HVR-2200 with Windows 7 Media Center

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Finboss

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#59545 6-Apr-2010 17:00

I am putting together my first media center pc. I have most of the hardware sorted and just need to choose a tuner card.

I need to use Windows 7 Media Center as I am using a PS3 as a media extender. I want to record tv from my Telstraclear STB. I know that this requires an analog tuner. I would also like to record freeview HD and I know that this requires a DVB-T tuner.

What I would like to know is whether the HVR-2200 would be able to do this. Am I correct in thinking that this is a dual-tuner hybrid card? Can one tuner record from the analog output of the STB? Can its other tuner simultaneously record Freeview HD from DVB-T? Also, will WMC alow me to do this and is it able to handle 720p and 1080i? What do I do about EPG's as the will be different for each tuner? Will the HVR-2200 output HD resolutions?

Thanks

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12 posts

Geek

#315431 6-Apr-2010 18:20

OK I was wrong about using a PS3 as a media extender. I will just share media to it instead. Well this means that I don't need to use WMC; however, I would still like to use it as I prefer the interface (not a fan of media portal).

Filterer

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#315432 6-Apr-2010 18:21

Pretty sure it is a hybrid card, not a dual tuner card. The difference being that hybrid cards can tune in via multiple sources but not do so concurrently

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Finboss

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Geek

#315486 6-Apr-2010 20:23

Really? This is from the Hauppage website:

With Microsoft Media Center and the WinTV-HVR-2200 MC you can

* Watch Freeview digital TV (DVB-T) or analogue TV on your PC screen while recording a different channel on the second tuner!

I thought it was a hybrid tuner but it has two hybrid tuners. I am not sure though, so that is why I was asking.

timestyles

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

#315496 6-Apr-2010 20:49

This link says "dual digital or dual analogue" however, they tested a beta copy of the tuner, I guess that the design could change from beta to release.

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/showthread.php/25823-Hauppauge-HVR-2200-Digital-Tuner

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#315605 7-Apr-2010 01:03

I have one of these cards, it's a dual tuner hybrid card. Basically it can do dual digital and dual analogue, but you can only use 2 of these at the same time - so for example 2 digitals, or 1 digital and 1 analogue. It's a great card though, it's one of those fantastic items I bought that just works, no messing about.

sbiddle

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#315620 7-Apr-2010 07:43

It is dual tuner, unlike the HVR3000 and HVR4000 that are Hybrid cards and can only tune either analogue, DVB-S or DVB-T.

I'm not sure what you mean by "output HD resolutions" - the tuner card has nothing to do with output. It's only job is to dump the MPEG transport stream to HDD, playback is handled by your PC and video card.

ZollyMonsta

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#315625 7-Apr-2010 08:00

Got one of these cards myself. Brilliant in GBPVR (Can record more than one channel at once on one tuner via DVB-T if they're in the same Mux).

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Nety

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#315703 7-Apr-2010 11:26

I have the setup that you are wanting to do (with some extra's)

As already stated the 2200 is dual tuner so can record Digital X2 or Analogue X2 or 1X Digital and 1X Analogue.
I have one of the analogue tuners connected to our Telstra box and both of the Digital tuners. I know that sounds confusing but basically it means that if the analogue tuner is not being used the card can record two digital channels.
Don't expect a fantastic picture from the Telstra box via the 2200 however it is not the 2200's fault it is just a limitation of feeding a TV tuner card a analogue source. The 2200 was a massive improvement on trying to use the 3000's which I also have two of.
The 2200 does have hardware encoding for analogue which is a big plus. The 3000's don't and quite apart from looking horrible caused a massive hit on the CPU whenever recording analogue.
As for EPG I use BSE and map it to both Freeview|HD and Telstra channels. There are a couple of channels that do not have EPG data but quite frankly they are ones that I never watch anyway.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

Finboss

12 posts

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#315838 7-Apr-2010 18:27

Brilliant! I think that this is the card for me. So will this setup work well with W7MC? Will W7MC handle HD? I heard that it was not capable of HD. How did you go about setting up your system and what Media Center software do you use? Also, could you link me to BSE, as I have been unable to find it?

Sorry about asking so many questions

timestyles

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

#315849 7-Apr-2010 18:59

I think it's time for a few knowledgeable people to have a start with the wiki here (I can provide questions for someone to answer in a FAQ...). Anyway, have a read of this about HTPCs http://www.pcu.co.nz/blogs/?p=9 and PCU have a system design here http://pcu.co.nz/store/product.php?product=3850, you can get it cheaper elsewhere, but it's useful to know what people have come up with which is probably commercially successful.

Big Screen EPG: read about it here: http://mobilewares.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!78533A1A2E078194!3014.entry

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#315892 7-Apr-2010 20:54

Finboss: Brilliant! I think that this is the card for me. So will this setup work well with W7MC? Will W7MC handle HD? I heard that it was not capable of HD. How did you go about setting up your system and what Media Center software do you use? Also, could you link me to BSE, as I have been unable to find it?

Sorry about asking so many questions

Actually W7MC is about the easiest way to get FreeviewHD running on a PC, Windows' h264 codecs are installed by default and will play HD out of the box.

I personally use MediaPortal with 4TheRecord doing my scheduling as I like to configure everything exactly the way I want it and the TVSeries plugin for it is my most used app, but I usually set up W7MC for other people as it's easier for them to maintain.

There's a few other threads on here about how to get FreeviewHD working with W7MC, and you might not need to go down the BSE route - a couple of the people here are working on an MHEG5 decoder that should work with it.

Finboss

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#315893 7-Apr-2010 20:56

I think that answers most of my questions. The HVR 2200 seems perfect and Windows 7 Media Center will support HD. What I still don't understand is how I configure 1 tuner to output analog from my stb and the other to output digital from Freeview HD. How will this work with W7MC? How do the 2 different EPG's work in W7MC?

Nety

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#315919 7-Apr-2010 21:34

Oh one annoying thing I was going to mention but did not is that the 2200 only accepts a s-video input for analogue. That would be fine except that of course the Telstra STB only has one s-video out (if you are lucky) which means the TV is left to use the composite out.. :(
As far as getting the STB and Digital connected you just connect the STB via the s-video connection and your aerial for Freeview|HD via the single connector on the card. The card splits them internally.
As for the EPG I suggest you get the media center setup and working. Then worry about getting the EPG sorted otherwise it will just get very confusing.

Finboss

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#315924 7-Apr-2010 21:41

So I shouldn't have any issues running analogue and digital at the same time in WMC?

Nety

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#316151 8-Apr-2010 11:58

Nope. Works fine. Does make setting up the channels and linking the EPG data a bit more of a process but once that is done it just works.

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