Build your own box?

dulpit

Hey all,

I've always been curious about building my own media PC/satellite receiver. Apart from the fun of building a PC and having full control over the thing, are there any substantive benefits over the likes of a Freesat+ box? I appreciate that the freesat box will just work, but I'm curious if people have built their own and what's good/bad? Or do most people just go down the Enigma/Dreambox route if they want to tinker?

dulpit

Oh meant to say in an ideal world the box would have both satellite and terrestrial tuners.. Just having a think right now, nothing concrete in my mind yet for set-up/etc...

Johnboy1951

Many on here built their own, myself included.

I have three TVs in the house and may other devices on which people like to watch TV, such as tablets, phones, laptops etc.

I made one grievous (to me) error when I started out some years ago.
I decided on a box that would sit under the TV and display on the TV, as well as allowing other devices to connect to it over the LAN.
That decision entailed buying new equipment, including a case which was large enough to house everything, yet small enough, and looked good enough to sit under the TV. It also had to be very quiet!
That probably cost me about €600 all told.

I have since learned that I can use an old, discarded PC, that I received for nothing (saved from dump), to manage the backend tuners, not connected to any TV, and placed somewhere out of sight and sound.
That connected to the LAN, and each TV with its own tiny client device (such as Raspberry Pi) makes more sense to me, and I have since switched to that system.
The backend tuner manager/server holds all recording and manages EPG etc etc. The client devices only have to connect to it and display the chosen TV channel.

It is not for everyone, but is what suits my situation.

All devices ran Openelec, but most have since converted to LibreElec. As all use Kodi for UI the same interface is presented to the user regardless how or where TV is watched.
If maintenance is needed .... such as a channel changes its frequency I only need to do it once on the server.
In fact there is a means to have it done automatically I believe but I have not bothered to investigate as the maintenance is minimal.

I recommend TBS tuners .... costly but definitely very reliable and available in multi-tuner cards.

There are lots of threads on the subject in the HTPC forum which I suggest you read through.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=643

Stasi 2.0

dulpit wrote: »

are there any substantive benefits over the likes of a Freesat+ box?

One that springs to mind is the ability to backup/archive recorded content to other media/devices something that's becoming increasingly difficult with DVD recorders disappearing from (most) shop shelves.

Not sure how well EPG integration works on such devices though ?

PabloAndRoy

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Many on here built their own, myself included.

...

I have since learned that I can use an old, discarded PC, that I received for nothing (saved from dump), to manage the backend tuners, not connected to any TV, and placed somewhere out of sight and sound.
That connected to the LAN, and each TV with its own tiny client device (such as Raspberry Pi) makes more sense to me, and I have since switched to that system.
The backend tuner manager/server holds all recording and manages EPG etc etc. The client devices only have to connect to it and display the chosen TV channel.

It is not for everyone, but is what suits my situation.

...

I do something similar to JohnBoy, but I use 100% Raspberry Pis, including the backend. For Saorview I have 2 (linux compatible) USB DVB-T tuners on a powered hub. For satellite I hand off all the hard work to a SAT>IP server (this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Computers-Accessories/Telestar-DIGIBIT-HD-SAT-Reciever/B008OVPYCQ. This is a lot more cost effective than a 4 PCi tuners. All of that stuff is in my attic.

That entire backend cost me about 200 quid. I added a Terabyte USB hard drive and I have a centralised recording accessible on all my TVs. Like JohnBoy, we use LibreElec on the RPis on the client TVs.

Setting it all up is a little fiddly, but I enjoy that kind of thing. Some knowledge of linux would be useful

I am sure both JohnBoy and myself would give both you advice and help you get up and running if you choose to go that route.

Its fun and its cheap.

Edit: I should point out that tvheadend (the backend software) allows for Series Link type recordings called Timer Recordings and arranges all these in folders per programme. Also the frontend EPG/CHannel list is the same on all the TVS and can be in any order and mix of Terrestrial/Satellite that you like. Plus it is the same on all of your TVs as the order is managed at the back end.

it looks like this on the front end:

Johnboy1951

PabloAndRoy wrote: »

I do something similar to JohnBoy, but I use 100% Raspberry Pis, including the backend. For Saorview I have 2 (linux compatible) USB DVB-T tuners on a powered hub. For satellite I hand off all the hard work to a SAT>IP server (this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Computers-Accessories/Telestar-DIGIBIT-HD-SAT-Reciever/B008OVPYCQ. This is a lot more cost effective than a 4 PCi tuners. All of that stuff is in my attic.

That entire backend cost me about 200 quid. I added a Terabyte USB hard drive and I have a centralised recording accessible on all my TVs. Like JohnBoy, we use LibreElec on the RPis on the client TVs.

Setting it all up is a little fiddly, but I enjoy that kind of thing. Some knowledge of linux would be useful

I am sure both JohnBoy and myself would give both you advice and help you get up and running if you choose to go that route.

Its fun and its cheap.

Another alternative to the box linked to above might be the XTi3340 .... details available on this page
http://www.vboxcomm.com/product-page/satellite.html

There are a few others available also if building your own is not an acceptable option.

Conar

Just to give an alternative point of view I have a media center / gaming PC in the sitting room running windows 10.
I use mediaportal to watch TV via pci-e satellite tuners and steam to play my games.
I have Sonarr and Couchpotato set up to grab shows from the usenet automatically if they're not on terrestrial.

While I have 3 other tvs in the house we actually watch less and less live TV so most of the streaming is done to other tablets in house over plex which resides on the media center.
Mediaportal can also stream to kodi front ends and other options but we just don't really find the need for it at present. It's simple as it just involves running an install file to add the kodi extension to mediaportal.

Benefits for me are a very responsive UI and I like being able to jump between gaming, to watching live TV, to browsing the web and more.

I actually use plex player rather than mediaportal to watch my non-live TV/Movie downloads now because I find the codecs built in provide a more consistent and quality viewing.
It also allows me to set up different user profiles for me, my wife, and my 2 kids. We can watch the same shows at different times and keep track of where we are easily.
These profiles are also available when they stream via the plex apps and and profiles can be pin protected.
If we're doing the long drive back to my parents for the weekend the kids can sync some shows to their tablets and even select what quality (lower takes less space obviously) they want and plex will encode it and copy it to the device over the network.
I also set age profiles for them for viewing but if I find that I feel a show is OK I can label it as ok for them and it gets through the filters.
Plex is also accessible from outside of my home network so if I want I can stream while I'm out and about or even download my own shows through a simple interface.

Meandering now but while I'm talking about child controls I have a Nighthawk router with advanced tomato firmware installed which allows me to turn off the Internet at certain times for the kids but still allow them access to plex over the network. This has been a compromise for my teenage daughter as she's not allowed her phone in her room at night but this means she can watch a show for a short while before she sleeps.

Waffled a bit there sorry