I have a HTPC - Thinking of buying a dedicated DVB-S2 DVR / Media Player - Which one?

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SatScanner

SatelliteGuys Family
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Jan 11, 2011
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East USA
Hi. Several years ago I built a dedicated HTPC, expensive case, 4TB storage, 4GB RAM, Vista, TBS6925 DVB-S2 Professional Tuner, ect. It's basically a super expensive HDTV, DVB-S2 recorder / media player. I play back SD and HD video, .ts, .mkv, .avi (various codecs), .mov, .mp4, .flv (all using VLC) ect. . . I mainly built it for the recording quality. When I watch and record HDTV OTA I want the original, untouched, unconverted transport stream for maximum quality. When I record from satellite DVB-S or DVB-S2 I want the untouched, unconverted transport stream saved directly to my hard drive. I have been having some problems with the software programs I use to watch and record HDTV OTA and satellite freezing or crashing, even crashing the whole OS, I don't really trust it anymore to work flawlessly.

I am thinking about replacing my HTPC in part or maybe all together with a dedicated set top box that "does it all" but is much more stable, cooler, and less power hungry than my current PC system. I haven't paid attention hardly at all over the last ten years to set top boxes so I don't have much of an idea of what is currently out there or what they can do, as far as being able to be integrated with my home network and storage. I have seen some boxes now and then over the years that automatically convert and compress what is recorded, I definitely don't want that, I want everything untouched. I need a set top box with both a high sensitivity HDTV tuner as well as a DVB-S2 tuner like my TBS6925 that sends the untouched transport stream to a hard drive, the built-in hard drive (at least 1TB to 4TB), which can also be user upgraded in the future. I would also need a gigabit Ethernet port and a few USB 2 or preferably USB 3 ports, HDMI 1.3 and optical out. This set top box would also have to act as a medial player, basically anything that VLC can play it should be able to play. I also need to be able to move what I have recorded off of the internal hard drive, easily, to external storage on another computer, for editing or long term storage, as well as being able to play files from other computers or external storage. Some "media players" I have seen only seem to stream from the Internet (ROKU) and require you to plug in a USB flash drive or external hard drive to be able to play only certain kinds of media files (like some blu-ray players do), I need something more advanced. Everything now seems to be moving toward "streaming" from or to the net or storage "in the cloud".

I'm hoping some of you know of a set top box that can do all or most of these things. I'm hoping someone will be able to "give me a boost" and point me toward something solid. I will continue doing more searching in the mean time.

Thanks for your time.
 
Nothing like that exists commercially (as single device), and never likely will in the USA at least. The best you can do is duplicate what you have, with newer parts/cards/software if available.
 
Youve already got a pretty good hardware setup, Id stick to that. Maybe just update the software, see if things have improved. Most linux users are using VDR or XBMC, more XBMC it seems.

I dont use HTPC software so I cant recommend any first hand.

UDL
 
Unfortunately there is no market for a high end device as you described. Few people would be able to run the thing. And nobody wants to spend the kind of money it would cost to develop such a unit. Those of us in the pursuit of excellence often have to make our own ;)
 
For all the features you'd like, you'd probably have to stick with what you have, maybe with some upgrades. Hardware-wise, I'd say add more RAM and possibly update the CPU. Switching from Vista to 7 might give you a bit of a speed boost. If you want all the abilities in a set-top box... maybe buy a media center-looking case and get a fancy remote?
 
Thanks for the responses.

I guess that's the reason I was having trouble finding something, there is nothing to find.

My system is working pretty good the problems I've had is mainly with ProgDVB 6. I'm running my HTPC's resolution at 1920X1080p. When I turn off the TV while the HTPC is on, my resolution changes to 1024X768 for some reason and I have to reset it after I turn the TV back on. Last night I set ProgDVB (yes, it's the latest version) to record a program for today, when I turned off the TV before going to bed, I turned on the 7" LCD screen on the front of my HTPC case to make sure everything was okay (so I wouldn't have to turn the TV back on). Windows had a blue screen of death and rebooted while ProgDVB was running, I suspect it was because the resolution changed when I turned off the TV while ProgDVB was running. I've also had problems with ProgDVB when I set a recording for the next day. I set the time and date and when I hit the button to accept and set the recording it jumps the date forward by one day and I have to go back and reset it for the previous day (I set it for Jan 2nd when I hit the "OK" button I saw it jumped to Jan 3rd). I also had problems in the past with ProgDVB freezing up during the day, I leave it running while I'm at work to record whatever I set it for that day, I always have to remember log in remotely from work before it's time for the recording to start just to make sure it's still working so my recording doesn't get screwed up. It would be nice if the resolution would stay at 1920X1080 when I turn off the TV and it would be nice if I didn't have so many problems and frustrations with PrgDVB. I was hoping a dedicated set top box would be more reliable, the way a Blu-Ray player is, a few seconds to boot and it's ready, no crashes, no problems, always reliable.
 
The problem you're having with the resolution changing is probably due to your videocard. What model are you using?

Are you using ProgDVB for your OTA as well? I'm using Windows Media Center with DVBLink and a Prof-7301 to integrate my FTA channels. The only tuner I've configured in DVBLink is the Prof-7301, the rest I have mediacenter access directly. It's not perfect, but it's the best DVR I've found that can put all of my recorded tv in one place.
 
I'm using an ATI Radian 4xxx series card (just installed the latest drivers), VGA output feeding my 7" lcd and HDMI feeding my AV receiver which feeds my plasma TV, I had to install the Realtek HDMI audio drivers to get sound through the HDMI. I use WinTV 7 for my OTA. I've got Vista basic on my HTPC so I don't have Media Center.
 
