Networking Live TV

[Paul_B]

Hi all,

Well this is my first post here and I am new to a lot of terminology so please be gentle and assume nothing :p

What I am trying to achieve is a central media server that can stream out video content to indivdual rooms around the house. The network will be hardwired Cat5E and running from a Gigabit switch. I have already purchased a rackmount case, MSI motherboard with Intel x48 chipset, Core2 Quad 2.5GHz processor and 2GB DDR3 RAM.

What I would like to do is rip all our DVDs and hold them centrally on the server (4xSATAII HDD in RAID 5 set). I would also like to fit a TV card to serve LiveTV and act as PVR (unsure of what to buy here).

The clients are undecided but preference would be for small devices either fitted in the room or racked centrally and video / audio sent over baluns to in-wall video connectors (DVI, HDMI).

- Is what I describe above achieveable with GBPVR?
- What is the recommended client config?
- Can I use a PS3 or Xbox 360 as a client?
- What is a good TV card that supports DVB-S (Freesat in the UK)?

I don't necessarily need a list of instructions but pointers.

Thanks for reading.

Paul

[gEd]

welcome Paul

for a (very) small client, the hauppauge MVP is the most popular but only does standard def and MPEG-2 video (no divx etc) and MP3 audio.

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/product...s_mvp.html

the latest and coolest looking media client is the popcorn hour (PCH) which apparently plays anything, including high def.

I have no idea if you can do live tv with these devices tho. There is a forum section here for both of these clients so take a look there if yo need more details.

http://forums.gbpvr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12

You can run gbpvr in client mode on a pc but you would need others to tell you how well livetv works over a fast network. It's perfect for playing back existing recordings.

Freesat is (as you know) only just out. There are a couple of threads (search the forum) where people are trying to setup their dvb-s cards to receive the channels. It sounds a bit hit and miss atm.

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...ht=freesat.

PS3/xbox - for live tv, no chance I suspect but if they can browse a remote share, I guess they might work for existing recordings, although you won;t get the description of the show. However I think the xbox will only talk to a MS server such as MCE or media share? I don;t have a console so I don;t really know.

not much but I hope this helps a little.

good luck

[Paul_B]

gEd,

Thanks for the reply. If I am reading correctly does gbPVR provide streaming? Or does it just present an EPG and access to the associated backend files that a client will need to decode?

Paul

[steeb]

Hi Paul B,

welcome to the world of GBPVR.

For your info, my setup appears to be something along the lines of what you are working towards.

I have a central server (Big Tower P4 3.2, 512 RAM (I did have 1024 but a stick died on me recently) and 500GB storage). I have one Sky STB attached to this with a Hauppauge PVR150 Capture Card and 2 x DVB-S Cards. 1 x Hauppauge Nova-S + and 1 x FireDTV, I would recommend either of these as they both seem best supported within GBPVR and the community.

I haven't got round to Cat5 ing the house and I am running Devolo Ethernet over Powerline adaptors, they work well for me but hard wiring with Cat5 is obviously a better option for speed!

AS gEd said the only 2 viable options for 'thin clients' are the Hauppauge MVP and the Popcorn Hour. I know nothing about the Popcorn Hour as it is fairly new but I have 2 x MVP's running and these work pretty well for me.

NO the MVP's don't have amazing capabilities in terms of their format handling etc. but they work extremely well with GBPVR and have a long list of support in the Community to get them working. For my needs in the rooms I use them in (Bedrooom + Kitchen) I don't need HiDef and 5.1 surround sound

I am working on a Client PC for my living room (saving the pennies), and this will be able to talk back to the server and provide much greater flexibility.

In terms of Live TV I have this running on the MVP's most of the time I'm using them, I wouldn't say they are 100 % rock solid but 95 % of the time they work brilliantly.

As per gEd's comment there are some teething errors receiving a few Freesat channels at the moment there's only about 3 or 4 I can't currently get but as Freesat is so young I would expect some problems.

To my knowledge PS3 and Xbox 360 are not options at all.

I do currently use and old style Xbox to play back recordings from the server into my living room, but this Xbox has been modded to run XBMC.

One thing I would mention is if your biggest aim is to play back your ripped DVD's (i.e. still stored as .ifo/.vob files this is one thing an MVP definitely cannot natively do. There used to be a utility for doing this, can't remember it's name right now, but I never got it working satisfactorily, the best way would be to convert them to Mpeg2.

I hope this helps in some way!

Cheers

Steeb