# review of my media system



## philipcosson (Dec 15, 2002)

Hi,

I am looking for advice. I am moving house in april and I intend to review my 'media system'. I currently have a standard TIVO with just an analogue RF input - we have the 5 standard channels. We live in a cabled area - but the new house has not been connected yet - it is in ntl land (now virgin media) I have a wireless network and 4 wireless connected computers (2 imac, 1 vista laptop, 1 winME PC) We have itunes on all machines and listen to music via the computers or an iPod.

What I would like to do is have freeview channels. I don't want sky or NTLcable because I recon the kids would gravitate to nikelodeon or cartoon network and never watch anything else.

Question: is it possible to have a freeview box and a TIVO in a cupboard/room some where and have some gadget connected to a TV in the house that would allow the TV to select anything recorded on the Tivo or anything being broadcast on any freeview channel? (I also figure if I have more channels, I might need more storage space to keep the same length of time saved - it can take us a week to get round to seeing things at the moment)

What is the best way to arrange this utopia? am i describing appleTV? will appleTV work with a networked Tivo?

What else could I do that I have not even thought of? (budget is sub £1000)

Philip


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## Tony Hoyle (Apr 1, 2002)

Something that distributes over cat5 could do it.. eg. http://www.letsautomate.com/11950.cfm

You're almost describing the xbox/windows media PC combination but that of course wouldn't work with Tivo.

AFAIK Apple TV will only work with itunes (and then only if you have a US based account unless 'a selection of pixar short films' is your idea of an extensive media library) - it has no video inputs at all... if they even bother releasing it in the UK given its limited functionality.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

You don't make it clear on how many/which screens you want to watch tivo & freeview content? 
On all TVs? or on PCs as well?

For view/control both of them from any tv in the house then you have a few options:

Wireless: use a wireless video sender with an IR sender e.g. powermid

Wired via RF: tvlink plus (£40 or less .. if you already have all tvs connected via coax)

For viewing tivo content n PCs via PC network: 
could look into slingbox, or stream directly from tivoweb (vserver)


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## terryeden (Nov 2, 2002)

Yes - but it involves some work.

I use a chipped (or softmodded) Xbox with Xbox Media Center http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC.

The Tivo requires TivoX software on it. This allows you to stream (not extract) content from your TiVo to your Xbox over a regular Ethernet network.

Give me a shout if you want any more info.


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## Anndra (Oct 12, 2004)

Tony Hoyle said:


> AFAIK Apple TV will only work with itunes (and then only if you have a US based account unless 'a selection of pixar short films' is your idea of an extensive media library) - it has no video inputs at all... if they even bother releasing it in the UK given its limited functionality.


Apple TV does indeed only work with the iTunes application, but the 'US based acccount' bit makes no difference whatsoever, as you won't be using the store. There is a way of swapping content to the AppleTV, but it can't be discussed on this forum, and is currently beta and not-great quality anyway.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

IMHO the only real winner with AppleTV is if you have bought content from iTunes Store then this is almost the only way you can play it back other than another computer running iTunes or an iPod. I consider the copy protection on iTunes so unnecessary that I prefer to buy CDs and rip them to MP3 - they can keep their video.

Given you've been happy until now with RF only I would look seriously at wireless video senders and a Freeview box that is recommended to work well with your Tivo. This will be a comparitively cheap option.

The potential downsides - 
You can only watch one thing at a time albeit in multiple locations simultaneously.
The video quality will not be as good as a directly connected Tivo or the networked options discussed above.
You may have to work to get the wireless senders and your wireless computer network to work without interfering with each other.


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## philipcosson (Dec 15, 2002)

cheers for the suggestions


i'm interested in the xbox idea, as I was thinking of buying an xbox 360 as well.

We only have one screen at the mo and would probably only have one anyway, but a really nice one!


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

If you want to watch different recordings in different rooms at the same time, then a single TiVo is not an ideal solution. I use a Vista MCE machine with a twin-tuner Freeview card, and Xbox 360 extenders. This has the benefit of handling multiple concurrent playbacks, music, internet downloads, etc. And the twin tuner is really, really useful. 

You need to make sure that your network has the capacity to support several Xbox streams at the same time, since it can be a fairly-heavy user of a wireless network. I'm guessing here, but I think that menus will probably slow down considerably if you run more than two streaming Xboxes on a wireless network, although you can also watch the direct output of the MCE machine, which won't need the network. In my case, I run one Xbox over a wireless network, and another over a Devolo Homeplug (mains) network.

