[donnahcbc]

I am planning on building a media centre pc to watch live satellite FTA and encrypted TV. I also want to record tv and download all my dvd's and music and photos to the HDD and be able to watch this on 2/3 tv's, usually at the same time. Can I do this with MythTV and if yes can you explain how to do it. I have a Pentium 4, 3ghz pc with 4gb Ram and I just want to know if I can connect the satellite direct to the PC using dvb-s capture cards. I have read that I will still need to connect through the satellite decoder. Also quite confused as to whether I will need media extenders or not, if yes which do you reccommend?

Thanks in advance for anyone and everyone's help.

[Edster]

Funny you should ask that.... I think I might be able to help. I just built one about 2 days ago.

I used an old PC (A pentium III) and 2 dvb-S cards
The software I used was VDR but Myth TV should do the same sort of job.

If you want to receive the channels you pay for on your viewing card you need to connect the set top box into a tv card (an old analog one not a dvb card). This will give you a bad picture as it is being converted about 3-4 times and to turn over you will need an IR blaster (google it) which is a pain to use.

If you only want FTA you can use ta DVB-S card. This is what I have done. It picks the signal up and can watch or record it in full digital signal.
If the channels are encrypted or even FTV as opposed to FTA (you need a viewing card for FTV) then you will need a CI interface for the DVB card and a cam and a viewing card. SOme sat companies do not even allow cams (sky is a good example of this)

[donnahcbc]

Edster, on Mar 12 2009, 12:24 AM, said:

Funny you should ask that.... I think I might be able to help. I just built one about 2 days ago.

I used an old PC (A pentium III) and 2 dvb-S cards
The software I used was VDR but Myth TV should do the same sort of job.

If you want to receive the channels you pay for on your viewing card you need to connect the set top box into a tv card (an old analog one not a dvb card). This will give you a bad picture as it is being converted about 3-4 times and to turn over you will need an IR blaster (google it) which is a pain to use.

If you only want FTA you can use ta DVB-S card. This is what I have done. It picks the signal up and can watch or record it in full digital signal.
If the channels are encrypted or even FTV as opposed to FTA (you need a viewing card for FTV) then you will need a CI interface for the DVB card and a cam and a viewing card. SOme sat companies do not even allow cams (sky is a good example of this)

Thanks for the answer, it is indeed ftv, we pay a one off fee to get the card. Any idea where you get a CI interface for the dvb card, the CAM seems to be available easily enough. Do you connect to more than 1 tv? how are you conecting to the tv, as I want my pc hidden in a storage area and to feed to at least 2, in time 3 tv's do you know the best way of doing this. I have been told to use LAN to media extenders is the best, but have also been told that there are LAN inputs on a number of the newer tv's now.

Sorry for sooo many questions, but the more I research this the more complicated it seems.

[Edster]

The CI interface is a little plug in board. It has a little ribbon cable on one end to attach to a DVB card and the other end is a PCMCIA socket to put the cam (and viewing card) into. Most of them come out as either a PCI card slot or as a 3.5 floppy so that you can get to the card if needed.
You would get it from the same shop you got your DVB card from (or check the usual places like ebay etc)

For my setup I currently have a backend server machine with multiple cards, lots of disk space etc up in my office. I have a standard 20inch monitor on this. The quality is not 100% but I only occasionally use it for watching the news so that is fine.
The main tv is off in another room. I have a little pc in a nice set top box type case. This is fed just by standard ethernet network cable. This is the fronend box. It does no recording. Just for watching. You could have lots of these.
I also have a MediaMVP box (very cheap tiny little set top box - google it). I am thinking about putting that as my front end watching box and putting the current pc version elsewhere.
If you use a media box of any sort make sure it is compatible with your chosen platform (mythtv). You do not really want to feed out from the box on scart and into another box which then sends it to another box again and puts it back onto scart to go into a tv. Multiple conversions = bad picture.
Look for one that will just attach over a network direct to the myth backend.

[donnahcbc]

Edster, on Mar 12 2009, 10:32 AM, said:

The CI interface is a little plug in board. It has a little ribbon cable on one end to attach to a DVB card and the other end is a PCMCIA socket to put the cam (and viewing card) into. Most of them come out as either a PCI card slot or as a 3.5 floppy so that you can get to the card if needed.
You would get it from the same shop you got your DVB card from (or check the usual places like ebay etc)

For my setup I currently have a backend server machine with multiple cards, lots of disk space etc up in my office. I have a standard 20inch monitor on this. The quality is not 100% but I only occasionally use it for watching the news so that is fine.
The main tv is off in another room. I have a little pc in a nice set top box type case. This is fed just by standard ethernet network cable. This is the fronend box. It does no recording. Just for watching. You could have lots of these.
I also have a MediaMVP box (very cheap tiny little set top box - google it). I am thinking about putting that as my front end watching box and putting the current pc version elsewhere.
If you use a media box of any sort make sure it is compatible with your chosen platform (mythtv). You do not really want to feed out from the box on scart and into another box which then sends it to another box again and puts it back onto scart to go into a tv. Multiple conversions = bad picture.
Look for one that will just attach over a network direct to the myth backend.

I have been hunting all morning for the CI interface and seems to be a bit of a pain to find one which is compatible with viacces module, although i have found a USB Hauppage card reader which may work, not ideal as I would prefer to have everything integrated into the PC box. I have seen the MediaMVP box and was considering it, but what I was not sure about was whether it streams live tv. It tlaks about video, photos, and recorded content, but I couldn't find anything on Live tv.


I have finally found cards and media extenders etc, what I have yet to confirm is whether I can connect the pc to each media extender by LAN, and if each tv will then work independently or, if they will all be watching the same thing at the same time. What I want to have is me watching grown up stuff and the kids watching kids stuff. Also if I do connect by do I still need multiple graphic cards for tv out. I intend to have at least two Sat in cards to enable recording and watching at the same time, if I add a third does this give the ability to watch two different channels and record as well? Any clues to the answer for these questions?

[Edster]

The CIs are a bit hard to come by as not many people use them. What country are you in. I may be able to recommend a local shop.

The MediaMVP only does pics and videos stored on a windows pc.... that is of course until it gets reflashed with a far better firmware (nothing permanat - it loads it each boot).
See vomp for example of vdr version. I know there are also myth tv versions but you'll have to google that. When it has a real firmware loaded it can disaplay live TV or recordings off your backend box.