Media PC

PowerHouseDan

Just wonderin if i get sky digital in should it work straight away ie pick up the channels?Whats the best way to connect it to the mce?I am seriously thinkin about it considerin the multi box is crap

Graham

I've just checked the hauppage web site, your TV card should have:

Composite/s-video plus stereo audio inputs to connect to VCR, camcorders or set top boxes.

The Wintv PRV 350 comes with a SCRART to composite cable, the composite end of the cable also has an audio jack. If I remember correctly the composite-in on the TV card is a 7 pin mini din.

I'd guess that the composite-in on your card is the same. If that's the case I'd go with SCART -> composite/audio jack, this should work well with any scart enabled STB.

PowerHouseDan

Yeah i might just did that save me alot of hassle in the long run, i think i have a scart to composite anyway with a wireless video sender i have.So i just plug the Yellow red and white into the card do the same thing via stb setup and it should do the job?

secret_squirrel

Hey Dan,

My set up is as follows :

Chorus Analog into co-ax socket on PVR150.
Svid+2phono to Scart cable from PC Video Card S-video Socket to TV scart socket.
The 2 phono's are connected via a 3.5mm to phono adaptor in the speaker/line out connect of the PC onboard sound.
Also have TOS-Link digital cable from PC to 5.1 Amp.

the MCE auto set up never finds all my chorus channels because of the crappy reception - I have a manual list of frequencies that I made that I will try to dig out. Its not perfect though.

PowerHouseDan

When you were using the signal finding did you use"Yes i have a top set box" or did you just let it find the freq? see thats the problems i'm having.How do you manually put in the freq?

My setup:
Single Analog Connect coax running to my pvr, It wont find the channels via the top set box so i have to do a manual scan which the quality isent great and kinda pointless as you only have 1 freq for all the channels so the channels need to be changed via the top set box manualy

secret_squirrel

Im confuzzled - my chorus analog is just a cable from the wall - no set top box. Hence I choose the ordinary aerial option when selecting it for autoscan.

If you are using a set top box you need to also use the IR eye that came with the remote. Park it somewhere handy facing the set top boxes ir sensor and then channels will get changed automatically.

The frequency list is only of use if you use the smart guide EPG hack.

PowerHouseDan

Right when it does the scan how many services does it pick up?

PowerHouseDan

Right i said f that about the Chours, I ordered Sky Digital Multi Room for the Computer,

My PLan is, i have a scart to Composite adapter, Use that to connect the Digi Box to the Pc, Will this work?I'm going to ask for a box with a s video but the chances are getting one are slim so the composite will be my only option jusr wondering about the quality?and ease setup?

Graham

It should do as long as it's the right composite adapter. You could probably test it with an alternative SCART source (DVD player, video recorder).

I use scart to composite at the moment without any noticeable degredation in quality. As you've already proved the video card/drivers/dvd decoder are working, setup should be easy enough.

Does multi-room give you 2 set top boxes? If it does, you should be able to add a 2nd TV card so you can watch 1 channel while recording another, or record 2 channels simultaneously.

PowerHouseDan

Well i have a scare socket where you can plug a scart and composite lead into it i got it with my wireless video sender. See i have a sky Digital down Stairs already but my Media pc is in my Bedroom so thats why i am gettin multi room.I just tested it with a dvd player worked perfect one thing should there be a delay of about 1 Second?

PowerHouseDan

Anyone have a Sky Digital Tv listing Guide that they can give me?Just list of channels to use with smartguide?Thanks.

prechaun

Any sign of this Irish update for MCE comin along?

RunDMC

The "Emerald" update has already been released to OEM partners, and is due to show up on Windows Update this month, possibly today.

Dec

RunDMC

According to Eweek, Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition is out on Friday.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1870049,00.asp

hshortt

You can have rollup2 now if you want it.

Go to oem.microsoft.com and register as a registered Microsoft Partner. Fill in the forms, and then you are allowed in to the builder website which has the download on the front page.

No cost for this by the way.

cheerio
Howard

secret_squirrel

Finally have the Guide working properly after installing Rollup2.

However.... I dont have the option of choosing several channels from the list of ones in the guide.

I have chorus analog - Dublin and I chose unmapped analog cable. I presume this is what gave me the 41 possible listings I can assign to my channels.

Unfortunately I dont have listings for Eurosport, Cartoon Network and TV5. Anyone know how I can get them added to the selection list?

FrankGrimes

Hey Squirrel,

I got my EPG working recently too and it is sweet. I only have it setup with NTL analogue at the moment as I'm having IR issues with my NTL digital set-top box but happy enough so far.

If you haven't already seen it there is a section in the Online Spotlight section in MCE that I think gives instructions on how to add missing channels to the guide so that might sort you out.

secret_squirrel

I have it almost cracked now. My advice is that if anyone gets the choice when setting up the Guide between unmapped Analogue Cable and Unmapped Digital Cable then they chose Unmapped Digital Cable (regardless of whether your actual feed is digital or analogue).

