New project...several questions

[Das Hammer]

Project Phase I - Build a PC to act solely as a free to air receiver/pvr for HD and 4:2:2. The PC Hardware has already been taken care of with the exception of the DVB tuner itself. Was looking at a USB box because I'm going to put the components inside of an old Uniden UST-4400 receiver case (it's already gutted). A PCI card at full height would not work. However, I'm not strongly opposed to a different case, but I'd rather save the money.

1. The matchboxpro from DMS...is it just a DVBWorld box with a new exterior case? Match Box Pro Professional USB Box

2. If going with either the DVBWorld or the matchboxpro, what application would you say has the best suited OSD for this PC's purpose? I want to stay away from the PC "look" on screen as much as possible. I would want this to look more like a STB than a computer. Maybe you know of an application which has customizability with skins, etc.???

3. Another need I have is the ability to easily (emphasis on that) enter new TP information into the application. Preferably, I'd like this done with the remote. Which application would be best suited for that? I am using a Harmony 550 programmable remote, so I can be pretty flexible when it comes to remote actions.
A wireless keyboard would not necessarily be out of the question, but should be the last resort.

4. I'm sending the video out of this PC via component to an HDTV. Have you had any experiences with any of the viewer applications in this type of setup? Which worked well, which didn't?

5. Other than the new version of the Twinhan Starbox (which is not out yet) is there any other external tuners that I have overlooked that may work well for this purpose?

Thank you.:

 

[mastermesh]

sounds like you probably want to put together a linux box and put freevo or something similar on it... Freevo | About Freevo & Current Status

Another option would be something like GBPVR software gbpvr.com - Home

 

[Anole]

Friend of mine is in the middle of building himself some media PC's
I think it'll do everything you want.
The remote certainly will.

One problem is, it'd probably need a lot of horsepower.
How big is the cpu you intend to use?
He's already serious about Intel duo e6600, a hot dual core cpu that'll blow away my biggest dual Opteron server.
Reason being, he wants power to record one or more HD streams, while playing back others.
...and they're cheap, so he doesn't want any surprises later.

I may have to build up something similar, but for now I'm trying to focus on a DVD player that'll let me build HD Ultra DivX DVDs in 720p, and play back 720p to my HD TV set.
Having the media PC do that is trivial - I just don't want a damned power-sucking computer running 24/7
...(another one)...
I'm not much interested in lining the pockets of the HD DVD nor BlueRay crowd!

Don't know if I can get my buddy to join up here and chat, but I'll ask.

 

[Cascade]

VDR - Video Disk Recorder

SkyStar2 - New Skystar 2 DVB-S Satellite PCI card with Remote Control - Use coupon code "TampaHDTV"

PCI riser or right/left angle adapter - 1U Riser Cards

More info here:
Main Page - VDR Wiki

Hope this helps.

 

[SatinKzo]

I've been looking to build something similar for myself, but I also want to put some QAM capability in my system. I am probably a couple months away from getting serious. Thanks for the links and stuff Cascade. I had been looking into the SKYSTAR card and thought it looked pretty decent

Anyone got any decent QAM capable cards?

Also, Das Hammer, can you post your PC specs? Did you get a Home theater case or just use a regular pc case?

 

[WyrTwister]

Project Phase I - Build a PC to act solely as a free to air receiver/pvr for HD and 4:2:2. The PC Hardware has already been taken care of with the exception of the DVB tuner itself. Was looking at a USB box because I'm going to put the components inside of an old Uniden UST-4400 receiver case (it's already gutted). A PCI card at full height would not work. However, I'm not strongly opposed to a different case, but I'd rather save the money.

1. The matchboxpro from DMS...is it just a DVBWorld box with a new exterior case? Match Box Pro Professional USB Box

2. If going with either the DVBWorld or the matchboxpro, what application would you say has the best suited OSD for this PC's purpose? I want to stay away from the PC "look" on screen as much as possible. I would want this to look more like a STB than a computer. Maybe you know of an application which has customizability with skins, etc.???

3. Another need I have is the ability to easily (emphasis on that) enter new TP information into the application. Preferably, I'd like this done with the remote. Which application would be best suited for that? I am using a Harmony 550 programmable remote, so I can be pretty flexible when it comes to remote actions.
A wireless keyboard would not necessarily be out of the question, but should be the last resort.

4. I'm sending the video out of this PC via component to an HDTV. Have you had any experiences with any of the viewer applications in this type of setup? Which worked well, which didn't?

5. Other than the new version of the Twinhan Starbox (which is not out yet) is there any other external tuners that I have overlooked that may work well for this purpose?

Thank you.:

MyTheatre program .

Wyr

 

[Das Hammer]

Lot of good info there. Thanks guys.

Cascade, thanks for the link to the PCI right angle adapters, that would make a PCI card like the Technisat possible.

Anole, I was going to use a dual core athlon 64 (AM2) Brisbane at 1.9GHz. This is what I use in my current Vista Media Center PC which I'm using right now to type this. Concurrently, this PC is streaming Lifetime Movie Network from the 4D receiver upstairs to the Xbox360 for the wife. It can handle everything that I throw at it. Plus, they are pretty cheap anymore. For the main board, I'm going for one with the nVidia 7050 onboard.

SatinKzo, I'm going to put everything into a Uniden UST-4400 case. It is an old C band receiver that was given to me when I took down a 10 foot dish for an older lady in town. I don't have a pic of it, but I'm sure they're out on the internet. Everything has been removed.

Wyr, I've used that MyTheatre before, but haven't spent enough time with it to come to a conclusive opinion on it.

I have a spare retail XP already. However, I'm not ruling out Linux. Have used MythTV before (knoppmyth) and liked it. Just seemed like the process of scanning and adding channels would be too cumbersome for what I'm wanting.

 

[AHROBERTS2435]

I've been down this same path recently and here's what helped me the most......

Core 2 Motherboard Complete List - With Hardware Recommendations for a HD HTPC - AVS Forum
links to a really good list of hardware combo's capable of displaying/recording HD

gbpvr.com - Home
free media center software with support for dvb-s cards
user friendly but somewhat unstable IMHO

DVBCore/MyTheatre Homepage
home of mytheatre program which is currently the most feature rich and stable of available dvb-s software IMHO. this is what I finally went with. I'm using DVBEPG for the program guide and it works fine. NVIDIA codecs seem to work best with this program

SageTV® Media Center - PVR, Music and Photos for Windows and Linux PCs and consumer electronics devices
very popular media center/pvr software, but pricey
currently does not support dvb-s natively but currently in beta testing for support. This is what I hope to migrate to soon when it is finished.

Hope this helps out some. Good luck!

 

[photoman76]

I'm using DVBEPG for the program guide and it works fine.

Is there much use for a program guide? Which fta services have one?

 

[timmy1376]

Unless something has changed in the past months, I don't think DVBWorld will work on Linux.