First time HTPC builder questions

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › First time HTPC builder questions - Sky + Amplifier

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donthaveacow

54 posts

Master Geek

#581586 14-Feb-2012 22:03

Mattv: If you wanted to spend a little extra you may want to add a DVB-S card as well. This would give you a much better picture for Freeview channels (not HD but better than Sky via S-VHS). It would also allow you to "receive" the full SKY+Freeview EPG using something like EPG collector. This would give you much better user interface plus you would also be able to record/watch more than one channel at a time. Quite a bit more "tinkering" to get it set up but it would be worth it in my opinion. Of course if you are in a Freeview terrestrial location you may want to look at adding a combined DVB-S/T card or something so you can get a full HD picture (if you have an HD TV and that interests you).

Would a HVR-3300 by itself allow me to do this? View Freeview in HD and have an EPG for both Freeview and Sky?

Mattv

242 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#581614 15-Feb-2012 00:04

donthaveacow:
Mattv: If you wanted to spend a little extra you may want to add a DVB-S card as well. This would give you a much better picture for Freeview channels (not HD but better than Sky via S-VHS). It would also allow you to "receive" the full SKY+Freeview EPG using something like EPG collector. This would give you much better user interface plus you would also be able to record/watch more than one channel at a time. Quite a bit more "tinkering" to get it set up but it would be worth it in my opinion. Of course if you are in a Freeview terrestrial location you may want to look at adding a combined DVB-S/T card or something so you can get a full HD picture (if you have an HD TV and that interests you).

Would a HVR-3300 by itself allow me to do this? View Freeview in HD and have an EPG for both Freeview and Sky?

Yes and no.

To clarify the plugs etc. With this card you would put a splitter on the dish input to the sky box and plug the new lead into the DVB-S socket on the card to get the Freeview satelite and all the guide data. The line from your UHF aerial would go into the DVB-T socket to get Freview HD. In the package should be an adapter like in the bottom of the photo below for the S-VHS and audio from out of the sky box.

I am not 100% sure on my facts here as I have not been up on the latest cards here but I think it would do all three fine but maybe only one at a time. ie you could watch a sky channel and then change channel to a Freeview DVB-T but you might not be able to watch one while recording another. If it can do all three at once then great, except for one thing. It would appear that it does not come with a IR-Transmitter (blaster) to change the channel on the sky box. As a result you would need to do that manually with the sky remote and therefore you would have trouble scheduling recordings as someone might leave the sky box on the wrong channel. You'd have to check with the suppliers I think.

A combo of two different cards, one of them a MC kit, may be the best option still especially since you can get Freeview HD.

One other thing to consider before you go too far down this track. Once you have an HD TV and have got used to watching Freeview HD you will find it very hard to accept the poor quality of Sky via S-VHS (even via component it's not brilliant as it is still only SD). You will likely want to upgrade SKY to HD which means a new mysky box and HDMI outputs which is where you run into new problems (hence the colossus cards and HDMI "adapters" to get around HDCP etc) Of course the new sky box will do most of what mediacenter will do if all you want to use it for is watching/recording TV. Much as I love MC myself it's worth thinking about before you splash out too much cash...

donthaveacow

54 posts

Master Geek

#581995 15-Feb-2012 18:46

Ah okay! The cables make some more sense now, just wondering why you need both the satellite and UHF aerial for Freeview? Is this just to get two channels at once or am I missing something?

Good point about having to watch Sky in SD btw, I plan on having the TV, receiver and Sky all set up first and then getting a HTPC in 6 months or so if I still like the idea of one. Only problem with this is that I won't be able to watch any DVDs or Blu-rays for a while

donthaveacow

54 posts

Master Geek

#581996 15-Feb-2012 18:48

MySky is the only way to get HD sky right? Except for a card reader like was posted earlier? Or is there a newer standard Sky Box with HD?

JimmyH

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#581998 15-Feb-2012 18:54

Would a HVR-3300 by itself allow me to do this? View Freeview in HD and have an EPG for both Freeview and Sky?

The HVR-3300 won't give a Sky EPG - unless you do a lot of intricate fiddling with Sky card readers etc (which I have no experience of and can't advise on, it's way beyond my skill level) the Sky box will have to take care of the EPG. As for the other features of the card, I suggest downloading the manual to check if you are unsure of whether it will do something.

