Long time absent..... coming back

[mobiusnz]

Ok - Soon after DVB-T launched in NZ I switched to Win7 Media Center - Mainly for the better Audio support for HE-AAC. At the time the only option for GBPVR (as it was still then) was the one written in Norway and I had problems with Audio Sync that required skipping back and forward to bring back into sync. The biggest reason I stuck with Media Center so long was the Xbox 360 as extender (It got me permission from the wife to buy two Xbox 360s ) but now I am back so I can use my newly purchased Hauppauge Colossus card to record much better quality from my STB than Media Center would allow.

First I have to say - Its good to be back, I installed the latest version - It detected my card (Only the Colossus in at present, I'll shift the others soon) and let me import an XMLTV epg with ease. 10 - 15 minutes and I was up and running with a guide and able to watch/record from my STB.

Its going to mean some expenditure - I've liked having the PC in the garage out of the way and Xbox's to do the playback and scheduling etc - I think I'll go with the latest Celeron based Intel NUC, they are cheap, QUIET, tiny, reliable and when I eval'd one a while back it played any HD media I threw at it without batting an eyelid - Anyone using these as a NPVR Client PC?

I've seriously missed the client/server setup - Amazes me with MCE with such great support for Xbox's as Extenders and yet there is no way to make a pc work other than to simply playback recordings (No EPG / Scheduling etc).

Any way - I look forward to reading and hopefully contributing to the forums and hope to see a lot of the old crew that were here when I was last loyal

Matt

[sub]

Welcome back

[dgeezer]

I am seriously considering buying a zotac zbox Bi320 Amazon to try as a client. Here in the US it's only $220.00 and comes with Windows 8.1. It looks like it would make an excellent client.

[JavaWiz]

I've started using Raspberry PI's as clients using OpenELEC running XBMC.

NextPVR is the stable back-end, and with sub's excellent XBMC add-on (as well as Martin's X-NewA), I have NextPVR content in 2 bedrooms, office and family room. The RaspPi's can be picked up for ~$45-60 (US) depending on what options you get with them (power cords, sd card, HDMI cable, etc...). The OpenELEC distribution makes setting up XBMC a no brainer.

[psycik]

I've just switched my 1.5 TB 4xTuner (mix of DVB-T and DVB-S) mnid tower box to a Gigabyte Brix with a 120gb SSD and a HD HomeRun (and a script that moves recordings off to a home server each night). It's tiny.

Much smaller. I haven't gone through completely and used the system for viewing, but tend to use it for a backend, and use plex for either recordings playback or live tv on a samsung tv or ipad.

[mobiusnz]

I've moved my box with the tuners (1 x Colossus, 1 x hvr2200 and 2 x nova-t-500's) into a nice filtered, positive air pressure case to keep it dust free and have it in a server cabinet in the garage. Got an old slimline dell Athlon 64 in the bedroom and the i5 nuc in the lounge for playback. It's nice to have something so quiet and small in the lounge and because the ir receiver is built into the mainboard it wakes from sleep with the remote.

Had a nightmare when I switched it all live yesterday as after moving my tuners into the new box with the colossus card the blaster on the colossus stopped working. Had to run hwclear and reinstall all the drivers again to get it going but it's all humming along nicely. I have to complement how easy it was to get an epg in and everything tuned and up and running. Every time I had to redo things on Mce due to a new tuner or when they shifted the channels here and I had to retune it took me a couple of hours playing with big screen epg and mapping each channel to the epg by hand. I uninstalled and reinstalled all my tuners yesterday and Npvr didn't bat an eye.

Only issue yet to resolve is my remote won't launch npvr with the green button. I'm using the built in IR on the nuc and it's the same with a hauppauge mce remote and my Harmony one pretending to be an mce remote. All works perfectly once you're in but can't launch it.

[stustunz]

ir server suite
and use stay on top
has option to disable mce etc also

(i use mce remotes but pretty sure ir server suite has the hauppauge option also )

If you upgrade your tv i highly recommend getting a samsung smart tv and use freds app
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...ta-testing

[mobiusnz]

Yeah, saw the Samsung app. Hanging out for a panasonic one. Got a 65" panasonic gt series 3d plasma and I haven't yet seen an lcd that looks as good. Colour reproduction and blacks are breath taking. Hoping to avoid using external s/w for one button. Everything else works perfectly but I might have to go that way as I may want to automate other processes not in the native mce remote support.

[mobiusnz]

Take a look at the intel NUC's. The latest gen have ir receivers onboard which allow you to wake the pc with the remote. Pretty cool. Whisper quiet and tiny.