Re: Possibly OT: Media PC

adamomitcheney@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I'm thinking of putting together a home media network: an always-on
NAS device to store music/video and a media PC in the lounge to
replace as much as I can of the various boxes there; able to access
the NAS over the wireless network for music, equipped with a DVD
player (and possibly recorder) and a fairly large internal hard drive
for recording programs.

We currently have Virgin Media via cable and a decoder box. I don't
know, but I'm guessing that there is no way that the decoding can be
put onto a PC card to allow my box to control the channel from which
it records - is that right? Ideally, if such a thing were available, I
guess I'd be looking for a multi-receiver, so that I could record from
one (or more) channel(s) while watching another. I know that I can get
a freeview PC card, so I can build the media PC around this...

Has anyone done anything similar and have any advice to offer?

Cheers - Adam...

Well some people rate the Nebula PCI card, but the software is crap. Granted that it does allow you to stream over a network (with multicast IP) and stuff but it is too unstable to be compatible with one's wife, and it costs a Windows licence for the server and for each client.

I am now evaluating a Linux solution called MythTV. I am running this on Debian and am now gaining a lot of confidence in it as a solution to my needs. I stream stream live TV and recordings over a network, and you are able to use second hand X-Boxes running Linux. It is also remote capable using a package called LIRC.

I am a consultant specialising in providing solutions based on free software and this will be part of my portfolio of what I can provide.

I am thinking of selling this solution as something housewide, sending TV over the ring main using Ethernet to Mains tranceivers, using either X-Boxes or small PC clients running Debian.

This is working well with Freeview but I cannot see any problem with providing a Digital Sat version, if I can get cards that will work with Linux, and the user is happy to view free-to-airs only. This will be my next port of call. The money I have spent on the TV cards is three months of Sky+ subscriptions btw, roughly £45.00

Cheers,

Rob.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Possibly OT: Media PC
    ... always-on NAS device to store music/video and a media PC in the ... equipped with a DVD player (and possibly recorder) and a fairly ... We currently have Virgin Media via cable and a decoder box. ... freeview PC card, so I can build the media PC around this... ...
    (uk.tech.digital-tv)
  • Possibly OT: Media PC
    ... I'm thinking of putting together a home media network: ... NAS device to store music/video and a media PC in the lounge to ... player (and possibly recorder) and a fairly large internal hard drive ...
    (uk.tech.digital-tv)
  • Re: Beginner is LOST
    ... You will have to run the setup wizard in Windows Media Center. ... If you can already watch tv then you should be able to connect either your vcr or dvd recorder and it would work the same as it did with your tv. ... I am thinking that the tuner card just had to be set up in Media Center. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Video Error
    ... I agree that there is some problem with the MPEG2 decoder that MCE and Media ... NVIDIA Decoder 20 day free trial and would need to use the Vista DVD check ... What card did you have before and what drivers are ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: [patch] Re: 2.6.14-rc5-mm1 - ide-cs broken!
    ... > devices where the media can change. ... > When you remove a CF card, the controller is removed with the card and ... which may be on a distribution which uses udev or not. ... comment on "userspace hacks" does sound like fixes to userspace bugs. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)