Media PC

secret_squirrel

Mine works fine with chorus analog and the epg hack detailed here. Bought mine from dabs.

PowerHouseDan

Cheers, Think i will go for the Ebay....abit cheaper..Thanks again.....

secret_squirrel

powerhousedan wrote:

Cheers, Think i will go for the Ebay....abit cheaper..Thanks again.....

Good plan I only found out after that you can get the PVR150 MCE version - which if I remember right includes an FM tuner.

PowerHouseDan

Yeah there is a fm tuner on it, Just ordered it today.

RuggieBear

powerhousedan wrote:

Yeah there is a fm tuner on it, Just ordered it today.

Hey dan, not to piggyback on all your hard researching but you couldn't pm me the details of where you found the pvr150 cheapest...?

PowerHouseDan

Pm sent but for anyone else who wants to know
http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38863&item=5206948495&rd=1&ssPageName=WD2V
19 Euro for delivary Also but works out way cheaper than anywhere else.

RuggieBear

grrovy...just done...where does it say it costs 19e for delivery? Do i just send a delvery cost request

PowerHouseDan

You'll get a email saying postage is 5.90 but thats for Germany he will send another invoice on might take a few hours.....
Ihr Gesamtbetrag:
EUR 59,00 pro Artikel (Closing)
Menge: 1
Verpackung / Versand
EUR 19,00 Verpackung / Versand (Shipping)

---

EUR 78,00 = Gesamtbetrag (Total)

RuggieBear

powerhousedan wrote:

You'll get a email saying postage is 5.90 but thats for Germany he will send another invoice on might take a few hours.....
Ihr Gesamtbetrag:
EUR 59,00 pro Artikel (Closing)
Menge: 1
Verpackung / Versand
EUR 19,00 Verpackung / Versand (Shipping)

---

EUR 78,00 = Gesamtbetrag (Total)

grand. Suppose i'll just wait for the 2nd email. Thanks again.

PowerHouseDan

Not a Bother............

secret_squirrel

Dan about your PM

See here for webguide hack

Graham

Hey Secret Squirrell,

webguides been pretty much superceded by QuickGuide now. I started off using webguide but switched to QuickGuide a few months ago.

Quickguide removes an unnecessary step i.e.

WebGuide -> SmartGuide -> MCE

or

Quickguide -> MCE

Quickguide doesn't need IIS or Access Databases and the channel setup is slightly more straightforward.

OhPinchy

hey graham - I seem to remember somewhere in this thread you saying you got the EPG working with NTL analogue but when you switched to NTL Digital it stopped working - any update or are you still in the same situation?

I'd like to get NTL Digital cos its cheap for the basic but reckon MCE without the EPG would be missing many of its best features which make it so convenient - how have you found it?

Graham

Tis all working perfectly now using XMLTV to grab the EPG data and quickguide to load it into MCE.

Only channels I don't have an EPG for are Den TV, MGM Movies and Travel & Adventure (the xml feed for travel and adventure caused the import to MCE to crash).

If you're in Dublin, PM me your email address and I'll send you the settings for XMLTV (thats half the work) and the list of all the channels and numbers you need to setup in MCE.

If you're not in Dublin, PM me anyway, I've a 4 page quick instruction guide for setting up XMLTV that I did for powerhousedan.

hmmmm, maybe it's time to start a new thread with how to setup XMLTV and Quickguide.

Next project, controlling lighting and appliances via MCE, if anyones done this already, feel free to post hints and tips

EPG Setup Thread

OhPinchy

Right lads - renovations of the house are coming along nicely: I have my CAT 5e network in place, plasterers are coming in next week and I'll be in soon after that so need to start buying my MCE components.

I will be in the US next week and will be picking up two HP Media Center Extenders for $180 a pop (open box but good condition) and will use a router to connect these to the MCE machine.

The MCE machine will be in a dedicated PC room and will also serve as the main PC for web browsing so itll need to have lots of expansion slots and noise is not an issue.

I will get two Haupage PVR 150MCE cards and connect each to an NTL Digital set-top box.

