yea, my settop box has a passthrough on the back so I will run out from that pass through into the tv tuner. Do I use this USB tuner to get TV or do I continue using my set top box?
I'm completely new to satellite tv, as I said in a previous post i've moved here from Australia a few months ago and we had digital tv through antenna so I used PVR-2200 Nova-T tuners in my media center. When I landed i zipped down to The Warehouse and got a set top box and plugged that into an analog tv tuner with RCA leads and configured media center to use it, and my media center remotes control box sends the signal to for the set top box to change the channels, it's worked flawless since I got here using Haventech's guide but seeing that maybe gone I need a backup solution where I don't need to rely on others.
My ideal thing would just be to use that USB Tuner with the media center as the tv tuner and not use the set top box anymore. Then I assume media center would just rip the guide down itself ?
I'm just down below Queenstown so we don't have any tv through the air in our area so satellite is it... There doesn't seem to be any high definition stuff at all here.
Any help always appreciated, hopefully you have an idea for a better solution for me.
There are solutions available that would allow you to do away with the STB but not with the tuner you have bought and it can also be technically challenging (no offence intended).
In any case I don't think MC would download the EPG (although others might correct me on that) as I know I have many EPG Collector users here downloading Sky data.
I'm located in South Canterbury and I can't get terrestrial either. I won't subscribe to Sky and Freeview over satellite is just SD not HD so I'm right at the bottom of the pile. FTA television here is rubbish anyway.
Ok, well I'm happy with my current solution anyway so all I need is that usb tuner to down the guide for me.
I will need to use a different program to import the guide I believe, i'm currently using GuideServiceProxy by epgsteam.net to import the xml file into Vista Media Center, I have Win7 I could Install but i've put that off as the Vista MCE has worked perfectly for 3 years, even handled the change from Australian Digital to NZ Satellite without a hitch so I've not bothered to change. It never crashes or does anything wrong.
Any suggestions for a tool to import the xml file into Vista or 7 MCE ? I would like a free solution for that. my Epgsteam solution worked with haventech's guide but tonight I tried a ripped guide from a very helpful geekzone member who did it with their satellite tuner and epgsteams import tool didn't work with the file for some reason.
On my day of research i've found this info on a geekzone members personal website
Freeview broadcasts the full week guide on DVB-S and Media Center can grab this without any third party software. If you have a DVB-S and a DVB-T tuner on your media center you can easily map the channels and watch HD content, with the guide from the non-HD source. But some people don't have both DVB-T and DVB-S tuners. Or rather have a different solution. This is for you.
It seems when my DVB-S usb tuner arrives I can just configure mce to get the guide data off it without any 3rd party software. It's problably a mission to setup but it's going to be worth it in the long run, I must research that now!
..as I said, EPG's are marvellous when they are working and a right pain in the butt when they aren't! Still you seem to be working it out - good luck.
I would say if you have Windows 7 then move to it. The MCE experience although it looks the same is technically far better then Vista. Basically it just works. It has out of the box support for both DVB-T and DVB-S in NZ. As you have worked out you can ditch the STB if all you were doing with it was feeding the MC. Just connect the USB tuner direct to the dish. As for EPG you are correct for Satellite you will get the EPG without needing to use any third party options. $25 for a DVB-S tuner is a very good find. Hopefully it is reliable TBH if it was me I would have got two. That way you can record and watch a different channel at the same time
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
I will buy a second tuner at some point and do that, I'd like a twin tuner rig. So let me get this straight. Once the tuner arrives I format / reinstall with my windows 7 disk do all the drivers and so on. Go into media center and it will see my DVT-S USB Tuner, it will scan the channels when i do that part of the setup and then it will just work with the guide? no messing around, no 3rd party software? If this is the case i'm very happy! I guess I could use the other analog tuner with the settop box as the 2nd tuner for record/view at the same time?
Yes you could do that. Do you have an IR blaster? You'd just need to tell MCE that you have a dvb-s and an analogue source for each channel and MCE could then control the stb via the IR blaster allowing you to record while you watch
yep, i use it at the moment, currently im using the settop box with the analog tuner and the ir blaster to chang channels for me, its been perfect except for haventechs guide disappearing
I have another analog tuner laying around and I currently have a set top box hooked up to optus c1 giving me AU SBS and Ch7 so I could hook that up in Win7 MCE too? I tried with vista but it doesn't support 2 sources for analog tuners being different sources but I believe win7 does.
Correct Windows 7 does support multi sources (four by type I think). Yes it is that easy to setup, it is actually easier with satellite as that provides epg data over the air which MCE can read from the stream. For terrestrial because they use MHEG-5 you need the third party software to get the EPG. I would setup the USB DVB-S first and check the quality compared to your existing setup. Personally capturing a analogue source has always looked like complete pants to me so if it were me I would confirm the USB solution works and if so use it to replace the STB's taking the analogue links out of the equation.
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
thanks for the advice, sounds the go... i'll setup the usb dvb-s tuner and get it all working before messing around with everything else. I will eventually buy a second dvb-s tuner to get the dual recording thing going on. I'd prefer a pci or pci express one but cash flow was the problem at the moment afterall i'm doing all of this just to get a working guide since haventech's has stopped.
Well I was sick of not having a Guide so my last 2 days of research have now paid off, I have a Guide again and my DVB-S tuner hasn't arrived yet so the good old internets saved the day to provide my guide data.
If anyone else is in my situation of having satellite tv using a set top box and had no guide I've made 2 little applications you can run as a scheduled task to download the guide once every 5 days then use whatever program you like to import the data into media center, being my MCE pc is Vista based I just use guideserviceproxy from epgsteam.net, it doesn't seem to exist anymore on their site as they just do Win7 now but I have a copy I can upload if anyone needs it.
One is for freeview only (currently working fine, up to date and should continue to work to keep your freeview guide updated) The other is set up to download Haventechs guide, although not working at the moment if it ever comes back up you'll be set as it does freeview and sky.
If you are going to stop using haventech's for your freeview or if it never comes back up and you choose to use my freeview guide solution in Vista you need to add the listings back to your channels as they seem different to haventech's but I believe thats easier in Win7. It only took me 5 minutes in Vista anyway so reassign the guide to the channels.
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