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Thread ID: 98841	2009-04-09 11:18:00	Home Media Centre Setup	stardotstar (14815)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
763644	2009-04-12 10:45:00	I had a look at Mediaportal and was very impressed with the quality. Thanks for letting me know that the card will work fine with it (I actually didn't even check). Actually, I buy the PCWorld every month and read it cover to cover, and only tonight did I see the have exactly what I'm trying to do as their Project Beast article...So I'll give that some reading and see what they have to say. I can see big $$$ flowing out my wallet in the near future, cos I've got nothing HD...so once I've got the basic setup working, I'll be upgrading everything to HD....just hope by then the HD equipment has dropped in $'s ;)	stardotstar (14815)
763645	2009-04-12 10:49:00	I used to use the deluxe version of that tuner. Only thing was (The eeprom on it) kept on corrupting. This is a known prob, with the deluxe tuner (dont know about the expert tho). Then it wouldnt work (until you flashed it again). Which got annoying. I've still got it, but its not installed now. When I can afford it, I'll buy a tuner, which supports freeview instead. How often was that? If it is once a day or something, that would get annoying :(	stardotstar (14815)
763646	2009-04-12 10:57:00	Often, every few months (not every day tho). I was going to biff it, till I found a file that reflashed it in DOS. I havent got it now tho. Since the hdd it was on died, and the shop replaced it. ChiefNZ who is also in this forum, had the same prob.. You'll known when its corrupted tho, it'll ask for the drivers (even if theyre installed). And the program wont work, because it wont find the tv tuner	Speedy Gonzales (78)
763647	2009-04-12 11:10:00	Ok, that doesn't sound too bad...also considering it's only a temporary thing for me anyway, I can live with that if it happens to me. I practically have the same thing with my Dynalink DSL-502T Router...got one from Telecom, eventually toasted itself, got a new one from Harvey Norman and after about a year it start losing the virtual server settings, and then hangs on me when I try and set them again...at least I don't need to reflash though :), just a reboot sorts it out... But thanks for the heads up...I'll let you know how it goes...	stardotstar (14815)
763648	2009-04-12 11:59:00	here is my little setup. i got a PC with a TV/video capture card, + a 500gig hard disk and i use it as my own personal hard disk recorder (plus for movies and other programs as well) as a replacement for the VCR's which unfortunatly only store about 3 hours 5 minutes and is only hooked up to capture them onto the hard disk or burn to DVD etc. we got a LCD tv with VGA in and using a (slave) PC use it to play the captured MPEG videos. i should get one of those mini computers instead of the hulking great dell "monitor stand" style box im not buying into that sky or freeview crap in my opinion there is nothing wrong with the analogue system	williamF (115)
763649	2009-04-12 22:12:00	Often, every few months (not every day tho). I was going to biff it, till I found a file that reflashed it in DOS. I havent got it now tho. Since the hdd it was on died, and the shop replaced it. ChiefNZ who is also in this forum, had the same prob.. You'll known when its corrupted tho, it'll ask for the drivers (even if theyre installed). And the program wont work, because it wont find the tv tuner Yep still running mine. No problems since speedy gave me the tip about reflashing the EEPROM. I do want to get a new card though, one that picks up Freeview. I have a Freeview satellite decoder but haven't gottenround to installing the dish just yet. Cheers,	chiefnz (545)
763650	2009-04-14 09:14:00	im not buying into that sky or freeview crap in my opinion there is nothing wrong with the analogue system Unfortunately, technology has a way of forcing you along...who uses records, or tapes, and lately, even CD (now its mp3, flash drives, etc). And ultimately, the direction of technology is generally moving forward, i.e., CD is better than tape because of quality, flash drive is better than CD because of capacity and speed. Plus, I've been watching Super14, and the commentators are talking about how far the wing is (who was in view), and guess what, I didn't even see him on my 4:3 aspect TV... And of course software (I see in your tagline you made Win98 look like Vista, nice)...but that is also an area where you will eventually get left behind, because sooner or later, that one piece of software you would really like/need, won't run on Win98... As a software developer myself, we are always trying to provide a better product than the one before, and then convincing our clients to upgrade...why, because it's damn costly to maintain old software (how much is M$ paying to keep maintenance going for NT and Win2K, but are they making any sales or getting money for support?)...secondly, the newer software is more dependable, possibly fixes security holes etc. The way I handle it, I'm generally never a first adopter (especially hardware), because the prices eventually come down (again, generally). So right now, I'm not into HD, but when the price is right, I'll be all for it. Anyway, those are just my ramblings... ;) I eventually got a Hauppauge HVR-1110 MCE today, so I'm about to plug it in and see if I can get it up and running... Google didn't provide anything bad about it...	stardotstar (14815)
763651	2009-04-14 12:35:00	As you have found out, this is a very confusing area. You seem to have chosen the HTPC approach (computer next to TV) but you can take the server to media extender approach. You can record from your SKY decoder as the signal is on the aerial from the SKY box. However, don't overlook the channel selection part of it. You have to be able to get the PC to send IR to a sender parked in front of the SKY IR receiver. And if someone is watching another channel when it gets switched...... Or someone switches channels when the recording is being made.... etc etc. Internal tuners have to be chosen according to what signals you are receiving and what software is saving the data. Do you need hardware encoding for example? Do you want Freeview by satellite (no HD) or from terrestrial (needs a UHF aerial tuned to a digital site). Did I mention HD? That is another potential can of worms. We use h.264 video encoding with a problematical HE-ACC audio encoding. Decoding the audio, particularly, is problematic. Personally, I have chosen to use a server with media extender (Popcorn Hour A-100) under the TV. I use the excellent free GBPVR software developed in NZ (gbpvr.com and forums here forums.gbpvr.com). I now have a Hauppauge HVR-2200 tuner capable of recording analogue and digital terrestrial. I would counsel doing a heap more reading before committing to hardware/software purchases. Another good site is geekzone.co.nz. In conclusion, no one can tell you what to do - there are just too many variables. If you want to go down this road you will need to spend a HEAP of hours getting your head around it. And then, heaps of time just maintaining it! Good luck.	linw (53)
763652	2009-04-14 12:51:00	hmmm the difficulties of digital. granted there is the clearer picture but getting it working properly is the difficult part. esspecially the capturing side of things. at least the analogue captures can be played on anything with a media player that can read MPEG or AVI. call me senile but long live analogue. and also records (you know the flat vinyl discs) actually capture the REAL waveform instead of a digital representation of said signal and a clean record can sound just as good as a CD if not better	williamF (115)
763653	2009-04-14 12:59:00	Thanks linw, I agree with everything you say, and I'm experiencing that right now. Because this is a new area for me, I'm not worried about the cost/hardware/setup/infrastructure etc. It's actually a hobby for me now, and by treating it as a hobby, I'm learning tons. Who knows where I'll be in 6 months time, maybe I'll have a media extender, maybe I won't. Right now, being a software developer and having worked with PC's for 26 years now, I tend to favour the HTPC route, simply because I have so much more to play with, NAS, wireless, remoting, and who knows, I may even end up with a relatively low end machine everywhere I want to watch TV instead of TV's. (Just ideas, I'll work out the merits later down the road). But the one great thing is that everyone's comments and posts like yours and others give me more information to make a better choice at the end of the day. So thanks for the ideas... Now if I can just get my LAN to run through my power points (the next best thing???) :drool	stardotstar (14815)
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