Right.. The DVB-C/S HTPC Project starts

[simeonipicker]

Hi Guys,

Thought I would start a different thread for this as I need a few more answers that don't just relate to DVB cable.

I have a high'ish spec HTPC:

- X2 Black Edition Dual Core at 3Ghz.
- 4 Gig PC2-9200 OCZ repear RAM.
- 1TB drive.
- The Gigabyte 780 board with intergrated HDMI.
- X-fi Sound card.

I want both my cable feed to go into this thing as well as freesat.

So both DVB-C and DVB-S cards.

So for the cable the card of choice is C-1501 budget.

So I need a card for the freesat. I want the HD Channels also.

Can I use software to decode the HD if I get a normal DVB-S card? I have seen this one:

HISAT : Satellite equipment and information : Triple-Dragon, GbSat, Twinhan, Visionnet, MVision, Dreambox

Or do I specificly need a DVB-S2 card say like this one:

http://hisat.com/proddetail.php?prod=REC_SKYSTAR_HD&cat=62

My dish is only the standard SKY one, would I need to do anything different allow freesat? Sorry if this the wrong forum to ask something freesat specific.

Cheers

 

[señor ding dong]

The TT1501 will be fine for cable. According to Wikipedia, even the HD channels on Freesat still use the DVB-S standard, not DVB-S2. This has nothing to do with the actual decoding, though, and the 780 board can decode both H.264 and MPEG2 in hardware anyway.

Good luck. I need to get my ass in gear myself, and get my new HTPC sorted out.

 

[simeonipicker]

Indeed, that's good news.

I must admit Senor ding dong I am now hooked on the HTPC scene. Sold a high end gaming rig to pay for it as I am just addicted to High Def materials at the moment!

 

[señor ding dong]

Yes, HTPC'ing is kind of addictive, isn't it? If you're really interested in HD, though, maybe it would be better to look into getting a real Sky HD subscription to work on your HTPC? There's still only BBC HD on cable, and even Freesat doesn't have any really worthwhile HD.

 

[simeonipicker]

Sky HD?? But then that would require me to pay for a TV service - and that is against my religion!

Yeah I know there isn't much to choose from, but having freesat HD will give me a few more HD channels even if they are pretty crappy at the moment.

Whats your planned spec for your HTPC?

 

[señor ding dong]

I'm fairly agnostic myself, so I think the price of a Sky subscription could be worthwhile, but who knows, maybe VM will come through on their promise about more HD channels "soon".

As for specs, I was planning to go for more or less the same as I had before. 780g board, AMD 4850e CPU, Antec Fusion case. I only parted ways with my old one, because a friend of mine was desperate for an HTPC of his own, but is too accident prone to be trusted to put it together himself. I had planned to sort out a new one a few weeks ago, but been too busy with life and work.

My choice of software would still be DVBviewer. I've tried Media Portal, and it's nice and fancy, but a little too fancy for my liking. I prefer the rock solid simplicity of DVBviewer.

 

[simeonipicker]

Whats the main differences with DVB Viewer? Can you still set up network shares to movies,music and pics Etc?

Can you implement the playback of blu-ray and HD-DVD discs also?

 

[señor ding dong]

For me, the main difference with DVBviewer is that I prefer its interface. I thought Media Portal was just a bit too fancy. It is a very impressive looking system to impress people with, but for day-to-day viewing, I preferred DVBviewer, which was also less buggy. I haven't used it for pictures and music, but it does have those functions. I don't know about HD-DVD or BluRay.