Whats a good satellite program app?

[Dee_Ann]

hi,

Can someone tell me what is a good app for watching satellite?

My ex put an app called my theater on my pc and I really am not liking it too much.

My problem with it is that most everything I try to watch on it doesn't even come close to filling the screen. Like I have a 32" flat screen but RTV is just a little square in the middle of the screen and some channels are zoomed in too close and the sides are cut off but there is always like a 4" black border around *everything* at the very least, some channels much more than that.

Also it only lets me watch what is playing live, I can't browse and play back recordings or other stuff that's on the pc.

All I can really do is change channels up and down, record things and have it change channels on a schedule. I love that I can schedule it to change channels all day to my favorite shows.

What I have is two tuner cards in the same pc. One is a new DVBS2 tuner card and the other is an OTA tuner card for local TV from my antenna.
I can change channels at will between satellite and local TV instantly.
I have several dishes on an 8 way switch. I think one of the dishes has two wires into the switch and the pc sees that dish as two separate dishes but pointed at the same satellite. There may be two of them like that, I'm not sure. If that makes any sense.

I want to be able to add a Cband dish into the system in the near future.

I might also want to put a small motorized dish on it too so there may be two motor dishes on it. Probably sounds crazy.

I'm getting RTV, history, the one at 97 and the PBS satellites. On the PBS satellite I now get new channels I didn't get before, I think they are OKLA, OETA and WHDH. I *think* those are s2 channels.. I bought the S2 tuner because I read that you can get more channels with one.


What I would like is to still be able to freely change channels between TV antenna and satellite as suits my fancy. It would be very, very, very good to have it so I can schedule channel changes and recordings. I like to have it automatically record History Detective shows on Saturdays. Recording is important. Very important.

If it had an option to browse the files on the PC and play them back that would be awesome too!

I have the hauppage cards and the remote control that came with the cards.
Being able to use the hauppage remote control is a must.

Oh and the screens. This is a huge annoyance to me.
I have two screens on the pc. Last year I had all my stuff redone (by mr. rocket science) and I have two screens in two rooms now.

One is a 21" pc screen on my desk in my little home office. It's just a plain pc screen, not a TV. It uses a big old vga cable with 15 pins.

The other screen is a 32" Visio flat screen. I don't know what the cable is but it looks like a big giant usb cable.

One of the things that makes me crazy it when I turn on or off the pc screen the pc goes "bonk-bonk" and the picture goes black. If I was recording something when I do that it ruins the recording. The only way I can get out of the black screen is to go to the keyboard and press control alt and delete then kill the theater app and restart it.

So what I have to do when I change rooms is end the app, turn the pc screen off (or on) then start the app again.

When the pc was running windows xp it didn't do that, ever. And the picture always filled the entire screen. After dumb-dumb put that stupid windows 7 on it it's been nothing but stupid and a big pain.

Oh yes, and when I change rooms I have to right click on the speaker button and change the speaker default from pc speakers (for the pc screen at my desk) to the optical sound for the visio tv in the other room. On windows xp it made the sound go to both at once and I never had to change anything. Now I have to change it every time I go to the other room. VERY annoying.

Surely there must be SOMETHING out there that is more friendly to use than this stupid my theater app. I've used it about 8 months I think and I really find it hard to like it even a little.

Any suggestions?

Thank you!

 

[guapoharry]

You have an Hauppage card and something else. Why don't you list exactly what cards you have?

I have wondered about the same issue. You might start with finding software that works with the remote control first...

To add a motor complicates things.

I don't like much of the Windows PC DVB software I've tried. (ProgDVB, MyTheater, DVBViewer, and more that I can't recall...)

Now, I'm gonna try Linux.

 

[Dee_Ann]

You have an Hauppage card and something else. Why don't you list exactly what cards you have?

I have wondered about the same issue. You might start with finding software that works with the remote control first...

To add a motor complicates things.

I don't like much of the Windows PC DVB software I've tried. (ProgDVB, MyTheater, DVBViewer, and more that I can't recall...)

Now, I'm gonna try Linux.

Both of the tuner cards are hauppage brand.

windows says one is an HVR-1250 and the other is an 88x DVBS2

Hauppauge Computer Works : WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2
and
WinTV-HVR-1250 Product overview

Both use the same remote control. I have two identical remotes, one in each room and there is a pyramid thing that makes the remote work in the other room.

