Vista Media Centre and Sky in NZ?

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paulspain

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Topic # 12669 29-Mar-2007 23:14

Just wondering who is running Vista Media Centre and Sky in NZ with an EPG (such as one generated by XMLTVNZ)?

I've been running an XP Media Centre centre for a couple of years but am thinking of upgrading it to Vista. Who's tried this already ... and how have you got on?

Paul Spain
Founder: Gorilla Technology, NZ Tech Podcast, Cloud Labs, UFB.org.nz

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Reply # 66183 3-Apr-2007 20:42

I have both XP Media Center and Vista Ultimate dual-booting on the same machine. I don't have sky, but I do have the EPG running and feeding sky epg data into MCE under vista. I had some troubles getting the EPG to work under vista, I ended up going with a variation of this epg software for vista "EPG WebApp" http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/downloads.php?do=file&id=130 - the variation being that I copied the code from the aspx page and created a c# application to do the dirty work instead as i wanted to be able to schedule the updates rather than have them run each time the web page is called. Essential with Vista is the KeepKey app as the reg keys get regularly reset by Vista causing EPG download errors.

I like the Vista interface, but i've had one or two issues which have caused me to switch back and forth between Vista and XP MCE. A few recorded series (one news, for example) seemed to run into playback issues. Its probably the buggy beta nvidia drivers i'm using that are the cause of most of my issues though... which reminds me - i must check their websites for updates again..

I have a couple of Hauppauge Nova S DVB-S cards on order and am looking to some fun with those and Vista.

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tonyhughes

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Reply # 66186 3-Apr-2007 20:59

i have a gigabyte ha91 media center preloaded with MCE 2005. Runs great.

Loaded Vista HOme Premium, and the video decoding kept choking and stuttering.

Will try again in a year or so when drivers are a bit more mature.

To be fair the ha91 is a very basic PC.

I didnt even get around to epg under vista, but i have heard of a few now getting it going in NZ

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Reply # 66192 3-Apr-2007 21:28

tonyhughes: Loaded Vista HOme Premium

Warning here: Vista Home Premium does not support Dynamic Disks. Big problem if you are using XP Media Center and formatted all your disks as Dynamic...

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somewhat

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Reply # 67120 14-Apr-2007 20:31

Hi Paulspain

I have been using Vista MCE for a couple of months (Since late RC2) now and find it excellent. the guide takes a little more work to get going with XMLTVNZ but it’s been pretty much flawless (apart from a couple of changes to the TV3 webpage, which they addressed pretty much before I even noticed a problem) I use an Xbox 360's for viewing around the house, and leave the MCE computer to itself, so have not had any driver issues etc, I do know that you need a server with a bit of grunt if you don’t want issues, my MCE PC only runs MCE, I actually setup IIS and bladerunner etc on another PC so that there was no mucking around every time MS released another version of Vista! (all you need to do is change a couple of settings in your HTPC and install a little app called keep key to stop the Windows reverting back the key)

The only issues I have had are DIVX playback on the 360's, which are normally addressed by a nice little app called Transcode 360, but as this is only in development under Vista it’s a bit flaky, but all the transcoding is handed off to another fileserver that I use for the media. If you want to access media on another server from your Xbox you also need to setup a login script for the MCX user.

I hope that other companies start to make V2 extenders soon; I'm getting sick of the Noisy Xbox! (I hear that Linksys Kiss, and maybe the new Xbox should be quieter.

paulspain

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Reply # 67150 15-Apr-2007 13:59

Hi Somewhat, thanks for your advice. I am considering using an old Xbox with XBMC - word is that it should handle much of the Xbox 360 will do without too much expense.

Has anyone else tried the Xbox with XBMC to link to Vista Media Centre?

Paul Spain
Founder: Gorilla Technology, NZ Tech Podcast, Cloud Labs, UFB.org.nz

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Reply # 67151 15-Apr-2007 14:14

Sorry, nope the only extender device available for Vista MC is the Xbox 360...at the moment anyway. Also I have a Nova DVB-S card on backorder as well, cant wait to try it out with freeview!

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Reply # 67740 19-Apr-2007 15:32

well i got my Nova s plus and managed to get it working with MCE 2005 ok. Unfortunately not at the same time as the analog tuners. Persistence might get me there - if I had time.. for now i've gone back to analog only with no TV3 on DVBS yet.

I've had trouble getting it working in Vista, i can get it working ok with the hauppauge wintv app, just not in MCE. once again, a bit more time and extra incentive - like tv3 coming online - and i'll see how i get on

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sbiddle

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Reply # 67742 19-Apr-2007 15:39

Regs: well i got my Nova s plus and managed to get it working with MCE 2005 ok. Unfortunately not at the same time as the analog tuners. Persistence might get me there - if I had time.. for now i've gone back to analog only with no TV3 on DVBS yet.

I've had trouble getting it working in Vista, i can get it working ok with the hauppauge wintv app, just not in MCE. once again, a bit more time and extra incentive - like tv3 coming online - and i'll see how i get on

Have you tried the latest drivers? www.hauppauge.co.uk seems to have drivers available before other Hauppauge sites.

