PVR/Tivo in Ireland?

p

Hi Folks,

Really want to get a PVR-like device. Can any of them work in Ireland, with standard cable service from NTL?

I'm ivestigating building one but if you could buy an off-the-shelf one that works, it would probably be a lot cheaper.

And no, sky+ isn't an option.

Skyuser

Cable companies with PVR in Ireland, don't make me laugh.

Ro-76

Hi,

I'm using GBPVR in that exact setup - analog NTL. It works a dream. I uses my desktop PC as the recording server, and then streams the video to the TV (using the hauppauge MVP) over my cat5 network. It's fantastic. I get a proper EPG with all the listings for the irish channels. I can schedule recordings, view recordings, pause live TV, play my music collection, download weather forecasts, download daily comics such as dilbert, and all this can also be accessed remotely from the web, so that I can schedule recordings from anywhere with net access.

If you've got a desktop, all you need is the TV tuner card, and the MVP. I bought both from amazon for about 190 euro.

the real benefit is that the PC is in another room, so all I've got in the living room is a small box under the TV.

Ro

p

Skyuser wrote:

Cable companies with PVR in Ireland, don't make me laugh.

Sorry, I didn't make it clear, I wasn't looking for idiotic replies. Having a PVR has nothing to do with Cable companies providing it.


Ro-76 - yea that is an option, but I'd need to build a PC, as my current PC isn't suitable for leaving on 24/7

iMax

I'm interested in this. Was there much to setting up the GBPVR Ro_76 ?

I got one of those medion multimedia PCs from Aldi a while back, would that be suitable ?

What do you mean you "stream the video to the TV (using the hauppauge MVP) over my cat5 network" ? How does that work then ?

p

This tutorial should answer all your questions iMax:

Building a PVR in 3 Or So Steps for About $200

voxpop

what sort of network bandwidth do you need for something like that ?? Is wireless a no no eg 802.11b ?

Ro-76

iMax wrote:

I'm interested in this. Was there much to setting up the GBPVR Ro_76 ?

The only tricky bit is setting up the EPG to download the listings. This is done with xmltv. There's not a lot of documentation with xmltv, particularly for setting up the irish channels. I can post my settings if necessary.

iMax wrote:

I got one of those medion multimedia PCs from Aldi a while back, would that be suitable ?

I'm sure it would. If you get a capture card with hardware encoding like the hauppauge 250 or 350, then there's very little burden on the PC. The card does the encoding, and the MVP box near the TV does the decoding.

iMax wrote:

What do you mean you "stream the video to the TV (using the hauppauge MVP) over my cat5 network" ? How does that work then ?

Basically, the server application on the PC sends the video/audio data down the network to the MVP. The MVP then decodes the data into audio/video. The real benefit of the GBPVR software is that it will stream live TV, as it's being captured (100ms delay), and can control the recording etc.

P wrote:

Ro-76 - yea that is an option, but I'd need to build a PC, as my current PC isn't suitable for leaving on 24/7

You can setup the PC to hibernate between recordings, or when you're not actually using the PVR. It will then wake up and perform the scheduled task. This way it would be using no power except when you're using it.

Ro

iMax

Would appreciate you posting those settings. Does it work with NTL Digital ?

Do you have to have an internet connection live on that system all the time ?

Tenshot

Myself and about eight friends are using Tivos quite happily here in the Republic with NTL Digital, NTL MMDS and Sky Digital.

What you need:

• Buy a Tivo from eBay UK (going rate was still a steady £180-£220 last time I looked)
• Make sure you have a digital TV feed of some kind; the UK Tivos don't include a VHF tuner so cannot tune NTL Analogue channels
• Be ready to sign up for a Tivo UK monthly subscription (€15). This will require a valid UK Postcode, so it's useful if you have a friendly relative in the UK that can assist. (It doesn't cost them anything, Tivo will just refuse to sign you up unless they can associate a UK postcode with the unit. It's to do with their out-sourced warranty agreement with ICL, I believe, which only covers the UK). Do not imply that you are actually in Ireland, or you may find things get messy.

(Note that nothing dodgy is going on here; Tivo still end up getting their monthly revenue, just as if it you were a UK customer.)

Occasionally, you'll find a Tivo you buy is activated for life, but this is rare unless it's been sold as such (usually at a big premium).

During setup, enter a Northern Ireland postcode as your current location - anything in the BT9 range should work fine. This ensures that the channel lineup you choose will include RTE1 and RTE2.

For Sky Digital, you're all set - just choose Sky Ireland as your Satellite channel lineup during automatic configuration, and enter '1892150150' as the dial prefix for your phone (this will make it ring your local ISP for nightly TV listings instead of a UK freephone number that doesn't work.)

For NTL Digital or NTL MMDS, you need to choose NTL Digital Basic A during installation. Use the same '1892' number prefix mentioned above. Then after guided setup is completed, and you have confirmed you can change channels (using Pace Remote control code 20009 on 'Medium' speed, usually), you need to pop out the hard disk, put it into a PC, boot a Linux Tivo Tools CD, and download a few scripts to remap the channels to the Irish NTL channel order. This is a bit tricky, and not for the faint of heart, to be honest, but I can pm details to anyone who gets that far.

