Re: mini ITX Satellite PVR

Ace wrote:
On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:15:08 -0800, "Higgins@work"
<the.best.names.are.gone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Dreambox does the trick for me. Built in HD, saves movies as the
transport stream and there's a network port so that you just pull the
saved movies right off of it.
And it can see the non-free Sky channels? I'vee seen forum postings
that say yes and ones that say no..

I can give you an absolute yes on that and demos are available if it's
of any interest.

Can you just clarify for the barely literate. Are you saying it's
possible to just buy one of these things (which model?) plug it in
where my Sky box now sits, insert the Sky card and it will work with
all my existing channels?

A qualified yes but there is a level of faffing about with images as it's Linux based. Nothing that would faze anyone with any degree of IT literacy.


And by 'work' it allows viewing & simultaneous recording onto HD of
alterative channels (how many at once?) ?

Yes, if you have the dual tuner version. I *think* the single tuner version can be made to record different channels on the same transponder. As I mentioned on my response to Phil, if you stick a sat card in a media PC and hook it up to your dish, it will also let you share your card amongst those PCs so they can decrypt channels too. Similarly, if you were a bit ethically challenged then a group of friends can share one subscription over t'internet.


And can you get a DVD burner built in?


Not built in but it does have a USB port which, I believe, will support DVD drives. It has built in 10/100 ethernet so you could either save to a server or just pull the files off to a networked PC.


In addition to that, it has a web interface and can stream TV across the network. I have a little wireless media PC in the kitchen and it streams to that quite happily.

The downside, which is significant, is that it can't get the Sky EPG. I believe there are workarounds but I haven't looked into it in any depth.
.

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