Unmapped Analogue Cable just appears to be a complete subset of Unmapped Digital Cable which contains about 120 Guide channels, including nearly all of the common cable and satellite ones.

Still No listing for Eurosport though grrr... But everything else is there.

Wavey

Hey guys,

Just ordered a nice big lcd tv. Going to build a htpc over xmas.
Going to sacrifice some parts from my existing desktop.

Have few quetions for the htpc experienced out there:

Not sure what to do about video out card.

I have 6800gt in this machine. Is that over kill for a video out for a htpc? I would like it to be able to play hd when it is available.

Would something like a 6600 or a 9800 suffice? or even a geforce ti series?

Anybody just using the on-board vga out?

Anybody have experience of playing bf2 on a 32" lcd? Is it too big? Or does it rock.

Can MCE be bought w/o the remote? My new tv has a universal remote, plus its Philips like the MCE one.

Thanks

Wavey

FrankGrimes

hey,

You can't even setup MCE TV without the remote (if using a set-top box) so that is a must.

Graphics cards even as low as ATI 300 series will do the job, but a little more should go a long way.

MCE kicks ass by the way - make sure you have it setup with dual tuners by Christmas so you can record bucketloads of stuff and then lounge around on the couch stuffed enjoying the full media centre experience!

Wavey

cheers frank,

Another question,

Trying to track down a reasonably priced pvr 150, 90yoyos is the best i can find.


Any where cheaper?

Thanks
Wavey

vibe666

okay, I have a Club3D Zap 1000 MCE Edition TV Card on MCE 2005, but when I use my NTL analogue and try and tune in TV on the card, it scans for only a second and then tells me 100% complete, no channels found. I've double checked the input with a normal TV and it's working fine.

Anyone know what the problem could be? Are there any problems using NTL analogue with MCE 2005?

I've only just started to try and figure out the TV guide from this thread, and the guide is talking about WebGuide2 but the website in the link is using WebGuide3, so I'm a little stuck as the settings lookk different and the option to allow asp.net access does not allow me to use the WebGuide3 configuration page, but as I can't even get a TV signal into the PC, I've not tried very hard.

Is there a way of manually setting up the NTL channels in MCE 2005?

thanks in advance, and sorry for hijacking the thread, but I didn't think it was worth starting a new one as everyone here seems to have had the same problems as me (at some point or another).

Krusty_Clown

Hey Vibe, have you installed rollup2? With rollup2, there is no longer any need to muck around with webguide (although it is still a very useful application). Rollup2 has all of the frequencies required for Irish reception, so tuning is not necessary.

The channel scan should take a couple of minutes (assuming you have r2 installed).

Wavey

Is roll up 2 available from the ms website? Cant seem to find it therer.
Or does it come down with automatic updates?

vibe666

looks like it's part of windows update.

google rollup2 and it's the first result.

edit.

got the guide etc. working,but still no TV.

think it must be my TV card.

Krusty_Clown

It is also available via direct download, here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5daf37e-e243-4410-bc51-81cf2b56fe6e&displaylang=en

Does your tv card work with other non-mce applications, like sage?

vibe666

nope, it's an MCE only card. Had a big argument with CLub3D about it because the system specs on the box say 98, 2000 and XP, but in reality it's an MCE only card.

their argument was that the drivers work for 98, 2K and XP so the device is installed corectly in Device Manager, but you can only use it with MCE to watch TV, and at the time I wasn't using MCE so it was useless to me.

Krusty_Clown

That's unsual. The 'MCE' bit really only means that it is certified for use with MCE, and that it has the correct available drivers. Should still work fine outside of the MCE environment. (but then again, mines a Hauppauge).

secret_squirrel

vibe666 wrote:

nope, it's an MCE only card. Had a big argument with CLub3D about it because the system specs on the box say 98, 2000 and XP, but in reality it's an MCE only card.

their argument was that the drivers work for 98, 2K and XP so the device is installed corectly in Device Manager, but you can only use it with MCE to watch TV, and at the time I wasn't using MCE so it was useless to me.

Are you choosing the right options when setting up the channels. I made that mistake at first. I choose antenna since my signal come in on a aerial cable. You need to make sure you are choosing Cable then Ananlog Cable otherwise it just scans the frequency range for Irish TV which only gave me a coupla channels.

Also as regards a GFX card. Nvidia were considered a slightly better choice when I made my MCE machine at the start of the year. A 6800GT might be a bit noisey. However on the plus side it has upscaling built into the card should you get a HD capable LCD TV.

A Gigabyte Passively cooled 6600GT is on my Xmas list for minimum noise and max power.

Wavey

secret squirrel,

I was looking at that gigabut 6600gt passive.
Couldnt find any reviews showing the temps under load. Any idea what these are like without a fan?

How do I know which cards can upscale to hdtv standard?

Thanks
Wavey