There is no perfect solution - there are always trade-offs depending on what precisely you want to achieve, how much you & your family can cope with complexity vs simplicity, how much you care about quality, the degree you want to future-proof with an upgrade path, and how much you are prepared to spend etc.

One option if you are struggling with the more technical issues and choices is to go and see one of the smaller computer shops that builds machines to order, explain what you want, and get them to give you options/prices and then build a box that they undertake to make work.

B1GGLZ

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#582090 15-Feb-2012 22:18

donthaveacow: Ah okay! The cables make some more sense now, just wondering why you need both the satellite and UHF aerial for Freeview?

You don't. The UHF antenna is for the DVB-T Tuner which receives Freeview HD.
The Satellite Dish is for the DVB-S Tuner which receives Freeview SD and other free-to-air Satellite channels. Also Sky if you can sort out how to decrypt the scrambled channels. Depending on what software you use you should be able to record 2 channels at once on each tuner.

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donthaveacow

54 posts

Master Geek

#582108 15-Feb-2012 23:02

If my receiver does HDMI up-conversion will I be able to watch Sky in HD without MySky?

So will I still need to view the EPG using the Sky remote? If so will this mean VCR style recording rather than being able to pick a program from a list and telling it to record?

donthaveacow

54 posts

Master Geek

#582111 15-Feb-2012 23:07

Wait no, since it will be an HDMI input into the receiver it won't be upconverted? Or does it recognise signal quality rather than the connection type?

Mattv

242 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#582126 15-Feb-2012 23:58

JimmyH:
The HVR-3300 won't give a Sky EPG - unless you do a lot of intricate fiddling with Sky card readers etc (which I have no experience of and can't advise on, it's way beyond my skill level) the Sky box will have to take care of the EPG.

This is not correct. If you have a DVB-S card you can tune in and "download" the full 8 day EPG for Freeview and Sky using a program called EPG collector. At this stage the Sky EPG data is not encrypted so you do not need a card reader or extra software to decode it (not to say that sky may change that in the future). It does take a bit of configuring to get it running but once done it is pretty much set and forget. Have a look at the EPG Forum here

You may still be able to get Sky EPG data via download (I think Haventech is the only one still working) but the above method is better IMHO

Since you are in a DVB-T reception area you don't really need DVB-S apart from getting the EPG and possibly a couple of other minor free to air channel available in NZ, and it may allow you to view/record more than one channel at a time.

The only way to get Sky HD is with a Sky HD subscription and therefore you need a new HD capable MySky box. Even if you wanted to go for the card reader option and decrypt the signal in the PC you still need the legit subscription first so you end up with the MySky box sitting gathering dust. Unfortunately Sky, in their infinite wisdom, will not let you buy a subscription only. Doing this is a much nicer solution IMO but does take time and money.

donthaveacow

54 posts

Master Geek

#582482 16-Feb-2012 17:41

Okay sweet, I just had a look at this thread here: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=126&topicid=70325

Just wondering why he has a PVR150 and a HVR3300 though?

Mattv

242 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#582510 16-Feb-2012 19:02

You'd have to perhaps send him a PM/email to ask about his setup but I imagine he has the PVR150MCE (note the MCE bit) in order to have the IR Blaster to change channel on the sky box. Or perhaps it's just because the 3300 wasn't around when he first set things up? He would be a good person to check about the full capabilities/limitations of the 3300. The write up seems like it would really help you with your potential setup though.

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Nety

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#582634 17-Feb-2012 06:51

If you want to record analogue sources I would not recommend the HVR3300. It does NOT have a hardware encoder which means the CPU has to do the encoding (big overhead) and poor quality. From my experience analogue encoded with a hardware encoder is not great (think worse then DVD better then VHS) on the other hand analogue recorded with a software encoder is about the same or worse then VHS.
If you really want to go down the recording analogue path at least get something like a HVR2200 which has a hardware encoder. Personally I have Freeview HD setup for all the Freeview available channels and only have analogue setup (Telstra digital source to HVR2200) for those that are not covered but I also cannot remember the last time I recorded something that was not on Freeview.
If you think you will record quite a bit off Sky I think you are far better off spending the time and effort to setup the media centre to be your Sky box.

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

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