Am I expecting too much for a cable card tuner?

[DermicSavage]

So I am under comcast and my wife wants us to get TV service. Normally, we would get all of our content via web streaming through XBMC plugins Since we have two TVs in the house, we would have to dish out an extra $20 a month to rent two freaking cable boxes just to get the HD channels. I want to say forget that and look into using a cablecard tuner instead. I am very focused around aesthetic and simple interfaces, especially since my wife is a big technophobe. Thus finding a way to deliver the live TV option to a simple interface as well as a well laid out way to see a library of recorded and saved media is an absolute must. I'm in the process of reading over options, but it seems like things are still a bit of a hodgepodge when trying to get tuners working outside of WMC. I have a few questions I'm hoping can be clarified:

1. As far as I know there are only two real choices, the HD Homerun Prime and the Ceton Infinity. Are there any others?

2. Is there a notable difference in quality between the USB and the PCIe tuners?

3. I like XBMC as the interface is very consistent, and I have been able to make it appear very aesthetic. I know the newer version in beta has tuner support and am curious if anyone has input on this route.

4. I tried media center with media browser but can't get media browser to appear transparent to media center. The main home screen for media center isn't bad, but the only way I can see to use the media browser features is to specifically go to the media browser option on the home screen, which is very aesthetically displeasing. Is there a way to make Media Center work and look better?

5. Will I be able to stream the live TV to other devices through the house?

6. Would a sandy 2.8GHz dual core Pentium with 4GB of RAM be able to handle recording multiple TV channels while also acting as a media server?

 

[tmillszero1]

I have a HDHomerun Prime and love it! Use it on all 3 TVs in the house. Since it is IP based it is highly advisable to have cat5e\6 run to all HTPCs.

I wouldn’t think there is a difference between PCIe and USB tuners so, HD streams are about 3-5 MB\s, so more than enough bandwidth.
Unfortunately, you would not be able to use XMBC. Many channels are copyright flagged and as far as I know, Windows Media Center is the only one that will play protected content.
There is a ton of ways to customize mediacenter. Howtogeek.com has a boatload as well, here’s an article to get you started:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1697...a-center-start-menu-with-media-center-studio/

“Will I be able to stream the live TV to other devices through the house?” – Yes, with the HDHomerun Prime

“Would a sandy 2.8GHz dual core Pentium with 4GB of RAM be able to handle recording multiple TV channels while also acting as a media server?” More than plenty!

 

[qbanb8582]

So I am under comcast and my wife wants us to get TV service. Normally, we would get all of our content via web streaming through XBMC plugins Since we have two TVs in the house, we would have to dish out an extra $20 a month to rent two freaking cable boxes just to get the HD channels. I want to say forget that and look into using a cablecard tuner instead. I am very focused around aesthetic and simple interfaces, especially since my wife is a big technophobe. Thus finding a way to deliver the live TV option to a simple interface as well as a well laid out way to see a library of recorded and saved media is an absolute must. I'm in the process of reading over options, but it seems like things are still a bit of a hodgepodge when trying to get tuners working outside of WMC. I have a few questions I'm hoping can be clarified:

1. As far as I know there are only two real choices, the HD Homerun Prime and the Ceton Infinity. Are there any others?

2. Is there a notable difference in quality between the USB and the PCIe tuners?

3. I like XBMC as the interface is very consistent, and I have been able to make it appear very aesthetic. I know the newer version in beta has tuner support and am curious if anyone has input on this route.

4. I tried media center with media browser but can't get media browser to appear transparent to media center. The main home screen for media center isn't bad, but the only way I can see to use the media browser features is to specifically go to the media browser option on the home screen, which is very aesthetically displeasing. Is there a way to make Media Center work and look better?

5. Will I be able to stream the live TV to other devices through the house?

6. Would a sandy 2.8GHz dual core Pentium with 4GB of RAM be able to handle recording multiple TV channels while also acting as a media server?

1. There is the Hauppage colosus which is a dual cablecard tuner. But I find HDHomerun Prime best option for me. I had the infinitv but switched to the HDHomerun prime.

2. From the reviews i seen for there is little no difference between USB and PCIe when it comes to performance.

3. You can use XBMC but the problem is you can't view copy protected content. For that there is only Windows Media Center.

4. If you search for Media Center Studio, there are ways to change the theme for media center to different color(s) and background(s).

5. As far as other devices it depends. With infinitv you're pretty much stuck with extenders or other PCs. With HDHomerun Prime soon you'll be able to view it through DLNA eventually which expands the amount of devices that can view content. As far is viewing from different devices I think the HDHomerun Prime is better imo. The infinitv the network tuners need to be configured on the HTPC and then the clients.

For the HDHomerun Prime once the device is activated you just install the drivers on the client PCs and thats it.

6. That should be enough. It doesn't take all that much processing power. One thing you'll want is hard drive space. The HD recordings can be rather large like 8GB for an hour.

EDIT: Its the WinTV-DCR-2650 not colossus thats the cablecard tuner.

 

[nite0]

I'll chime in here as well.

