MVP and LIVE TV

[omarcil]

I'm new to building HTPC. I just bought a Hauppauge NOVA-S DVB-s card. First I tought using a seperate mini-itx pc for that process... but then I tought of puting on my big dual 2 core machine the DVB-S card and GBPVR and then using some MVP in the different room. I was wondering if its possible to watch LIVE TV from these boxes and what do you get as a quality and speed for an MVP???

Thanks for all you help ion advance

[sub]

I was wondering if its possible to watch LIVE TV from these boxes and what do you get as a quality and speed for an MVP???

Yes, you can watch live tv on an MVP. Its a little slow change channels on a digital capture device (about 3 to 4 seconds), but definitely possible.

[omarcil]

Interesting since I tought the signal on DVB-S is already in mpeg2 I tought it would take less time since it doesnt need to be converted...

[sub]

That signal needs to be remuxed to a program stream file before the MVP can play it though. The mux filters which do this job add about 2 - 3 seconds to the process.

[omarcil]

So compare to a normal satellite receiver you would say that its twice the time for channel changing... ????

[sub]

I would say changing channels with a combination of an MVP and a digital capture device takes about 3 - 4 seconds.

[omarcil]

Having a powerful computer wont change a thing??? What could reduce the time of channel changing to a respectable 1 seconds? So that is comparable to a a FTA set-up-boxe...

[sub]

Having a powerful computer wont change a thing???

No.

What could reduce the time of channel changing to a respectable 1 seconds? So that is comparable to a a FTA set-up-boxe...

I dont think you going to get anywhere near that regardless of what you do.

Remember the MVP wasnt designed for this purpose. It is a simple media player designed for playing pre-existing MPEG2 program stream files from a remote server. GB-PVR is able to trick it into view live tv by recording a channel to a file and starting playback of that file. There is a lot more going on than you'd get happening in a satellite receiver where the output of the tuner is effectively sent directly to the screen (via the decoder chipset), giving very minimal delays.

The extra steps happening on the MVP all add extra time. Noteable delays include the buffering time in the mux filters on the PC as it anaylses the stream prior to writing the file to disk, and the pre buffering that is done on the MVP to ensure smooth playback across the network.

Its great device for scheduling recordings, play them back etc, but a little slow if you intend to use it for live tv. It does work, but would drive a channel surfer nuts.

[omarcil]

Thanks Sub for all your help... Yes It could drive me nuts! But let say ( Im going out of the threads on this ! ) I use a pc as a Media extender... could I do that...?? Will it reduce the channel delay???