Questions re: Freeview & MCE

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tonyhughes

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#14916 26-Jul-2007 13:46

Currently have a Gigabyte HA91 XP MCE, with single tuner, which is fed by a Sky Digital STB. EPG working well (Bladerunner).

I am considering replacing with a custom built box. If I do so, it will be mainly because female requires ability to watch one channel while recording another, or record two channels at once.

Apparently cant run freeview AND sky together on MCE, as the tuners just get chosen on a first come first served basis, we cant say "tuner A for any channel that appears on Sky Digital" and "tuner B for anything that appears on Freeview" :-(

So I guess I need two cards - DVB-S by the sound of things ('S' for satellite?).

Where can I buy the cards from, what model and how much?

Is it any cheaper and easier to use a PVR500 card and two freeview STBs?

I only have an SD Plasma, and no plans to upgrade to HD.

tonyhughes

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#79775 26-Jul-2007 13:52

Is this what I need? Can I split my SKY cable into two of these and get Freeview okay?

WinTV Nova S Plus Digital Satallite TV Tuner

These would cost me around $130 each.

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Snowflake

#79784 26-Jul-2007 14:47

First of all, you can't use the DVBS card to connect the SKY box as you cannot decrypt the raw sky satellite signal. The only way to view sky through the Nova-S is if you use the analog s-video input.

Secondly, you can't (*) concurrently use the analog inputs and DVBS inputs on the Nova-S or any other DVB-S or DVB-T based tuner in MCE.

Thirdly, if you set up SKY as an SetTopBox in MCE (using analog PVR500 card and s-video input) then it will always use one specific tuner to record SKY as it know its only connected to one of the tuners. I don't think you can set up more than one STB in MCE though - i wouldnt know, as i've never tried.

MCE Recommendation: wait until DVBT next year and get HD freeview, and hopefully MCE will handle multiple tuner types and STBs then.

Other Recommendation: there are other products out there that can probably simultaneously use both DVB-S and analog inputs on the Nova-S card, perhaps look into GBPVR or MedialPortal.

(*) apparently some people have made multiple tuner types work, they were very patient and are probably now bald...

If you are already paying for SKY Digital.... why not just look at a MySKY box? All up its probably cheaper than buying a bunch of tv-cards and freeview boxes and you get to record two SKY channels at once - maximum WAF.

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sbiddle

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#79796 26-Jul-2007 15:23

Regs: MCE Recommendation: wait until DVBT next year and get HD freeview, and hopefully MCE will handle multiple tuner types and STBs then.

This will be no good anyway. XP MCE can't support the MPEG4 that our DVB-T will use. Even Vista MCE can't but an upgrade has been promised by MS but many people don't expect that until the major 'Fiji' Vista MCE update next year. Apparently there is no chance of XP MCE being updated to support MPEG4.

tonyhughes

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#79814 26-Jul-2007 16:30

WAF is important, but would look at ditching Sky altogether in favour of dual freeview. Sky is not important to us. If DVBT and updates to MCE let me have both Sky and Freeview, then id rather wait for that.

Not into the hair-pulling jobs for my MCE, been there, done that, didnt like it LOL. Want to keep it simple.

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Snowflake

#79827 26-Jul-2007 17:19

tonyhughes: WAF is important, but would look at ditching Sky altogether in favour of dual freeview. Sky is not important to us. If DVBT and updates to MCE let me have both Sky and Freeview, then id rather wait for that.

Well if all you want is dual freeview then I can comfortably say that it is achievable in either XP or Vista MCE with a pair of Hauppauge Nova-S-Plus cards, xmltvnz and bladerunner pro.

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tonyhughes

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#79934 27-Jul-2007 08:54

Regs:
tonyhughes: WAF is important, but would look at ditching Sky altogether in favour of dual freeview. Sky is not important to us. If DVBT and updates to MCE let me have both Sky and Freeview, then id rather wait for that.

Well if all you want is dual freeview then I can comfortably say that it is achievable in either XP or Vista MCE with a pair of Hauppauge Nova-S-Plus cards, xmltvnz and bladerunner pro.

Gee I wish I could get the cards into my HA91 ! But there just isnt the room....

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#79939 27-Jul-2007 09:44

Well if all you want is dual freeview then I can comfortably say that it is achievable in either XP or Vista MCE with a pair of Hauppauge Nova-S-Plus cards, xmltvnz and bladerunner pro.

Ahh, that's the one.

My Hauppage 500 card with Sky Digital and an old vhs machine on Vista is fine and has reached a nice high WAF. However, Freeview is beckoning more and more.

The twin Nova cards look good. But - gasp ! - what might be easier overall is a simple twin tuner with hdd Freeview decoder box. While it means giving up the freedom that MCE has provided, for a box for recording/watching tv it's pretty ideal. Blasphemy I know ! but it might do the job quite well.

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rhysb

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#79997 27-Jul-2007 15:15

Regs, you can have multiple STB's setup in VMC/MCE in fact I've heard of people with up to four working with a few hacks to get the extra tuners going. Might get a bit expensive though as you would need a Sky subscription for each STB.

MikeE

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#80001 27-Jul-2007 15:36

Currently plugging a freeview box into the back of the PC and using it as a "sattellite reciever" on MCE no problems. Will upgrade when we start recieving HD content on freeview (Whenever that is) for now, this seems to be the easiest way of doing things.

tonyhughes

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#80021 27-Jul-2007 16:52

can MCE change the channel on any given Freeview STB with the IR blaster like it does for my SKY box now?

rhysb

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#80023 27-Jul-2007 16:55

Yes, you will need one blaster for each STB though.

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tonyhughes

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#80047 27-Jul-2007 18:33

ok, waf is at 100% for going with dual freeview, and also keeping sky (but not running sky through the EPG)

Can i split the sky cable into three to feed two nova cards and the sky stb?