I'm a long-standing TiVo user, and still use it for Sky, but I'm afraid to say that the MCE setup wins hands down for expandibility and, with flatscreens, on essential picture quality. It can even distribute HD to extenders if you have the throughput of a hard-wired network.


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## philipcosson (Dec 15, 2002)

with this vista MCE system - how do you get the program guides?


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## philipcosson (Dec 15, 2002)

it all starts to get a bit complex! i think of TV as an appliance, like the toaster - i just want it to work and hide the complexity from me.

is there such a thing as a media 'plumber' who i can get to come and set it up for me?

phil


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## terryeden (Nov 2, 2002)

philipcosson said:


> it all starts to get a bit complex! i think of TV as an appliance, like the toaster - i just want it to work and hide the complexity from me.
> 
> is there such a thing as a media 'plumber' who i can get to come and set it up for me?
> 
> phil


I'll do it for £500 per day plus parts. That's cheaper than most plumbers.

T


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

Oooh! Can we start a bidding war?


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## Anndra (Oct 12, 2004)

£499.50


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

philipcosson said:


> with this vista MCE system - how do you get the program guides?


They come automatically and free over the Internet. Similar accuracy to TiVo's, and I think that they may be also provided by Tribune. The biggest problem I find with them is that, while they handle series with no problem, they like to record every showing for some of them. That means at least eight copies of every episode of Skins on E4 and E4+1. What is nice is that every season pass defaults to recording from any channel, and you only need to press the record button twice on a programme in the EPG to create a season pass with the defaults. It also handles conflicts nicely by presenting a dialog where you can select which combination to record (useful with twin tuners), and still shows the unselected items in the to-do list (with a different icon).


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## aitcheff (Mar 23, 2003)

iankb said:


> ....
> I'm a long-standing TiVo user, and still use it for Sky, but I'm afraid to say that the MCE setup wins hands down for expandibility and, with flatscreens, on essential picture quality. ....


Ian - what about a facility similar to Endpad? Does MCE handle program overruns in some way?


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## philipcosson (Dec 15, 2002)

so - the DIY option is the only way then?

Thanks for the £500 a day offers, my plumber is cheaper (quite considerably)


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## BrianHughes (Jan 21, 2001)

philipcosson said:


> so - the DIY option is the only way then?
> 
> Thanks for the £500 a day offers, my plumber is cheaper (quite considerably)


Let us know how he gets on with the media plumbing


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

aitcheff said:


> Ian - what about a facility similar to Endpad? Does MCE handle program overruns in some way?


More-or-less identical. I have a default padding of 1 minute on the start, and 4 minutes on the end, but it only uses the padding if it wouldn't cause a conflict. However, with two tuners, the conflicts occur less often, and more recordings end up with padding on them.

For the twin tuners, I use a Hauppage WinTV-NOVA-T-500, which I can thoroughly recommend. However, I didn't find their remote was that compatible with MCE, and replaced it by a Microsoft MCE remote.

I would like to have stayed totally-loyal to TiVo but, given the obvious lack of a TiVo-upgrade for this country, I didn't have much of a choice. And I would point out that it does require a significant investment to buy MCE hardware and Xbox 360 extenders.


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## SilkMan (Feb 13, 2007)

Iankb, I've been toying with the idea of an MCE machine for some time but, as you say, the cost is a little bit too high. However, after replacing the old CRT TV with a Sony Bravia LCD I'm noticing the limitations of Tivo's MPEG encoder a little more. It's like the pea under the mattress - I can ignore it for a while but it keeps niggling away 

You say you keep the Tivo for Sky - is there no way of using that with MCE? I've got the Tivo set up to use Sky (Freesat) and Freeview, but the Sky quality appears better and is much more reliable in terms of missing channel changes and signal dropouts.

I'm assuming that you have the MCE box under the TV, rather than in a cupboard, so do you find it at all noisy? What sort of hardware have you gone for and do you think you could have improved on it, given the benefit of hindsight. In other words, I'm trying to learn from your mistakes - sorry!

Actually, since this is so off-topic for a Tivo board, could you recommend any good MCE forums? I know about one called the green button but any others?

