I'm based in Wellington, and for the last couple of years have been developing my own home theatre PC software. It started out primarily supporting analog capture devices like the common Hauppauge PVR150/250/500 cards, but for the last year or so it has also had support for DVB capture devices.
How is it like mysky?
You can have one or more digital tuners in your PC. When it records, it records the original MPEG2 stream from TelstraClear transmission.
I'm now using it in place of my TelstraClear digital box and I'm very happy with it. I use DVI for connecting my video card to my plasma TV, so its digital all the way from TelstraClear to my TV.
What things does it do better than MySky? Lots of things:
- Unike MySky, you end up with normal MPEG-2 files that you can do anything you like with.
- The recordings are unencrypted on your harddrive, so easily able to be archived to DVD etc.
- You can have more than two tuners if you want
- You can also mix in channels from other sources such as DVB-S satellite or analog channels.
- Music playback, Photo viewing etc
- DVD playback from both DVD or hard drive.
- Different skins can be installed to change the look and feel.
- Plugins can be installed to add all sorts of additional functionality.
- Automatically skip commercials on playback
Does this allow me to illegally access TelstraClear programming?
No, you still need to have valid TelstraClear subscription smartcard. It'll only enable you to watch those channels valid for your subscription.
What will it cost you?
Nothing, well...nothing more than the price of the hardware (DVB-C capture device plus Irdeto CAM), and the subscription you're already paying for.
Why are you posting this?
Because we have too few options in New Zealand, and I'm sure there is a few people that would love to be able to do this. I'd also like to get a few people using my software for this. Here is where you picture yourself as a guinea pig...
Limitations worth mentioning?
Sadly you will need one subscription card per digital tuner. So, if you have on TelstraClear digital decoder, you have one smartcard that can be plugged into one digital tuner.
You've got more questions?
Cool, ask them and I'll respond. Or PM me if you prefer.
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Initially I only want get a few people up and running with this, but after I'm happy that things are going well, I'll open it up to wider set of users. Send me an email if this is something you'd be interested in, and want to come around to my place to get a demo etc...
Ideally this is suited to someone who is technically inclined, and already trying to do the Home Theatre PC thing - otherwise it's probably not worth the hassle.