New to HTPC - first attempt.

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dickytim

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#105708 9-Jul-2012 08:25

I have obtained a computer from work that has some issues connecting to the network, it always says "network cable unplugged" we have had a new motherboard and install of Windows loaded but the problem persists. Anyway I am going to take it home and set it up for video's etc.

My plan is to install a second hard drive 2-3TB, a video card, wireless card and set up to play DVD's and possible stream video from time to time, I would also like to have it set up to record Sky by running the sky decoder thru the RCA's thru the HTPC then out thru the HDMI of the video card.

So I need to purchase a video card with video and audio capture and HDMI and a wireless card, the HTPC will be about 2-3 meter from the router so it wont need to be super powerful.

My questions are,

What video card should I be looking for (it is PCI-e)

What wireless card?

Which OS is best for this, it currently has XP Pro on it.

The computer was a custom built one, it has a G-Froce 7600GS video card at the moment (no HDMI), 4GB ram and a 300GB HDD but will just use that for windows and storage on another drive.

davidcole

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#652747 9-Jul-2012 09:13

You'll need to look for an hardware encoding Analogue card (the HVR2210 has dual DVB-T and Dual analogue inputs)....but most third party software (PVR software) - especially later ones, probably can't use the analogue. It's kinda being phased out.

The inbuilt software will work however, but you'll lose access to TV guides etc. Just something to be aware of.

That said, there has bewen some success with Hauppauge Analogue recording under nextpvr and I'd assume MediaPortal and possibly MythTV.

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dickytim

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#652779 9-Jul-2012 10:23

would you loose access to your TV guides etc even if you were just passing the TV signal thru the PC ?

The signal would come thru the Sky decoder as normal, however instead of going from the SCART plus thru the RCA's to the TV it would go via an RCA input on the HTPC then out thru HDMI on the graphics card to the TV.

I know nothing of how to set these things up or what happens but to me that would be a logical way to do it.

But my logic and that of a computer system don't always agree!

davidcole

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#652795 9-Jul-2012 10:42

dickytim: would you loose access to your TV guides etc even if you were just passing the TV signal thru the PC ?

The signal would come thru the Sky decoder as normal, however instead of going from the SCART plus thru the RCA's to the TV it would go via an RCA input on the HTPC then out thru HDMI on the graphics card to the TV.

I know nothing of how to set these things up or what happens but to me that would be a logical way to do it.

But my logic and that of a computer system don't always agree!

The difference between "recording" software - that will work perfectly with the analogue part of the card, and PVR software, is one is pretty much like a VCR - set the time and it will record. A PVR uses an EPG (the tv guide) and knows the concept of a program. So you record programs rather than time slots.

It's a convenience thing, and changes your concepts of recording.

Oh, I can't see the old message, but were you after a PCI or PCIe analogue card? I actually have an old PCI Hauppauge PVR 150 - simple Hardware encoding (MPEG2 format) tuner card. I used to use it with both sky and Telstraclear.

I even had it set up to automatically change the channels on the decoder both before recording (this was set up in gbpvr - nextpvr's predecessor) using a device called a usb-uirt.

But you should still be able to get the WinTV software to run it and do simple record between x and y time from the Composite input.

dickytim

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#653719 10-Jul-2012 19:19

ok so I have the following

PC case with 320gb HDD core 2 duo processor, 4GB ram.

Today I purchased and installed Sapphire HD7750 GPU, TP link 300mb wireless card and 2 x 1.5TB HDD's.

I am looking at http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=TVNHGR0057&name=Hauppauge-WinTV-HVR-1200-DVB-T-FreeView-PCI-E-digi

I want to use the RCA out from the sky decoder and record for viewing later.

The PC will be used to watch the recorded videos recorded, stream and also other videos etc.

Does anyone have any ideas on if this will work? Oh and I only have 1 x PCI-e X1 port left on the motherboard.

dickytim

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#657240 17-Jul-2012 20:58

Ok so I have installed a HVR-1200 TV tuner card.

I have got it all working so I can watch/record etc currently it is thru the co-ax output from the sky decoder until tomorrow when my s-video to composite video lead arrives, PB were out :(

Anyway the results so far are..... crap! I am watching thru my 32inch 1080 TV but the picture is really bad!

Is there any way to get Windows Media Centre to use more processing power on the picture quality?

The picture is far worse than thru the component video that we usually run sky thru the TV, I didn't expect it to be perfect but I would like it to be watchable, and comparable to watching normally.

dickytim

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#658278 19-Jul-2012 11:11

I played around some more last night and found that I couldn't get Window's Media Centre to get over it's need for IR Hardware!

I also had issues with Media Portal, but I think it wants me to find some codecs etc.

I went to PB Tech and purchased the remote to use with the HVR-1200 so I will try to get it all working thru WMC, the good part is that it came with an IR Blaster/extender

hopefully this will get it all working without having to spend even more money!

dickytim

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#658834 20-Jul-2012 07:36

OK so the remote did solve my problem, and since it came with the IR Blaster is also controls the Sky decoder from the MCE remote! Bonus as this is exactly what I wanted.

The video quality is a lot better than thru the coax cable, but still not 100% the colours are a little off and it is still a little grainy, but I believe that I may be able to tweek it some.

I am not sure but I think it may be trying to upscale for the 1080 display and doing a poor job of it!

For now the quality is acceptable for general use, and if I watch movies they are usually from DVD etc anyway.