Thanks,
Silkman


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## philipcosson (Dec 15, 2002)

I think i'm going with a freeview box and a new digital TV. This will keep the remote's down to 2.

I'll also need a network card in my TIVO - so I can archive to my PC's hard drive. I'm also interested in the xbox 360 - but the software side is a complete mistery to me.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

SilkMan said:


> You say you keep the Tivo for Sky - is there no way of using that with MCE? I've got the Tivo set up to use Sky (Freesat) and Freeview, but the Sky quality appears better and is much more reliable in terms of missing channel changes and signal dropouts.


I believe that you can use Sky with MCE. The Microsoft remote comes not only with an IR to USB receiver, but with IR transmitting wands as well, which theoretically could be used to control a digibox. In my case, Vista MCE recognised my tuner card immediately, so assumed that I was using Freeview. To point it at Sky will probably require a video capture card and, possibly, a bit of hacking. MCE 2005 was always sold as an OEM product, so the information to configure it may not be readily available.



> I'm assuming that you have the MCE box under the TV, rather than in a cupboard, so do you find it at all noisy? What sort of hardware have you gone for and do you think you could have improved on it, given the benefit of hindsight.


I didn't build my Vista Ultimate workstation as an MCE machine, so it noisily sits in my study with the rest of my computers, while my Sky box sits downstairs. Having found that I liked MCE, I am considering building a standalone MCE machine for use in the lounge. That will probably be configured in a hi-fi style box, with a micro-ATX motherboard, and a bottom-end Core-2 Duo processor. I currently run it with an E6400 Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of memory, a SATA II RAID array, an nVidia 7900GTX video card, and the Hauppage Nova-T-500 twin-tuner card. However, it use very little CPU (I assume that the tuner card talks directly to the drives by DMA (as with the TiVo), and recorded two programs quite happily while I was totally maxing-out one CPU core and memory with Microsoft Flight Simulator X. I also use two screens at the same time; a 1600x1200 LCD monitor for computer use, and a 23" LCD TV for MCE use. This isn't ideal, since MCE keeps grabbing the cursor away from the other monitor. A bottom-end dual-core CPU should be totally-adequate, a fast games-playing 3D card isn't necessary, and you should be able to get away with an OEM copy of Vista Premium, and 1GB of memory. For a Hi-Fi style case, I will be looking at http://www.xcase.co.uk/c/118782/1/home-theatre-cases.html



> Actually, since this is so off-topic for a Tivo board, could you recommend any good MCE forums? I know about one called the green button but any others?


I know no more than you. Forum member TCM2007 (or whatever he calls himself nowadays) is a lot more experienced than me with MCE, and I've tended to stalk in his footsteps. The UK Chat forum on this board is fine for discussing off-topic subjects.


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## SilkMan (Feb 13, 2007)

Thanks for the info, Ian. The cases look good - they've come on loads since I last looked into any of this about 12-18 months ago, and there doesn't seem to be the price premium any more either. I really like the idea of being able to watch TV, view photos, listen to my music library, all from the same place - the comfy sofa  Time to take another look at it I think.


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## mbasker (Feb 22, 2002)

I'm also looking at MCE to supplement/replace TiVo - a good forum to start is at TheGreenButton, where people from the Microsoft MCE team hide out occasionally....


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## magistral (Mar 9, 2004)

How can you use a Sky digibox with MCE. Surely the MCE has no AV inputs unless it has a capture card. Can it work with a capture card ???

Mike


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Yes, MCE supports sky in exactly the same way a tivo does - by analogue capture and IR wands to the digibox.

You can't use any old capture card, though only supported MPEG ones like hauppage PVR250.

And doing this prevents you from using another freeview tuner (MCE can only use one source type and one EPG... it assumes multiple tuners are all the same).There may be a hack for this last problem though. 

Having said all that, I still didn't get on with MCE, but this was last year, maybe the vista MCE version is better?


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## poissony (Feb 20, 2002)

Many MCE users use Sky as their TV source via analog means, much in the way that TiVo does it (IR blasters and analog capture). As well as the greenbutton forum (which has a wealth of information but could have far better search facilities to aid in finding said information), this Aussie MCE forum is good

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/index.php

as is the MCE forum at AVforums

http://www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=192 which has a very long thread about how to use Sky with MCE by using a DVB-S card (i.e. digitally)


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