Re: MCE and Haupagge Digital
- From: John Lockwood <john.lockwood@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:27:28 +0000
There other manufacturers of twin-tuner PCI cards.
See
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer%2BProducts/PCTV%2
BTuners/PCTV%2BDigital%2BPVR%2B%28DVB-S_DVB-T%29/PCTV%2BDual%2BDVB-T%2BPro%2
BPCI.htm
You need to get the remote separately. I am sure there are several other
makes, try using Google.
Regarding HD, theoretically, you could get a DVB-C tuner (for VirginMedia
Cable TV) which uses MPEG2 still. As MPEG2 is supported by MCE even for HD
(this is how the Americans do it) this would work now. The difficulty is
that DVB-C is not officially supported, and you have to get a tuner that has
a driver that tricks MCE in to thinking it is a DVB-T tuner.
E.g. http://www.digital-everywhere.com/en/alcms/index.php?sid=1190057723
You then need to setup a CAM (e.g. The Dragon CAM) to pretend to be your
set-top box.
This has I believe been done here in the UK (e.g. With Telewest/NTL) but not
as often as Sky has been done on a PC. I therefore would not bother. Besides
VirginMedia's HD selection is a pitiful fraction of what Sky offer.
HD over DVB-T (or DVB-T2) is years away from happening. Past experience
indicates we would then have to wait eons longer for Microsoft to support
it.
Today you can do HD on a PC from Sky (using a genuine viewing card) but not
in MCE, you have to use the DVBViewer software.
Using this tuner for example
http://www.digital-everywhere.com/en/alcms/index.php?sid=1187859689
However if/when Microsoft finally add H.264 support then there is a good
chance you will then be able to do it in MCE. This is what I have been
waiting for (I currently have two USB DVB-T tuners).
On 13/3/08 23:19, in article e6294CWhIHA.6084@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Paul
King" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
John,
Many thanks for the in-depth feedback and this is gratefully appreciated.
I guess reading between the lines, is that if I wanted a single PCI card
that is a dual digital tuner then I could go for the Nova T-500, yet the
remote control will not be MCE compatible.
Yet, I could go for 2x HVR1700 tuners which would do the same as above, yet
be controlled by a single MCE compatible remote control.
I guess I find it amazing that the Nova T-500 isn't MCE remote aware, yet
the product itself is MCE compatible.
In terms of HD content it would be great to know this was on the horizon
rather than paying the extensive fee imposed by Sky.
Cheers
Paul.
"John Lockwood" <john.lockwood@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C3FEDA28.2B995%john.lockwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 12/3/08 22:50, in article Owo2$NJhIHA.2084@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Paul
King" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear all,
I have a spare PC which I want to connect up to my HDTV downstairs. I
run
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition but it only has the standard stuff (ie
1GB memory, Sata HDD) but no TV tuner.
I was looking at the Hauppage Digital PCI card as this allows me to view
Freeview channels in the UK.
Would this card integrate with MCE and is it caperble of downloading HD
content to my super TV?
Cheers
Paul
Hauppauge make lots of different TV tuners however none of them as far as
I
am aware are called "Hauppauge Digital PCI card".
On the assumption you indeed want a PCI card to use with MCE and that it
should support Freeview (which uses DVB-T) the following Hauppauge
products
are suitable :-
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr1300mcekit.html
This is a hybrid card meaning it can do Analogue OR Digital (not both at
the
same time, since Media Center does not allow that).
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr1700mckit.html
Same as above except this is for PCI Express slots.
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_novat500.html
This card also looks like it will work with MCE, this one has two DVB-T
tuners meaning you can record two channels at the same time or record one
and watch one. However it does not have analogue, also the included remote
control does not work in Media Center, you would have to use a standard
Media Center remote.
Moving on to the next issue.
You asked is it capable of downloading HD. By that I presume you mean
receiving HD TV broadcasts over Freeview.
The answer to this is that currently there are no HD broadcasts over
Freeview. If/when that does eventually happen it could be done in one of
three ways.
1. It could either be transmitting HD in MPEG2 format over DVB-T (like in
Australia),
2. It could be HD transmitted in H.264 over DVB-T (like the BBC trial last
year)
3. It could be HD transmitted in H.264 over DVB-T2 (as is being proposed
but
has never yet been done).
I can confidently state that option 1 will never happen in the UK and
probably not in the whole of Europe. Option 2 is still a possibility and
would theoretically work with these Hauppauage tuners but not currently in
Microsoft Media Centre, this is because Microsoft do not yet support
H.264.
Option 3 is what the UK might eventually end up using and this will not
work
on these tuners as there are currently no DVB-T2 tuners available.
If when a DVB-T2 tuner becomes available I would expect it to be backwards
compatible.
Note: Any existing Freeview TVs and set-top boxes are all DVB-T and will
not
be able to do DVB-T2 either.
.
- References:
- MCE and Haupagge Digital
- From: Paul King
- Re: MCE and Haupagge Digital
- From: John Lockwood
- Re: MCE and Haupagge Digital
- From: Paul King
- MCE and Haupagge Digital
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