I assigned channel numbers to stuff so like I press 2 on the remote for RTV and 22 for the local ABC over the air channel from my TV antenna on the roof. So the pc treats it all as just one single tuner. That part is VERY handy.

edit: oops, I've been spelling it wrong...

 

[Dee_Ann]

This is what I'm talking about, when I am watching ANY video, be it local via the antenna or satellite.

So called HDTV from the local TV stations is about 1/2 what it should be. And things like RTV are the size of postage stamps on the screen.

I have gone through ALL the settings on the my theater app and none of them are worth two cents.

For each and every time I change channels I have to use the zoom option of my theater (hold left mouse button and roll wheel) to get the picture a little bigger but NONE of them ever, ever fill the screen. And some of settings are horrible, it's like a BAD fisheye effect that makes me physically ill to watch, like I have to throw up.

I can however use VLC to watch a movie or recording from disk and it will always fill the entire screen as it should.

Now, I have a splitter for the TV antenna, one goes to the pc tuner and one goes directly into the TV. When I put the TV in TV mode and tune local stations, they almost always fill the entire screen.

So I know it's not the TV at fault and it's not the pc (VLC fills the screen).

So I've come to the conclusion that the my theater app blows. It's very limited and it fails totally to provide a good picture.

So my question is, what can replace it and deal with the fact that I have two tuner cards, one satellite and one TV?

Thanks!

Oh, attached pictures are samples of what I have to put up with. The first picture that shows a wide rectangle, that's been zoomed as much as it will go. The huge border is permanent and if I "zoom" that video it begins to crop the sides off.

The second picture with the small box, that one can be zoomed to at most twice the size shown but it still falls far short of filling the screen.

Also, when I say "border" I'm talking about "dead screen" area, not the black plastic thing around the outside edges. I'm talking about LCD pixels that ~can~ but do NOT light up with pictures.

 

[trinity13]

There should be settings in both MyTheatre and the video codec for screen size of the displayed picture.
Right click on the picture and see what options are available.
There should be something like 'video settings', ''view', 'options' or 'directshow filters'.
DirectShow filters or codecs will allow you to check the settings in the video codec when you click on it; but it probably is just a setting in MyTheatre that is causing your small display window. So try to find where the video dispay settings are in MyTheatre (should be something such as 'Fullscreen' or 'zoom' or 'fit to screen'). It may be in the 'options'/'preferences' window.
And you should be able to play a DVD or video file using one of the options in the MyTheatre task bar, which allows you to open other media on your computer.
I don't use MyTheatre, so can't directly address the issues you are having (i.e. tell you exactly what to do in it).

Have you tried the 'WinTV' app that came with the cards?

Each DVB app has its advantages and disadvantages, and most of us use more than one app, depending on what we are doing.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Dee_Ann]

There should be settings in both MyTheatre and the video codec for screen size of the displayed picture.
Right click on the picture and see what options are available.
There should be something like 'video settings', ''view', 'options' or 'directshow filters'.
DirectShow filters or codecs will allow you to check the settings in the video codec when you click on it; but it probably is just a setting in MyTheatre that is causing your small display window. So try to find where the video dispay settings are in MyTheatre (should be something such as 'Fullscreen' or 'zoom' or 'fit to screen'). It may be in the 'options'/'preferences' window.
And you should be able to play a DVD or video file using one of the options in the MyTheatre task bar, which allows you to open other media on your computer.
I don't use MyTheatre, so can't directly address the issues you are having (i.e. tell you exactly what to do in it).

Have you tried the 'WinTV' app that came with the cards?

Each DVB app has its advantages and disadvantages, and most of us use more than one app, depending on what we are doing.

Good luck and keep us posted.

I have been through every possible setting in the my theater app program for different screen resolutions and settings. None provide any relief and all are miserable.

Also, the theater app will play back pre-recorded files but you have to go to the pc, use the mouse and keyboard to open a DOS window to poke around in the files to find what you want. It's very unfriendly to use and you can not at all access files with the remote control. So if you are in another room you can only watch live tv, you can not access anything else via remote control..

Ok. New question.

I saw mention of an app called Sage TV and looked it up. I found the Sage website and this program looks promising.

It looks like it has some pretty cool features and I think I would like to try it.
Does anyone else have anything they could say good or bad about the Sage app?

