Thinking of switching from Topfield 5800 to HTPC running NextPVR

[ga_mueller]

Both methods coming in around £1,300.00

Seriously, even modern "low-end" systems have more than enough CPU and graphics; as an example see my signature system which was put together for ~$350

[HydeTheDarkerSide]

I take the point about not needing much grunt for a PVR, even the Topfield 5810 in the UK has little memory and processing power and can record 2 HD streams whilst watching another, but I need something that's going to be muti-tasking too. It'll be the music and picture server at the same time as it's being a PVR and I fully intend on using NPVR's ability to record multiple streams off the same mux. Then there's the DVD ripping and video editing that I want to do too. So it needs to have a few drive bays as well. Lastly it needs to be silent or very near silent as it'll be in a cupboard under the TV.

So whilst I'm hoping that I can put a BG card into the Acer Aspire I posted about earlier as a proof of concept, that PC can't support multiple drives, it's not silent and doesn't have enough grunt for the video editing stuff (well not in a timely manner anyway).

Since my last post quoting approx. £800 I've managed to get that down to about £650 for a bare bones 5i machine with 8Gb memory, 3TB (1TB system + 2TB storage) that I can then add my existing 2TB storage from the WHS and still have room for a further 2 drives + optical drive. I still need to add the BG card at approx. £160.

[martint123]

I use one of the HP microservers that appear at times with good prices and an HP 100 quid cashback - the last one I got cost 79 UKP ! (with just a single drive though).
It has dvb-t and dvb-t2 USB tuners and a dvb-s2 tuner. Huge disc space and multiple servers running such as npvr, squeezebox, vmware player running linux and usenet grabbers. Oh, yes, also servers for monitoring home power consumption and solar power generation.
The onboard video isn't up to HD, but it only serves multiple devices around the house and has no monitor or keyboard.

[aderlopas]

I am using for the same purpose a ZOTAC ZBOX ID-18 with 2.5 hdd 120GB, 4 GB Ram and 2 GB ramdisk defined where I have specified the temporary files of NextPVR to be located. O/S windows 8.1 Pro
Not a high-end HTPC, but it works fine, and it is a low-budget one...
NextVR 3.1.1 with latest patch used.
Tuners: ClimaxDigital Dual DVBT TV USB stick and Gigabyte GT-U8000-RH (rev. 1.0) Hybrid DVBT TV USB Stick
I can watch fine TV on XBMC on my Samsung TV (via Minix Neo X7), XBMC on my 2 laptops (Windows 8.1), and XBMC on My Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos Android, all at the same time... :-)

[HydeTheDarkerSide]

Have just taken possession of the Asus, but without a working VGA card and no power cable, monitor or keyboard. So I'm hoping that the HDMI output will work to my TV and I'll have to see if I can borrow a power cable and keyboard. Even so, still need to get a job before I splash out on the BG tuner card.

[dedpvr]

Did you ever get any further with this?

I also have a Toppy 5800 (with mystuff) and I'm looking to replace it with a HTPC. I've been running a test build of TVHeadend with a couple of Hauppauge USB DVB-T tuners, with a frontend of XBMC.

However due to a re-arrangement of my computers, I've stumbled upon this and wondered if it would be more suitable.

I was considering using an old Acer Revo 3600 (nVidia ION chipset), with my USB tuners and recording onto my NAS (HP Microserver - wired into network).

Would this be suitable for watching, recording & streaming (to 1x additional PC and the occasional iPad/iPhone) TV?

My main concern is how well it works with the following features: pause, rewind & chase-play (playing a recording that is currently in progress).

If the hardware isn't up to the task, that's not a big issue - I'm more concerned with the features I mentioned above and how stable/reliable it is.

I know the stability can depend a lot on hardware configurations and the OS in use, but I'd value any opinion on the software side of things!

[HydeTheDarkerSide]

Not really. I did take possession of the Acer but couldn't get it to boot, so returned it to its original owner. At the time I'd been out of work for some time involved in sorting family care. Now I'm back in work I intend to follow this up again. My use will be a little different to yours as I'll also need a fully blown PC for PC activities but using the TV screen as my monitor. So performance for me will always be overstated for pure PVR activities.

I am currently engaged in talks with http://www.chillblast.com/Chillblast-Fus...ng-PC.html about getting this config in a HTPC chassis. I'll post back when I'm nearer to achieving this. Probably not before September I should think.

I'm sure the more experienced members here will be able to comment on your hardware choices though.

[dedpvr]

Thanks for the reply!

I wasn't sure if the silence on this thread was due to a successful switch to nextpvr or any alternatives.

I'll keep an eye out for your thoughts, when you get a chance to try out some options.

I'm sure another thread will help out with hardware options.

[Graham]

I'm looking to replace it with a HTPC.

NextPVR does a good job of pause, rewind, chase-play and everything else and the NextPVR software is rock-solid. Recording is fairly low-intensity and can be done on a low-powered machine.

Playback may need a machine with a bit more grunt especially for HD playback. However, pretty much any graphics setup made in the last five years (or more) will playback HD video.

Have you seen http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Client.Client

Good Luck

[haverer2]

I use a could of PCTV 290e usb tuners... work perfectly, pretty cheap really and can use in other machines easily - laptop when camping etc.
also use a 460e for picking up free sat in the UK.... excellent all round.