So to recap for anyone like me that uses Google to fix all problems

I have the following

Sony 32' full HD TV
Standard Sky decoder
Standard 5 year old Desktop computer with
Core2 Duo processor
4GB ram
Asrock motherboard
ATI HD 7750 GPU
HVR-1200 TV Card
UPC-0335 remote
TP link wireless card

The TV is connected to the Sky decoder by SCART to Component Video cable
The Sky decoder is connected to the PC by SCART to Compisite video then s-video convertor
the remote is a USB model and the IR blaster connects to the back of the USB dongle

The system is set up on a Windows7 Pro 64bit system
the system is currently running on Windows Media Centre

Other notes are the Virtual IR blaster for windows Vista won't work on windows7 64 bit.
If you are a noob like me then you probably wont have any luck with Media Portal as a quick process, likewise for VLC player.

If I had my time again, I would have purchased a DVB-S2 card that also had S-video input and split the signal from the sky dish to get Freeview HD and made sure I didn't buy the whitebox version of the HVR-1200, that said it still worked out cheaper to buy that and the remove seperately

One last note is that I would have also gone for a silent (fanless) GPU as I don't need the capabilities the one I got gives me, I just went for the best I could afford!

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nickrout

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#661263 24-Jul-2012 20:21

You are only ever get SD unless your capture card (a) encodes HD and (b) is connected to an HD source (for ie component or hdmi).

And you won't get HD out of Freeview via satellite, you'll only get it off terrestrial Freeview.

Try an HDHR tuner: http://nicegear.co.nz/dvb-cards/silicondust-hdhomerun/

dickytim

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#661411 25-Jul-2012 07:16

Thanks Nickrout, I hadn't, until recently realized we do not and are not getting satellite HD in New Zealand.

Can anyone help me out with a further question.

I have a SCART - RCA with a S-video adaptor which does work but the picture quality is not very good in MCE and I can't get Media Portal to play nice with my card.

My question is, will I likely see an increase in picture quality going from RCA to S-VIDEO input and bypassing the adaptor or is MCE the problem?

The picture is grainy and the colours seem off, however if I watch a movie etc thru VLC the colours seem fine, as do they when I watch Sky thru the normal connection to the TV.

davidcole

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#661415 25-Jul-2012 07:22

You'll get a little bit of resolution increase.

But not sure what your colour issues are. I dud encoder to analog cards in the past, both over. Imposition and svideo. While the resolution was pretty bad, it was comparable to the analogue aerial connection at the time.

This was in a card back when hardware encoding analogue cards were king (here) about 4 years afo. I haven't seen the analogue input used on these newer cards.

I assume it's hardware encoding not software?

dickytim

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#662150 26-Jul-2012 07:06

davidcole: You'll get a little bit of resolution increase.

But not sure what your colour issues are. I dud encoder to analog cards in the past, both over. Imposition and svideo. While the resolution was pretty bad, it was comparable to the analogue aerial connection at the time.

This was in a card back when hardware encoding analogue cards were king (here) about 4 years afo. I haven't seen the analogue input used on these newer cards.

I assume it's hardware encoding not software?

Hi David, apparently the HVR-1200 uses software encoding, which I am lead to believe, from other forums and google, is most of the problem, however last night I had some success, I managed to change my scart/s-video from an input to output, took so long I should have just purchased a new one!

I also found that there was an incorrect zoom setting, I have changed this and the picture is better, almost acceptable, I also turned off the settings for my graphics card that "optimised" the video, this also helped.

I ran the MCE test videos and found that the colour saturation was not right and changed the setting to "cool"on the TV, much better.

In short I have the wrong TV card and should have one with hardware decoding, that is on the shopping list, and I am looking for a HVR-4400 so I can use Freeview Satellite, Sky thru analogue and get a copy of WinTV to try, also the HVR-4400 should work with MediaPortal.

BTW the picture look AMAZING when scaled down when working on settings, it is only when in full screen that it looks average.

davidcole

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#662157 26-Jul-2012 07:29

dickytim:
davidcole: You'll get a little bit of resolution increase.

But not sure what your colour issues are. I dud encoder to analog cards in the past, both over. Imposition and svideo. While the resolution was pretty bad, it was comparable to the analogue aerial connection at the time.

This was in a card back when hardware encoding analogue cards were king (here) about 4 years afo. I haven't seen the analogue input used on these newer cards.

I assume it's hardware encoding not software?

Hi David, apparently the HVR-1200 uses software encoding, which I am lead to believe, from other forums and google, is most of the problem, however last night I had some success, I managed to change my scart/s-video from an input to output, took so long I should have just purchased a new one!

I also found that there was an incorrect zoom setting, I have changed this and the picture is better, almost acceptable, I also turned off the settings for my graphics card that "optimised" the video, this also helped.

I ran the MCE test videos and found that the colour saturation was not right and changed the setting to "cool"on the TV, much better.

In short I have the wrong TV card and should have one with hardware decoding, that is on the shopping list, and I am looking for a HVR-4400 so I can use Freeview Satellite, Sky thru analogue and get a copy of WinTV to try, also the HVR-4400 should work with MediaPortal.

BTW the picture look AMAZING when scaled down when working on settings, it is only when in full screen that it looks average.

Any modern day DVB card will work on almost any PVR software - MCE/MediaPortal/NextPVR/MythTV....BUT beware the analogue side of the card will require extra setup - an in MCE I don't think the analogue side is supported, I know it is in NextPVR (some hoops to jump through) and would assume the others.