I use dedicated Hauppauge cards in my media center computer with hardware encoding, not software, two HVR1600's, OTA TV only, don't have a sat card in it yet, and a separate video card. The separate hardware encoding cards work much better than software encoders and take A LOT of work load off of your PC and video card. Don't know if your Radeon has hardware or software encoding, or whether it's a video and tuner combo.

Like Kittyhas1000legs said, Win 7 works much better than Vista for media stuff, Vista is buggy with a lot of that stuff, especially OTA stuff.

I wish there was a box like you're looking for, I've been trying to figure out something different for my setup, only cause I hate having the computer on twenty four-seven sucking up power. I send my OTA channels via wi-fi to my parents house next door [300' away] and they can change channels and everything like a regular TV system but the damn power sucking computer has to be running all the time.

I've used other stuff like Myth TV, programs I've thrown together and they've worked good, but can't really seem to find a way to get away from leaving a computer on all the time. Someone mentioned XBMC, that might be worth looking into for you. I used that a long time ago with a Linux box and 1st gen X-boxes as front-ends for quite a while, XBMC might do something if you have something small that Linux could be loaded onto.
 
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My GFX card is a Radeon HD 4600 series, it doesn't have a tuner just VGA and HDMI out. I'm using a WinTV-HVR-2250 card for my OTA reception. I tried the latest WinTV software version, it crashes every time I try to scan for channels after installation (when it gets to channel 4) so I had to revert to a previous version (7.2.31161 CD 2.8a), it's been doing well so far. I had another issue with the audio yesterday afternoon, I started VLC to watch one of my videos and got no audio, it worked perfectly fine the night before, I finally got it working again in VLC but no audio from WinTV or Windows it's self, I fiddled around with devices in the sound manager in the Control Panel and got the sound working. I think the problem is because I was getting the sound through my HDMI output on my graphics card. I left the HTPC on overnight and while I was at work the next day to record a show on satellite yesterday. When I came home and turned on the TV, of course the resolution was at 1024X768 instead of 1920X1080, so I had to go to the display settings and change it back to 1080p. After that is when the sound quit working. Today when I came home it was fine because I shut it down last night since I didn't need to record anything today so it didn't switch resolutions to cause a problem. After thinking about it, the instability problems I'm have all lead back to my HTPC changing resolutions when I turn off the TV. What I need to do is figure out how to force it to stay at 1920X1080p even if I turn the TV or AV receiver off. I don't see any "check box" that says "keep set resolution no matter what" in the display settings. Anyone have any ideas? I wonder why my desktop PC doesn't switch resolutions when I turn my LCD display off, it's connected with dual DVI cables not HDMI, but still, my HTPC resolution should stay a where I set it just the same.
 
Do you have a separate pc MONITOR connected to that pc, along with the tv screen? If so, it may be defaulting to the monitors limited resolution, as it would think that was the primary viewing device when you turn off the tv set.

Or, maybe your tv set has HDMI-CEC capability, and the pc video card senses that and changes it's resolution? The name of it changes depending on the brand of your pc. LG's version is called "Simplink". Samsungs is called: "Anynet", etc. Try turning that OFF on the tv set, if you can find it on your tv set.
 
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Yes, the 7" LCD that is built into my HTPC case, it's connected to the VGA output on my GFX card. I've got it set up as monitor #2, my TV is #1 (HDMI). My 7" LCD has a mirror of of the desktop on my TV.
 
Yes, the 7" LCD that is built into my HTPC case, it's connected to the VGA output on my GFX card. I've got it set up as monitor #2, my TV is #1 (HDMI). My 7" LCD has a mirror of of the desktop on my TV.

Disconnect it from the card completely, and see if the resolution you want then holds as it should. That will confirm what's going on, and then maybe we can come up with a fix where it can be re-connected.
 
Well thats the problem I bet. I would guess that your 7" resolution is 1024x768

When setup to mirror both monitors usually have the same resolution, Ive actually never seen them different. Turn the hdmi tv off and then back on and it'll default to match the resolution the same on both. Try disconnecting the 7" and I bet the problem goes away

edit: primestar31 is faster then me at replying :)

UDL
 
I'll give that a try next time.

My TV is a Panasonic plasma it has "Viera Link" It was on, I turned it off. I'll try that in the meantime to see if that makes a difference.
 
Well thats the problem I bet. I would guess that your 7" resolution is 1024x768

When setup to mirror both monitors usually have the same resolution, Ive actually never seen them different. Turn the hdmi tv off and then back on and it'll default to match the resolution the same on both. Try disconnecting the 7" and I bet the problem goes away

edit: primestar31 is faster then me at replying :)

UDL

The LCD's native resolution is 800X600 but it is capable of displaying higher, like 1024X768. When I first set the system up with my HDTV I tried to set the LCD to 1920X1080, the same as my TV but all I got was a black screen, I guess it can't go up that high.

I'll see about disconnecting the 7", I hate to do that, I paid extra for the LCD when I had the case built back in 2005-2006.

Thanks for the feed back and the help.
 
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The HVR-2250 is a hardware encoder card, which is good.

When I first tried using the latest version of Win TV in Vista and 7 it wouldn't work right until I had Windows run it in Xp compatibility mode. After that it worked fine. Mine would start and not crash, but wouldn't scan any channels and sometimes locked up. Compatibility mode - right click on Win Tv icon, select properties and then compatibility.
 
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