Hardware Guidance

[gopher]

Hi all,
I have been reading the forums and other sources for the last few days after a series of events lead me to the inspirational idea of creating a mediacentre for home. It all started when the company I work for had a customer wanting to stream audio and dvd feeds into operating theatres. They have since put this on hold, however as the following days unfolded a series of events took place that leads me to believe that the Almighty upstairs is sending me on a mission, not unlike Moses...
Day 1: The boss comes in and says "I have a spare HP Proliant ML370 with 4Gb of Ram, +/- 300gb of Raid 5 Scsi drives, hot swap PSU’s and fans… anyone want it?" My hand was up faster than a $2 hooker heading to the naval base....
Day 2 (actually day 4, but day 2 sounds better): Same boss comes in and says "I've just signed up to be a Ruckus wireless reseller, anyone wanna play with the Mediaflex gear?" ...duh?
Evening of Day 2: Mrs g starts bleeting on about the cr*p tv reception in the bedroom and can't understand why we have MySky in the lounge and I have it relayed into the Bar, but can't do it to the bedroom.....

And from here the blessed Google transports me to gb-pvr...

The following day the boss asks what i'm going to do with the server etc. so I show him the site and mention the motivation (satisfying the wife) which leads to questions about Tuner cards (and jokes about me needing to satisfy the mrs with electrical equipment) and what i intend to use. I say "I dunno, haven't done any substantial research, but the Hauppage HVR4000 might be ok...." "Well go get one then." was the reply, Who am I to argue?

So off I go, purchase order in hand and have one on order. Hindsight tells me now that perhaps I should have checked whether:
a) The server can take it (shouldn't be a drama)
b) If it was, in fact the right card to get????

c) I'm also wondering what the best (most suitable) graphics card may be, from memory the server has PCI-X 64bit/100Mhz slots and PCI-Express x4 slots...

d) The server currently has Win Server 2007 x64 on it, MORE than happy to blow this away and put SBS on it (we have a spare license), or should I make it the XP beast from the spawn of Satan? (i'm not even sure i've read anywhere that the software will run on Windows Server?)

e) I notice that on a lot of sigs, many of you are using AMD, is there a specific reason for this or just random coincidence?

Apologies for the long post, but these are things are bugging me, and i'm sure you can appreciate my excitement ...tee hee... And yes I love my job....

I'm also up for sharing the love, so if the server is not going to be any good, I can build a new machine and maybe we could find a use for the server to benefit everyone (other than donating it off site, the boss may get grumpy at that) but maybe we could host something???

As you can tell i'm an absolute novice in this area, but thrive in others...

Thanks.

[stustunz]

amd are cheaper bang for buck
anything dual core and better is fine

if going dvb-s
you want 2digital tuner cards
one for canwest one for tvnz(one for each frequency then you can multirecord and record any program on freeview upto 12 stations or what ever it is) worth the money for the extra card
a third analog tuner if you care about prime but this can also be used for capturing off your my sky box (for this you can use either a pvr150 or the hvr2200)

another card to look for if your want to go down the dvb-t route is the hvr2200

[gopher]

Thanks for the prompt reply!
Forgot to clarify will be going dvb-s.

So for the "ultimate" setup (as far as this setup is concerned), would be 2 x HVR4000, and 1 x pvr150 or hvr2200.

And then google my way around to find how to integrate MySky with gbpvr....

I intend to obviously give it a trial run first before lashing out cash on more hardware, was all fun and games while spending someone elses money, but this is good info to provide a nice "path" to the end...

[psycik]

hmm if you do it right you drop the mysky.

Why because over your network you can access everything off your server. Via Popcorn Hour, MVP, Laptop, web browser.

Lack of tuners I hear you ask, (referring to mysky having 2 or 3), most programs are so repeated that it rarely becomes an issue.

Ultimate for me would be hvr3000 for dvb-s (and some dvb-t as needed), hvr2200 for dual dvb-t or analog (one of the analogues can also be used for recording off sky).

[stustunz]

the bad news is i dont think the ir blasters work very well with my sky
but you will have to do some digging on that
i think you could drop back to normal sky

video card for dvb-s is anything that does directx9
but a 8XXX nvidia or ati4XXX is what i would go for thes cards will do dvb-t hd aswell which you might want to have a play with since you have a hvr4000

did you tell your wife she wont be seeing much of you for the next 6 months as you have a new obsession

[psycik]

Oh and any reason you're choosing the HVR4000 over the 3000? Unless you're getting the 4000 cheap, or planning on trying to put Sky HD direct on you PVR with no decoder, the HVR3000 is fine

And yes you may need to drop to normal sky digi install for blasting?

[gopher]

hmm if you do it right you drop the mysky.

Why because over your network you can access everything off your server. Via Popcorn Hour, MVP, Laptop, web browser.

You have peaked my curiosity.....

I was concerned that I would end up with the worlds most expensive FM radio for a while....

[gopher]

the bad news is i dont think the ir blasters work very well with my sky
but you will have to do some digging on that
i think you could drop back to normal sky

video card for dvb-s is anything that does directx9
but a 8XXX nvidia or ati4XXX is what i would go for thes cards will do dvb-t hd aswell which you might want to have a play with since you have a hvr4000

did you tell your wife she wont be seeing much of you for the next 6 months as you have a new obsession

Forgive my ignorance, but couldn't I just use an RF remote adapter to turn the standard remote into RF?

good advice on the vid card, cheers

I haven't broken it to the wife yet, am planning to use the line "Well dear, I really don't enjoy playing with this stuff, but i'm doing it all for you so that I can keep you happy...." I'm not overly optimistic that she'll buy it, but hey, worth a try

[gopher]

Oh and any reason you're choosing the HVR4000 over the 3000? Unless you're getting the 4000 cheap, or planning on trying to put Sky HD direct on you PVR with no decoder, the HVR3000 is fine

And yes you may need to drop to normal sky digi install for blasting?

To be honest the decision process went like this:
(Called friend who supplies hardware to our company)
Me: "What's the best TV tuner I can get"
Him: "HVR4000"
Me: "Are you going to give it to me cheap, or do I publish the photos of the drunkin stag do trip to Rotorua and the worn out velcro gloves?"
Him: "What stag do trip to Rotorua?"
Me: "I have photoshop, a farm with sheep and plenty of time..."
Him: "it's on its way"

[stustunz]

Forgive my ignorance, but couldn't I just use an RF remote adapter to turn the standard remote into RF?

the ir blaster changes the channels on the settop box when the you select it in the guide
so that it records the channel you selected in the guide otherwise you have to set it manually think pissed off wife when the wrong channels gets recorded plus your rf remote wont work if your at the pub