HTPC for UPC Digital

mickotoole

Morning folks,

I'm interested in setting up a dedicated PC so I can streak live TV to different rooms in the house. I'm a total novice so please bear with me.

I've looked into different solutions but there is a huge amount of information out there that I am struggling to get my head around.

Firstly I've got a UPC Digital STB hooked up to my TV.

Is it possible to set up a HTPC with a TV Tuner Card to take the signal directly from the cable to the HTPC and discard my STB?

If this is possible what sort of TV Tuner Card will I need to encode/decode the digital signal coming in to the HTPC?

If it is NOT possible to take the signal into the HTPC directly then what would be the best way to go about this? Should I go from the STB into the HTPC?

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Any pitfalls or shortcuts would also be welcome. I'm fairly proficient in both Windows and Linux so either MythTV or Windows MCE configuration would be well within my technical capabilities.

Thanks folks,

Mick

pug_

mickotoole wrote: »

Is it possible to set up a HTPC with a TV Tuner Card to take the signal directly from the cable to the HTPC and discard my STB?

No. And not only is it not possible, but to try it is pretty illegal too.

If it is NOT possible to take the signal into the HTPC directly then what would be the best way to go about this? Should I go from the STB into the HTPC?

The only way of doing it that I know if is to take the signal from the STB straight into the HTPC, and from there to the TV. You could then use an IR blaster to control the STB via the HTPC. I've done it myself in the past using Myth, but it's not an easy job unfortunately. If you want to go the free OS route then mythbuntu is probably your best bet as pretty much everything is easily configured hardware wise it's just the IR blaster and EPG that need setting up. I've never used windows media centre, but I hear it's very good.

meob

mickotoole wrote: »

possible to take the signal into the HTPC directly then what would be the best way to go about this? Should I go from the STB into the HTPC?

http://mediacenterhd.blogspot.com/2009/10/dvblink-for-hdpvr-thr-answer-to-all-our.html

roast

pug_ wrote: »

No. And not only is it not possible, but to try it is pretty illegal too.

Just out of curiosity, what makes it illegal and what are the ramifications?

meob

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055756501

pug_

roast wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, what makes it illegal and what are the ramifications?

The signal you get from the UPC cable in your house holds all of the channels UPC offer not just the ones you're paying a subscription for. So if you try to unscramble channels, even just the ones you're just paying for, what you're in fact trying to do is circumnavigate the encryption process and if successful will be able to unscramble all channels. A UPC subscription can only be unscrambled using a UPC card in a UPC box as that is how they control what channels you can watch based on the subscription you pay for.

Consequences if found out are a possible court appearance but I'm not sure what the penalties are if found guilty.

Regardless of this the encryption method being used by UPC is one that has not been cracked (Nagravision 3) so there is no method legal or otherwise available to unscramble the signal even if you wanted to.

el dude

This would be of interest to me too. Be great to hear form someone who actually has first hand experience.

Wheeker

el dude wrote: »

This would be of interest to me too. Be great to hear form someone who actually has first hand experience.

Here's my experience: Yes, it would seem to be pretty much impossible to discard the UPC STB & plug the cable directly in to the PC.

However, it is easy enough (& afaik perfectly legal) to use the UPC STB for the TV signal in Windows Media Center. See the sticky here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055144625

I take a SCART->S-Video + Audio cable out of the UPC digital STB, route it through an RGB->S-Video convertor & plug into my analogue TV Tuner card in my PC. An IR-blaster is then taken from the PC & stuck to the front of the UPC STB. This works 100% solid for me with good picture quality.

I have been thinking of upgrading to UPC HD+ which (in theory) should give me better SD picture quality. This STB has SCART + HDMI outputs, but there are no TV Tuner cards that will take an HDMI connection. So I was thinking I could take the SCART -> PC & HDMI->TV & then at least I could use the PC for SD & UPC DVR/TV for HD. However, afaik you can't use the SCART & HDMI outputs simultaneously which kinda makes the extra €5 p.m. + €40 connection fee not really worth it for me. Anyone any experience of doing this?

I already have a dual Analogue/DVB-T card giving me UPC Analogue (terrible picture) + Irish DTT (great picture- but having ATI video card corruption issues:mad:). So more & more I'm tempted to ditch the UPC & go the Freesat route with a satellite dish + dual DVB-S(2?) card....... but that's a whole other story! :P