New setup - advice please? Cheap freeview boxes?

[danjerman]

Hi All,

I've been using XPMCE for over a year now but am moving to a larger house where I need the client/server capabilities of GBPVR (I'm really happy to be moving away from a MIcrosoft solution!). However I have a couple of questions :

1) I currently use 2 x Sky digiboxes (I'm in th UK) and a Hauppauge PVR 500 card which controls these two boxes with ease. In the new place, I need to buy 2 x freeview decoders instead of the sky digiboxes. Will GBPVR control the Hauppauge IR blaster so that the freeview boxes will be controlled? I haven't bought the freeview boxes yet...is there anything I should go for in particular?

2) I plan to use Homeplug (200M) to connect MediaMVP boxes to the LAN for various TVs around the house (up to 3). Has anyone got any experience of using Homeplug for this purpose? Does it work?

3) Is it possible to use the GBPVR server as a 'normal' PC at the same time its being a server (I plan to have the server on constantly in the study).

Thanks for your help.

Danjerman

[stefan]

Welcome to the forums

1) I currently use 2 x Sky digiboxes (I'm in th UK) and a Hauppauge PVR 500 card which controls these two boxes with ease. In the new place, I need to buy 2 x freeview decoders instead of the sky digiboxes. Will GBPVR control the Hauppauge IR blaster so that the freeview boxes will be controlled? I haven't bought the freeview boxes yet...is there anything I should go for in particular?

Have you considered getting a nova-t-500 instead?

3) Is it possible to use the GBPVR server as a 'normal' PC at the same time its being a server (I plan to have the server on constantly in the study).

Absolutely™. Well, actually it depends on your cpu and what you intend to do with it at the same time. Serving an MVP takes some cpu, and if you intend to play heavy games at the same time I guess you could get some CPU problems, but for "normal" web browsing, mail handling etc, you'd be fine.

[martint123]

(1) You'd have to look at the IR Blaster config utility to see if the freeview boxes were controllable from the PVR500. TBH I doubt they will be on the list.
I'd agree about considering using a Nova-t-500 - I do and its fine.

I had no problem running GBPVR on my main machine - P4 3ghz, you just have to be careful about rebooting and the like!

Martin

[danjerman]

The Nova-t-500 sounds a great idea. I could then eBay my PVR-500 and the sky digiboxes. Thanks.

I assume there is no issue using the Nova-t-500 with GBPVR and the MVPs?

Thanks for the replies.
Danjerman

[danjerman]

Oh Yes, The PC is an NGM2-FID mobo with Athlon 3500 + CPU (2.2Gig) and a gig of ram. I didn't go mad with the spec as it was originally going to be a standalone XP MCE box. We don't really play games but it would be used for browsing while serving the MVPs.
Ta
Danjerman

[martint123]

I assume there is no issue using the Nova-t-500 with GBPVR and the MVPs?

Mine runs fine. Down to two MVP's at the moment due to lending one to little brother to play with.

[RangerBob]

2) I plan to use Homeplug (200M) to connect MediaMVP boxes to the LAN for various TVs around the house (up to 3). Has anyone got any experience of using Homeplug for this purpose? Does it work?

I know myself and several others are using the Netgear HDX101 200Mbps powerline networking with the MVP with no real issues, (apart from the one mentioned in my sig, and others have mentioned that it may be resolved, I just haven't checked). Not quite the homeplug standard, but they do what they say on the tin! I have both the server and 2 MVP's hooked up via this method (4 HDX's total).