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Reply # 67801 19-Apr-2007 22:38

sbiddle:
Regs: well i got my Nova s plus and managed to get it working with MCE 2005 ok. Unfortunately not at the same time as the analog tuners. Persistence might get me there - if I had time.. for now i've gone back to analog only with no TV3 on DVBS yet.

I've had trouble getting it working in Vista, i can get it working ok with the hauppauge wintv app, just not in MCE. once again, a bit more time and extra incentive - like tv3 coming online - and i'll see how i get on

Have you tried the latest drivers? www.hauppauge.co.uk seems to have drivers available before other Hauppauge sites.

yeah I have the latest drivers installed... I've probably just missed something simple. I know the registry file with the frequencies is correct as it works fine with MCE2005. If i find some free time i'll have another crack - its not a priority just yet :)

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Reply # 67807 19-Apr-2007 23:44

Regs:
sbiddle:
Regs: well i got my Nova s plus and managed to get it working with MCE 2005 ok. Unfortunately not at the same time as the analog tuners. Persistence might get me there - if I had time.. for now i've gone back to analog only with no TV3 on DVBS yet.

I've had trouble getting it working in Vista, i can get it working ok with the hauppauge wintv app, just not in MCE. once again, a bit more time and extra incentive - like tv3 coming online - and i'll see how i get on

Have you tried the latest drivers? www.hauppauge.co.uk seems to have drivers available before other Hauppauge sites.

yeah I have the latest drivers installed... I've probably just missed something simple. I know the registry file with the frequencies is correct as it works fine with MCE2005. If i find some free time i'll have another crack - its not a priority just yet :)

well whaddya know... reboot into vista again, run scan again and now i have pretty clear channels working in the vista MCE too :) now lets pray for some wind so I can see some yachting

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AceVPD

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Reply # 67934 20-Apr-2007 21:28

Wicked!

Do you need to do any reg edits etc to get the Nova s plus to work with DVB-S? How much is this card?

How's the picture quality compared to say a Haugppage PVR250?

When is freeview officially launching?

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Reply # 68028 21-Apr-2007 18:17

AceVPD: Wicked!

Do you need to do any reg edits etc to get the Nova s plus to work with DVB-S? How much is this card?

How's the picture quality compared to say a Haugppage PVR250?

When is freeview officially launching?

Ace

Card seems to cost from $160 to $175 when you do a quick pricespy.co.nz search.

You will need the latest drives from hauppauge. I used these ones: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/support/support_new_xpvista.html

I also used this tool provided by Hauppauge to generate a registry file for the registry hack:
http://www.hauppauge.de/files/dvbs-reg.zip

If you apply the registry hack then reboot first otherwise it wont work for you. Once you enable the registry hack, the WinTV2000 program from Hauppauge will stop working - you need to change the DVBS_as_DVBT parameter back to "0" and reboot first.

the file I used with this utility is as follows:

---cut here---
dvbs_freq,dvbs_polarity,dvbs_srate,nit_onid,nit_tsid,nit_nid,DiSEqC_Port, dvbs_LowOsc, dvbs_HighOsc, dvbs_SwitchFreq
12519000,            1,     22500,     169,     3,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
12546000,            1,     22500,     169,     4,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
12581000,            1,     22500,     169,     1,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
12608000,            2,     22500,     169,     2,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
12671000,            2,     22500,     169,     6,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
12707000,            1,     22500,     169,     11,      1,           0, 11300000, 11300000, 0
---cut here---

The picture is so much better than the picture I get on my PVR500 that there is really no comparison. My analog reception is awfully crappy though. If you look at a Sky digital picture and compare that with an analog tv broadcast then you will get an idea of the difference.

Freeview is due to launch on May 2nd, but you can receive TV1, TV2, MaoriTV and some radio stations ok right now: http://freeviewnz.tv/

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Reply # 68029 21-Apr-2007 18:23

I currently have the Nova-S tuner, but when I'm next in Australia, i might try and pick up one of these cards:

http://www.digitalnow.com.au/product_pages/QuattroS.html

They have 4 tuners on them - two DVB-S and two hybrid DVB-T/Analog. Might be just the card for a mixed environment going forward.

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gehenna

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Reply # 68301 24-Apr-2007 13:35

I'm running VMC and TelstraClear Saturn through a hauppauge pvr150 tuner. I love it, the whole setup is great. There's a few tricks and tips to know about how to work with watched folders etc, but on the whole its great. I have a working EPG too which I couldn't live without - although I don't use xmltvnz...i also have no problems with epg resetting every day. pm me if you want to discuss this further.

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Reply # 68303 24-Apr-2007 13:41

tonyhughes: i have a gigabyte ha91 media center preloaded with MCE 2005. Runs great.

Loaded Vista HOme Premium, and the video decoding kept choking and stuttering.

Will try again in a year or so when drivers are a bit more mature.

To be fair the ha91 is a very basic PC.

I didnt even get around to epg under vista, but i have heard of a few now getting it going in NZ

is this an amd dual core at all? i recall issues with my amd x2 - stutter was amazingly bad...until i installed the amd drivers. evidently there was some issue with amd and windows media center - unsure if this is still the case in vista.

also, could be your decoder software? vista uses its own decoder by default. if you want to load something like powerdvd or windvd it will still use vistas own decoder until you physically change the decoder. you need a little program to do this, pm me if you want more info.

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