So I am under comcast and my wife wants us to get TV service. Normally, we would get all of our content via web streaming through XBMC plugins Since we have two TVs in the house, we would have to dish out an extra $20 a month to rent two freaking cable boxes just to get the HD channels. I want to say forget that and look into using a cablecard tuner instead. I am very focused around aesthetic and simple interfaces, especially since my wife is a big technophobe. Thus finding a way to deliver the live TV option to a simple interface as well as a well laid out way to see a library of recorded and saved media is an absolute must. I'm in the process of reading over options, but it seems like things are still a bit of a hodgepodge when trying to get tuners working outside of WMC. I have a few questions I'm hoping can be clarified:

1. As far as I know there are only two real choices, the HD Homerun Prime and the Ceton Infinity. Are there any others?

2. Is there a notable difference in quality between the USB and the PCIe tuners?

3. I like XBMC as the interface is very consistent, and I have been able to make it appear very aesthetic. I know the newer version in beta has tuner support and am curious if anyone has input on this route.

4. I tried media center with media browser but can't get media browser to appear transparent to media center. The main home screen for media center isn't bad, but the only way I can see to use the media browser features is to specifically go to the media browser option on the home screen, which is very aesthetically displeasing. Is there a way to make Media Center work and look better?

5. Will I be able to stream the live TV to other devices through the house?

6. Would a sandy 2.8GHz dual core Pentium with 4GB of RAM be able to handle recording multiple TV channels while also acting as a media server?

1. Yes - only those 2. Not sure what the previous poster was referring to, but the Colossus is a dual HD video recorder not a CableCARD tuner. I have both, I think the HDHomeRun Prime is better and totally network-based so I've found it to be more stable. You can also dynamically assign tuners to multiple machines in your house.

2. No - they just send the untouced HD video stream to a computer.

3. As others have stated, you won't be able to access any channels aside from locals without WMC.

4. I'm surprised by this, I used Windows Media Center and find it MUCH cleaner/nicer than all the 3rd party software (XBMC, etc.). You can customize via Media Center Studio/Media Center Themer if you would like. Using WMC as your central hub/main screen makes the most sense as you will need it to access the guide/live TV. I'd also look at My Movies, I switched last year and like it a lot more than Media Browser (interface is cleaner, IMO) but it is not free.

5. Not sure what you mean by 'devices' but other PCs with WMC can access the tuners.

6. I assume this would be the G840? The onboard video may not be sufficient to watch TV and use the guide overlay/menu smoothly. Otherwise, it should be ok as watching TV is not that CPU intensive.

 

[DermicSavage]

Cool, I found MCE 7 Reset Toolbox that is letting me to rearrange the start screen of MCE, it looks much better now. The media center studio appears to be out of date and no longer works properly.

I do like that the homerun has the network option on it. I think I will pick it up and play around with it for a bit to see how well it works. Hopefully I can cut the cord on those damn cable boxes for good! Thanks for all the advice!

 

[thegrinch]

If WAF is important to you, you'll want to use official WMC extenders for your other TVs so you have a unified guide, recording schedule and be able to access/view ALL recorded TV, both copy-protected and not copy protected. Personally, I wouldn't recommend multiple PC's since none of your scheudles will be sync'd, etc.

Also, it's important to understand the following:
If your area of Comcast copy-protects it's channels, you'll only be able to view the recordings on the machine that recorded them (unless you use an extender like the 360 or Echo, etc, at other TVs). Meaning, you won't be able to use other WMC machines to view copy-protected content created on MachineA on MachineB - even when using networked tuners. This is the #1 reason why I stick to a single machine and extenders at all other TVs; my WAF is very high

 

[qbanb8582]

If WAF is important to you, you'll want to use official WMC extenders for your other TVs so you have a unified guide, recording schedule and be able to access/view ALL recorded TV, both copy-protected and not copy protected. Personally, I wouldn't recommend multiple PC's since none of your scheudles will be sync'd, etc.

Also, it's important to understand the following:
If your area of Comcast copy-protects it's channels, you'll only be able to view the recordings on the machine that recorded them (unless you use an extender like the 360 or Echo, etc, at other TVs). Meaning, you won't be able to use other WMC machines to view copy-protected content created on MachineA on MachineB - even when using networked tuners. This is the #1 reason why I stick to a single machine and extenders at all other TVs; my WAF is very high

+1 with the extenders. I have an xbox 360 in all the bedrooms and its nice having that whole home dvr setup. Other PCs on my network still use them mostly for live tv or to watch non copy protected recordings.

Also theres no real setup on the extenders. Just punch in some numbers and its all set.

 

[dcds1]

If WAF is important to you, you'll want to use official WMC extenders for your other TVs so you have a unified guide, recording schedule and be able to access/view ALL recorded TV, both copy-protected and not copy protected. Personally, I wouldn't recommend multiple PC's since none of your scheudles will be sync'd, etc.

Also, it's important to understand the following:
If your area of Comcast copy-protects it's channels, you'll only be able to view the recordings on the machine that recorded them (unless you use an extender like the 360 or Echo, etc, at other TVs). Meaning, you won't be able to use other WMC machines to view copy-protected content created on MachineA on MachineB - even when using networked tuners. This is the #1 reason why I stick to a single machine and extenders at all other TVs; my WAF is very high

If you can find a copy of window vista you can get around the other pc not being able to watch problem. The only other solution is to go in to your recording and switch the format they are saved in. I never could understand why Microsoft did that with Window 7. The only thing I could figure was to sell xboxs.

 

[dan87]

IT's because DVR-MS did not support MPEG4 and additional extensions. WTV does.