Quick Freeview HD / Vista MCE questions

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ictgeeknz

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#19921 6-Mar-2008 15:10

Scenario: looking to send Freeview HD (UHF) around the house over Wi-Fi, using Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Media Center extenders. Do not intend to set up a PVR as I already have one.

1) What TV tuner do I need (or would you recommend)?
2) Is there currently a test Freeview HD signal for Hawkes Bay?
3) Will 802.11g be fine for this setup?

I should be okay to find info on setting up the EPG etc.

Cheers.

sbiddle

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Biddle Corp

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#115016 6-Mar-2008 15:40

ictgeeknz:
Scenario: looking to send Freeview HD (UHF) around the house over Wi-Fi, using Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Media Center extenders. Do not intend to set up a PVR as I already have one.

1) What TV tuner do I need (or would you recommend)?
2) Is there currently a test Freeview HD signal for Hawkes Bay?
3) Will 802.11g be fine for this setup?

I should be okay to find info on setting up the EPG etc.

Cheers.

Firstly what you are trying to do may not actually be possible.

Victa MCE has no support for the H.264 DVB-T transmisions that are used in New Zealand. You will need to use a 3rd party TV application such as GB-PVR, Media Portal or DVBViewer. This will pretty much rule out streaming content to MCE extenders. There is then the issue of whether the MCE extenders will infact support H.264 streaming - I believe the new Linksys ones won't but since Vista MCE has no support for H.264 it's a real unknown.

In terms of tuner cards virtually any DVB-T card with DBA drivers should work OK.

There is coverage in Hawkes Bay from Mt Erin.

I wouldn't recommend wireless for streaming video, particularly HD video. TV3 for example is a 10Mbps 1080i stream - most people would struggle to get a constant 10Mbps with no dropouts with 801.11g gear. A cabled network is still the way to go.

ictgeeknz

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#115019 6-Mar-2008 16:01

Thanks for posting Steve. I'm glad I asked these questions before buying any additional hardware!

Your thoughts on using a Hauppauge Win-TV-PVR-150 for standard TV streaming in the same scenario?

dan

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#115033 6-Mar-2008 18:53

not that i have the software yet but isnt network streaming available in dvbviewer server to dvbviewer client?