Holland Ziggo Digital HD TV

[-=TJ=-Stefan]

Hi everyone,

I'm having some practical questions about changing to Digital TV (just bought a samsung LE40A856) The question is what would you as Ziggo user build or buy to watch and record digital (HD) tv?

As I see it I have a few options:

1. Buy a Humax 5050C HD for the living and buy a popcorn for the sleepingroom. I've read somewhere you can connect them so you can watch the recorded TV in the sleeping room.

Pro: digital HD recorder with EPG from Ziggo
Con: no GBPVR (big disadvantage)

2. Build a new PC with digital HD decoder (not sure what to buy) and put it in the living. Must be a quiet PC. Install a DVD burner in it and a Blu-Ray (or buy a seperate one). Ofcourse with optical out and HDMI. Buy a Popcorn for the sleeping room and connect it to GBPVR.

Pro: keeping GBPVR with all it nice features
Con: probably more expensive, not every channel on EPG (HD channels missing).

I prefer a new PC with GBPVR on it but I'm not sure what to buy for hardware (got an idea but could use some help).

PC: quadcore, ATI 4 serie graphical card, Sound ?, Decoder PCI card (which I can use with the smartcard from Ziggo) ? maybe more then one or can you watch and record with one PCI decoder card?, maybe solid state harddisk to keep it quiet and store the recordings on a Windows 2003 server or a new NAS

Now I've got the following hardware:

PC with Windows 2003 server. On it runs GBVPR with 2 PVR 150 analoge cards. It also runs iTunes which I can control from my iPhone so it runs music through airport express.

In the living and sleepingroom I've got a MVP with scart.

I hope you guys out there can give me some advise what to do and what to buy. Is popcorn the way to go?

Tnx in advance.

Stefan

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Hi Stefan,

Unfortunately Ziggo has all channels encrypted, so you won't be able to use GBPVR for this. There is the possibility of Multidec, but I never got it working reliable for Ziggo, and recording more than one channel at the time is not possible with GBPVR and Multidec.

If you still want to record with a PC I would buy a floppyDTV or FireDTV from Digital Everywhere in combination with an Alphacrypt CAM, it's a great combination, but a little expensive. I use two of these and record digital using MediaPortal. I play these recordings from the PCH and this works great, thanks to Martin and sub who managed to get the full GBPVR interface (including OSD) to the PCH. Does the Samsung have a component input? You should be able to get EPG for your channels, do you use mc2xml? Maybe others can advise you on PC components.

There is a risk that the Ziggo does something to make these Alphacrypts stop working, you can read all about that on tweakers.net. A Ziggo spokesman said it should continue to work for at least 1.5 years. I believe Ziggo are a bunch of #####. They should make the "basispaket" free to air, but unfortunately there is no serious alternative.


Chris

[-=TJ=-Stefan]

Thx for the input. Yes the samsung has a component input.

so what I need is the following:

A new PC with 2 x FloppyDTV or FireDTV with smartcards. Connected with HDMI to the samsung and with optical to amplifier so I can use GBVPR directly from the PC (now I use a MVP with scart which is slow). What do you think? The PC with DVD burner (I use burndvd sometimes) and a Blu-ray or a seperata blu-ray.

1 PCH for the bedroom
1 component input thing for the samsung so I can watch digital tv directly on the TV without using a mediacenter or do I also need a decoder before the component input thing?

I can also leave the Windows 2003 server and expand it with 2 FloppyDTVs and replace the MVP with 2 PCH.

All options are quite expensive. I'm looking for a good solution so just scanning...

The alternative is still a Humax or something like that but I like the GBPVR so that is my last option. It will cost less I think.

Tnx again..

Stefan

[pz1]

I hope you guys out there can give me some advise what to do and what to buy

I decided to stay on analog. I must admit that I only watch the news, because almost all other programs imho have become totally irrelevant.

[HtV]

HD-rubbish is still rubbish.

Hans

[Sheik Yerbouti]

A new PC with 2 x FloppyDTV or FireDTV with smartcards. Connected with HDMI to the samsung and with optical to amplifier so I can use GBVPR directly from the PC (now I use a MVP with scart which is slow). What do you think? The PC with DVD burner (I use burndvd sometimes) and a Blu-ray or a seperata blu-ray.