I will get a machine with 1GB RAM, a 300GB hard disk, and a separate 80GB harddisk for the system software, but after this I'm at a loss.

From reading AV Forums and Green Button it seems "an Nvidia 6600/6600GT/6800 video card" would be suitable - can anyone please advise on an exact card that might suit? Not sure what difference between AGP and PCI is. No games will be played on the machine - only MCE but I do want a good picture and smooth operation but dont want to pay for a card I don't need. Would 128MB be ok? This is the area that has me most confused so I'd really appreciate a dig out on this one. VGA or DVI output would be good.

I've read a 3GHz processor is needed for dual tuners - should this be a Pentium 4 or could an AMD or Celeron work perfectly?

The theres the issue of a case and motherboard - any recommendations on either would be sound as I'm well confused by this stuff. Again noise is not an issue and loads of expansion slots would be great.

Thanks in advance for any help and I think I'll post an account of my experiences when its done: overview of MCE, what each component does, what you need, experience of my install etc. as I've been finding it pretty daunting getting to grips with it (and people on AV Forums and Green Button don't seem to respond to newbie questions much).

Jammer

powerhousedan wrote:

You'll get a email saying postage is 5.90 but thats for Germany he will send another invoice on might take a few hours.....
Ihr Gesamtbetrag:
EUR 59,00 pro Artikel (Closing)
Menge: 1
Verpackung / Versand
EUR 19,00 Verpackung / Versand (Shipping)

---

EUR 78,00 = Gesamtbetrag (Total)

Is it really worth the hassle, when PC World have the PVR150MCE for €89 though...if sdomething goes wrong....plus not having to wait...

spartacus93

OhPinchy wrote:

I will get a machine with 1GB RAM, a 300GB hard disk, and a separate 80GB harddisk for the system software, but after this I'm at a loss.

Would you consider something like this, http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=301151&cks=PRL pop in another 300ish gig HD and another 512 or gig of RAM and your laughin'. Throw in your tuners as well of course.

OhPinchy wrote:

From reading AV Forums and Green Button it seems "an Nvidia 6600/6600GT/6800 video card" would be suitable - can anyone please advise on an exact card that might suit?

If you dont intend playing games these cards are probably overkill. An older generation, cheaper card would do the trick. A 6600 is included in the PC i linked to above, and would be adequate.

OhPinchy wrote:

Not sure what difference between AGP and PCI is.

AGP is the standard way of connecting graphics cards to your computer. PCI was once used but this is out of date by many years, and too slow to cope with modern graphics cards. PCI-Express is a new standard, faster than AGP but graphics cards haven't been designed to take advantage of this extra speed yet.

OhPinchy wrote:

VGA or DVI output would be good.

If you are going to connect it to an LCD TV/monitor DVI is the way to go. What are you going to hook it up to????

OhPinchy wrote:

I've read a 3GHz processor is needed for dual tuners - should this be a Pentium 4 or could an AMD or Celeron work perfectly?

You should get an Intel P4, or an AMD 64 bit. P4s are ment to be better for encoding and Media Centre operations.

spartacus93

Would one of these be better than two 150s. This would do the same job, it's a dual tuner http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5206949393&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_RSCC_Pr12_PcY_BIN_Stores . Any pretty good price, snap it up!

OhPinchy

Thanks Spartacus-

I've done a good bit of research since that post and am now more clued in on the different components. I had put together a shopping list on komplett (minus the tuners):

https://www.komplett.ie/k/shoplist....ngListId=260838

This seems like a kick ass system but not sure if I need that high spec. I want to be able to run MCE smoothly with two extenders so need decent RAM but that system you showed me has got me thinking.

Whats the difference between 6600 and 6600GT and would a 256MB 6600 or 128MB 6600GT card be better value for me for this MCE setup?

Thats a lovely price on the PVR 500 MCE - I've come across this but have heard it might be hassle with MCE and theres extra bits needed to hook it up to two settop boxes at once - is that right?

spartacus93

OhPinchy wrote:

I had put together a shopping list on komplett (minus the tuners):

https://www.komplett.ie/k/shoplist....ngListId=260838

This seems like a kick ass system but not sure if I need that high spec. I want to be able to run MCE smoothly with two extenders so need decent RAM but that system you showed me has got me thinking.