While you have your Tivo dismantled, you might also like to consider upgrading the 40 GB hard disk to something bigger like 120 GB, and perhaps adding a network card or cache card as well. A network card lets you control your Tivo via the web which is handy. http://www.9thtee.com/ has more info on all of this.

I have a MediaMVP PVR too and it's a nice little box, but it's not a patch on the Tivo for timeshifting TV (the MVP's video playback interface is a bit on the basic side). Still, the cost is great!

Ro-76

Tenshot wrote:

I have a MediaMVP PVR too and it's a nice little box, but it's not a patch on the Tivo for timeshifting TV (the MVP's video playback interface is a bit on the basic side). Still, the cost is great!

The included software with the MVP is very poor, and will not allow anything but basic functions, but the GBPVR version converts it into a proper media center, not just a recording box. The newest version of the software has a number of improvements, and while I haven't used a Tivo, the GBPVR has an excellent EPG and recording interface. Many users use it on a media centre pc, (without the MVP) in preference to Windows MCE.

I had thought of buying a Tivo, and it is an excellent PVR, but I didn't like the idea of paying 150 euro a year to get tv listings, and I also wanted something to play mu music collection also.

Ro

Ro-76

iMax wrote:

Would appreciate you posting those settings. Does it work with NTL Digital ?

Do you have to have an internet connection live on that system all the time ?

I've got a batch file with this string:

c:\xmltv\xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --output listings.xml

This downloads the listings to a file in the xmltv folder, which the GBPVR then uses for the EPG.

iMax wrote:

Does it work with NTL Digital ?

It is possible, but you need to setup a channel switcher to change the channel on the decoder box. This is the same for any PVR, or media centre PC using NTL digital, or Sky Digital (except for Sky Plus).

iMax wrote:

Do you have to have an internet connection live on that system all the time ?

No, you just setup when you want to update the EPG, and it will connect at that time each day. You could update the epg manually if you want. It's very simple once it's setup. It will also need an internet connection if you want to use the weather function, or internet radio.

I've uploaded a few screenshots so that you can see what it's like.

Ro

soSolid

p wrote:

Hi Folks,

Really want to get a PVR-like device. Can any of them work in Ireland, with standard cable service from NTL?

See this thread also - it may be of interest.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=208020

iMax

Well I managed to get output to a TV just by connecting a scart to the PC & setting up dual channel output in my video properties.

But the conenction I was using wasn't great, so I'm going to have to try it downstairs.

Interesting though.

shurl

Lo all.
Finally got my gear last night. (cheers Amazon)
Went for the PVR-350 and the MVP.
GBPVR
XMLTV for the EPG listings (NTL Basic Cable)

Works a treat, had a few doubts about the tuning as I've had a few tuner cards before, both Hauppage and the ATI and could never get a decent reception on all the channels.
However with the PVR-350 they are all crystal clear (even E4 and Discovery which my even tv could never get right)
Getting the source channels in GBPVR was the only thing that required work. They all looked like they where not tuned in correctly to the channel.
However discovered the tool "FreqCopy" which lets you overide the channel frequencies (from WinTV2000) that NTL broadcast the channels on.
What you have to do is take the frequencies from NTL's website, enter these in to the WinTV2000 app taking note of what channel is set to what frequency. Then the tool will override the channel frequencies in the registry. (what GBPVR looks at for tuning) Then assign the new channel numbers to your TV channels in GBPVR.

All in all it took about an hour, I'm now able to say goodbye to the VCR.
All features working perfectly, (pause live tv, recording etc) picture quality is of course not as clear as normal TV but not noticably so, its very close.

S.

p

Cheers for that review shurl - think I've decided to get an M10000 mobo/venus case bundle from minit-itx.com. Should provide me with a nice quiet PC (it's fanless) for minimal cost. Since it won't be doing any work I can afford to take the speed it (1Gz) in exchange for silence and lower cost. I won't be running an N64 emulator any time soon though, but I might bet away with MAME.

shurl wrote:

Lo all.
All features working perfectly, (pause live tv, recording etc) picture quality is of course not as clear as normal TV but not noticably so, its very close.

That's a shame to hear. I assume it's better than VHS yea? I was always given the impression this stuff was as good. Have you got the video recording on the hghest quality? Sounds like it wouldn't be a dealbreaker, but it's the only negative thing I've heard about PVR cards that could affect me.

Also, why did you got for the 350 over the 250 or 150 cards?

Thanks!

shurl

p wrote:

That's a shame to hear. I assume it's better than VHS yea? I was always given the impression this stuff was as good. Have you got the video recording on the hghest quality? Sounds like it wouldn't be a dealbreaker, but it's the only negative thing I've heard about PVR cards that could affect me.

Also, why did you got for the 350 over the 250 or 150 cards?

Thanks!

Ah no, don't get me wrong, the quality is as good as normal video when set to "High". I'm just picky . You can see that its being streamed from the PC though but its barely noticeable.
Although, I was only playing with it for a few hours last night. (Had to force myself to go to sleep ) I'll have a look at the settings tonight.
Actually just looking through the PVR forums, looks like you can tweak the bit rate setings etc. I'll report back any findings good or bad.

Only reason I went for the 350 instead of the 250/150 was that I need the VideoOut port.

S.