites and Subwoofer, 32W RMS
* 309575 MCE Remote control for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005 English
* 311513 Nexus DiskTwin, Stops HDD Vibration and Resonance, Fits in 5.25" bay, Aluminum
* 326769 NorthQ 4300GP-FL, 400W Fanless, 70mm Backup fan, 4xSATA, ATX, PCI-E, 20/24pin
* 337990 Plextor DVD±RW burner, PX-810SA, SATA, 18x, 10x Dual, DVD-RAM, Black
* 107052 Power Cable PC 2m (UK) w/fuse
* 336746 Sapphire Radeon HD 2400 XT 256MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, DVI-I/Tv-out/HDMI, Heatsink
* 320110 Zalman CNPS9500AT Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler, Socket 775
* 330857 Zalman HD160XT HTPC Black, mATX/ATX, 7" touch display, Aluminium (without PSU)

FrankGrimes

Just bumping to see if anyone has any thoughts on this proposed spec? I just want to doublecheck the PSU and mobo. I'm pretty sure they'll be fine, but just wanted to see if there are more suitable ones I should go for.

subway

why are you spending all that money and then getting those pos speakers.
get a decent 5.1 system for gods sake!!
in terms of the keyboard i would recommend the mce keyboard if you can

FrankGrimes

Yeh, sorry, should've pointed out that those speakers are not for this build at all - were just in my shopping list from a separate purchase.

I have the MCE keyboard in my own house and find it grand but others don't like the mouse nipple, so I thought I'd seen recommedations for an alternative, but I'll look into that.

jester77

There is cam you can get for DVB-S cards called the Dragon which you can pair your existing sky viewer card with to enable sky through a media center without the sky box. I haven't done this but there is a whole thread dedicated to it on the AVForums.

demac

http://www.digital-everywhere.com

These guys have a tuner card when used with a suitable cam, can do away with the Sky box.

It's called the FloppyDTV and can be purchased from www.firedtv.com