Link isn't workin'

spartacus93

OhPinchy wrote:

Thats a lovely price on the PVR 500 MCE - I've come across this but have heard it might be hassle with MCE and theres extra bits needed to hook it up to two settop boxes at once - is that right?

Hmmm

some fella on amazon wrote:

The marketing on this card is a little misleading. The card has two tuners, but only one cable TV input. (The second 'F' connector you see is for the FM radio antenna).

If all you want to do is take one analog cable TV line to this card and record/watch two different analog channels, this card can do that out of the box.

But if you want to feed two different set-top boxes to this card, it can't do that out of the box. There is an add-on composite/svideo connector that should let you feed two different signals to the card and make that work but you'll still have to sort out the remote control of those two cable boxes.

OhPinchy

Hi Spartacus - I hadn't shared the shopping list but this link should now work:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/shoplist.asp?mode=receive&si=260838&su=9BA29081-E395-4D80-AABD-09C82B06E003

On advice I've received I've changed from an nVidia to ATI graphics card as I am told they have less driver issues with MCE. Would you agree with that?

Looks like the PVR 500 MCE is the card for me so - I dont see any reason why I'd want to feed two separate boxes into the card if I can watch two separate channels in different rooms at the same time using this card with a single box connected to it so thats sweet. So I'll do as you said and snap up that bad boy before its too late!

PowerHouseDan

I am having problems setting up my Pvr 150 with mce, I have a normal chorus cable analog box but the signal isent going through on it, Is there any guide around etc?i plugged in a composite video from a wireless sender and it picked it up but wont pic up my multi channel box? Should i choose antena or cable/sat when i am using signal setup?I install the pvr 150 mce drivers is there anything that could be stopping this?Any help would be greatful.
p.s when i choose select a workig tv signal the options are s-video 1
s-video2
composite video 1
comosite video 2
none of the above have a tv signal

Graham

Have you got your DVD decoder software loading, if so which one. I wasted a day this weekend trying to get my brothers MCE PC running before realising it was WinDVD causing the problems.

Here's the currently supported decoders:

DVD Decoders
CyberLink PowerDVD 5.0.2027C
CyberLink PowerDVD 6.0
CyberLink PowerDVD 6.0.1102
Intervideo WinDVD 5.0
Intervideo WinDVD 5.0 Build 11.670
NVIDIA DVD Decoder

We used NVIDEA DVD Decoder on my brothers machine in the end. Worked first time.

PowerHouseDan

I had installed the nvida dvd decoder but it didnt work will try powerdvd?

Graham

There may be a problem if you have more than one decoder installed.

Try this utility from MS:

Microsoft Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility

It allows you to see all installed decoders, and select a default one.

PowerHouseDan

Right i can as far as do you have a set-top box? when i pressed yes it wont find the channels but if i choose no it will find them?how come it wont work?ie i can use it to change my channels now

Graham

How's your STB connected to your MCE PC? What ports, what cables?

Double check you have:
DirectX 9
DVD Decoder (you did this bit)
Catalyst (if you're running ATI based graphics card).

Graham

For the benefit of anyone else in the same position of powerhousedan:

The problem appears to stem from the fact that Dan is subscriber to a MMDS service that requires a set top box (STB) that only has a coax out (aerial lead).

As far as I can tell, if you tell MCE that you are using an STB, MCE expects the signal through a video source (Composite, SVideo, Scart etc). So there's no easy way of tuning MCE to the input frequency from the STB.

If you tell MCE you have an analog source then MCE assumes there's no need to use the IR blaster to change channels on the STB.

The only information I have so far advises that you set the mce country to Germany (this is not tested though as I don't have this setup) which allows for a "tuned" STB.

Hopefuly Dan will confirm/deny this.

PowerHouseDan

Yeah thats right, there is someone on this thread who has it setup with a Chorus analog box aswell, must do some searching, Btw i've a pvr 150mce how can you use a scart?