Hmmm, a HTPC can be a real challenge and expensive. That's the reason I use a PCH.

1 PCH for the bedroom
1 component input thing for the samsung so I can watch digital tv directly on the TV without using a mediacenter or do I also need a decoder before the component input thing?

The recordings are already decrypted, so no need for a decoder. But watching Live TV from Mediaportal won't work with GBPVR, but it is possible using RTSP streams from the PCH gui. I haven't tried that myself, though. Watching recordings from GBPVR will of course work fine. You could even use a little tool I made to export Mediaportal recordings to the GBPVR database.

I can also leave the Windows 2003 server and expand it with 2 FloppyDTVs and replace the MVP with 2 PCH.

That would be my choice. Btw, you could start with one FloppyDTV, it's possible to record several channels as long as they are on the same transponder, for example NED1, NED2 and NED3 at the same time.

The alternative is still a Humax or something like that but I like the GBPVR so that is my last option. It will cost less I think.

You're right. I do it like this because it's a hobby of mine. Buying a Humax (or Cisco) is cheaper and it will save you a lot of time. But it's less flexible. And I don't know if you'd be able to get the recordings to the bedroom.

Things would be so much simpler and cheaper if we had Caiway as our cable provider.

Chris

[pz1]

Things would be so much simpler and cheaper if we had Caiway as our cable provider.

Interesting indeed. It is time that the authorities make the cables free as they have done with the telephone infrastructures. In essence it both is a bunch of wires. So why treat them differently if it comes to making the infrastructure accessible for the competition.

[mvallevand]

HD-rubbish is still rubbish.

Hans

Except "Beach Volleyball"

Martin

[HtV]

Aaahhhh, there's a real man speaking.:p
That must be really tiring: HD beach volleyball on a 42" screen from 5ft distance. But ofcourse no problem for a real man.

Hans

[-=TJ=-Stefan]

I started testing a FloppyDTV (which I borrowed). I am testing with two mediacenter software. Windows 7 mediacenter and GBPVR (under Windows 7)

Windows 7:
I installed FloppyDTV drivers 4.8.5 for MCE. Windows 7 looks smooth and works almost instantly. Ok finding channels takes a long time (I have no clue why) but it works. I did a rescan several times starting all over and looking if I can speed up the channel scan. Although it found all the channels everytime it helps to use a so called transponderlist to help Windows 7 finding the channels. The transponderlist can be found on several forums (hard to find but it is there). The other features look nice and works ok. I focues on TV and recording. I did not try it with a remote, just a mouse.

GBPVR:
Then I reïnstalled the FloppyDTV drivers and selected BDA and started GBPVR config. It supports the FloppyDTV and selecting the card and the Digital EPG under capture source is no problem. Then select map channels and the fun starts. It takes a really long time (more then a hour) to scan the channels. It finds less then Windows 7 and the EPG doesn't fill at all. When selecting a channel for live tv I got a blank screen. Fuzzing around with the mux, VRM9 etc.. sort of gives me picture. It works but not very smooth. I tried the channel scan several times but at some point my sunday has run out. ;-) So I gave up for now. I will test GBPVR later this week I think.

I have a few questions for you out there:

Is there a transponderlist for the Netherlands (Ziggo) which can help GBPVR to install the channels?

Btw I do not understand why a Humax 5050C finds it channels in a few minutes and a HTPC must take more then an hour. Windows 7 also takes a long time but more of 30 - 45 min. Analoge was allways a lot quicker. So digital is not allways easiers and faster ;-)

Has anyone experiance with GBPVR, Ziggo and FloppyDTV and has it running (preferable with all the channels incl. HD)?

My preference goes out tot GBPVR because it is very nice program and I like it. When entering the digital tv world I found it does not work that easy but I'm probably doing something wrong or missing some drivers. I like the program because of all the nice features en possibilities it has. Windows 7 has it limits although it is catching up. I've heard of commercial cut, weather and that sort of plugins so.

I'm holding off a 'ready to go' solution like a Humax 5050C HD because.. well I work in the ICT and I usually want to be in control with this sort of things. Sure it has to have a WAF and that is why GBPVR is ok. Although it is a lot more expensive I'm still investigating GBPVR and digital TV from Ziggo. For the record a Humax is around 350 euro and a HTPC with GBPVR is around 1000. Both dual tuner.

Any help would be appreciated...