I also see that they sell a few Haupauge tuner cards on the Sage site that uses the same exact remote control my two tuner cards use. So ~that~ looks promising for me too.

I'm a bit put off by the price of $80 but if it really works I guess it is worth it.
I was dismayed to learn that my ex paid $40 to put this crummy theater app on my pc. I don't know what he was thinking but he paid for it himself. A real waste of money because I really don't like the app worth a hoot. Not to mention, all the menus are in badly broken English.. Puhlease.........

I think I will try their 21 day trial demo.

There was one app I tried that was pretty cool called Boxee but it doesn't do live tv or satellite, it only plays back files on your pc. If they could only make it work with tuner cards that would be awesome! Oh well..

 

[osu1991]

I don't know if it will work with a sat tuner, but you might try XBMC.

XBMC

I have it installed on an older computer just as a media player, but I am looking to start playing with it some.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well, Sage TV is out of the running.

It doesn't allow me to specify any satellites other than the FEW it has in a predefined list and there is no provision in it for setting up that I have an 8way switch or any switch for that matter.

They give you about 8 KU satellites to choose from, all pay providers.
There is an option for Cband and 4DTV what ever that is.
But to set it up for the satellites you actually watch, the free satellites, not an option.

It also does not recognize my Haupagge remote control even though they sell the same tuners/remotes I own and use..

I had high hopes for this app, initially it looked like it might do it.
But so far it totally fails to allow me to setup my satellites and that renders it unusable to me.

It does work with my local TV though and it even shows a program guide which I like very much. But the lack of satellite support totally puts a halt to this project.

I'm glad I decided to try the free demo before buying it..

There has to be something better out there, something that actually works..

 

[crackt]

there is a menu in mytheatre to change the scaling. i think its f12 that brings it up. if not its f10. it gives you video rendering options. you can force the output to 1080 and it will autozoom.

crackt out,.

 

[trinity13]

Well Dee_Ann, if you've tried all the settings in MyTheatre (including crackt's suggestion), I would have to ask if your problem exists on both the pc monitor and the TV, or just the TV?

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well Dee_Ann, if you've tried all the settings in MyTheatre (including crackt's suggestion), I would have to ask if your problem exists on both the pc monitor and the TV, or just the TV?

Oh, I should have mentioned that. Doh!

It does the same thing on either display.

The PC screen is a 4x3 so it's not as severe as it is on the tv.
If I set the app to use 16x9 it goes into this sickening fish eye effect, like looking at everything through a crystal ball, the sides are badly distorted and as people and things move it is nauseating. Text on the sides will be like 2" tall but as it scrolls to the middle of the screen it squeezes down to like 1/2" tall. People do the same thing. It's horrible!

So the 16x9 options are totally out of the question.

HOWEVER. I can watch a recording or a movie avi with the VLC app and everything looks great! I can change the screen in VLC to 16x9 or 16x10 and it looks great, it fills the screen all the way to the edges of the plastic.

It's only when using the my theater app that I have problems with the displays.
It's very frustrating.

Oh, I contacted Sage and they said you can add any satellite you want but I can't figure out at all how to do it. They just said some files need to be edited.
They also said they don't think my 8 way switch will be supported and that I will have to go to a 4 way switch. Using a 4 way is not acceptable and too limiting.

Surely someone must know how to make sage work with FTA??

Thanks!

 

[crackt]

im not sure my instructions were that good. for mytheatre video options.

right click on video -> settings -> general settings

select ivr / osd and enable ivr with monitor resolution
AND
select allow directx video acceleration
exit that menu

press f12 -> set video src mode to force 16:9
-> select render format -> set to whichever works for you
-> set Video / Osd AA filter for your video cards performance.

this should scale the video and fill your screen.

crackt out,.

 

[Anony55]

IMHO, you just can't beat DVB Viewer for zoom control. It also does a very good job handling multiple tuners. If you're having pic size issues, I'd recommend DVBV just for the zoom feature alone. It lets you resize via an onscreen slider that lets you get the pic the exact size you want.

It also lets you do the stretch thing too, but I only use that to correct weird broadcasts. You might wanna check it out. It's well worth the 15 euro (that was around $21 at the exchange rate when I bought it a year ago). That's pretty cheap for all it does.

Cheers