Trying to keep MC7 as my main hub (Sky & Virgin question)

[geoffneck]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum here, but have been a huge user/fan of MC for a long time.

I like a lot of users I'm sure, run media centre as a hobby, but also because it integrates everything from a central server and most of the time works great. My biggest pressure is keeping the wife and kids happy when it goes wrong. When it does go wrong, "Sky" and "virgin" are always banded around in the argument.

I've always used Freeview and recently upgraded my tuner to Blackgolds excellent BGT3650.

In order to keep the peace in the household and to cater for a demand in more channels (and personally I want the F1), I have been looking to integrate SKY or Virgin. I was gutted to find that SKY have dropped their service in exchange for SkyGO, however, I am already a virgin subscriber with their broadband service, and although I have their basic TV package, I never use it.

Sooooo, (apologies for the rambling if you are still here), I would like to sign up for a Virgin package, and would like to know:

1. Can I integrate the channels and record them through MC?
2. Will they show up in the guide?
3. I presume I will need a DVB-C card... because I am using a QUAD DVB-T2 tuner, does this mean I will have to cut this down to keep within the max 4 tuners?
4. I have a Samsung STB from virgin that I don't use, but I guess I could use this to test. Does the output basically plug into the DVB-C tuner?

I hope someone can give me some clear indication on the above...

[mark1234]

Virgin isn't a sensible option with Media Centre. Because of the encryption on the line you can't just add a DVB-C card, and you can't even use a CAM device as Virgin won't let you attach your own equipment to their network. You can't get HD either as, unless you have one of their original HD boxes that had component outputs, they are all HDMI with HDCP protection. So you're reduced to SD only over an analogue connection with an IR blaster to change channels. With Virgin the only sensible option is use their Tivo box.

Officially the story is exactly the same with Sky, except replace Tivo with Sky+HD. However, because Sky can't lock down the end box in the same way as Virgin do, there are hacks available to use DVB-S2 tuners to receive the signal and a Dreambox to do the decryption. There are others here who do this and can speak to it better than I.

[mark1234]

Guess I could answer you actual questions as well!

1. Yes.
2. Yes. Though not all the channels have data. You either have to live with this, or use 3rd party tools to import the missing data. It's only a handful of minor channels affected on the whole.
3. No. Partly because Media Centre doesn't support DVB-C out of the box, you'd have to use TV Source as an intermediary. But also because it's four tuners per type, so you can have four each of DVB-T and DVB-S. The limit can be raised by TunerSalad as well.
4. You'd have to run a cable from the SCART socket on the Sammy to an analogue tuner in your PC.

BTW, if you did decide to add a DVB-C tuner then, AFAIK, only channels 1-5 are broadcast in the clear. So, for all the hassle and cost you'd have to go through it's not really worth it when you've already got those channels quite easily from Freeview.

You might like to consider Freesat as well. More channels than Freeview, works natively with Media Centre but no Sky F1.

[milli260876]

Or look at which countries have fta f1 and disecq switch to another country/dish...

[milli260876]

FYI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fo ... oadcasters

[mark1234]

(Cough, cough) Germany (Cough, cough) RTL

Use Radio 5 Live for the commentary, unless you understand German. I did hear though that there is a 15 second difference between the two, which could be problematic.

[barnabas1969]

Sprechen sie Deutsch? Tag! Wie geht's?

Ich spreche Deutsch.

[milli260876]

Zehr gut...

[richard1980]

Ich denke du meinst "sehr gut". Und nein, ich spreche kein Deutsch. Ich musste ein Übersetzer verwenden, um dies zu schreiben.

[mark1234]

Und nein, ich spreche kein Deutsch. Ich musste ein Übersetzer verwenden, um dies zu schreiben.

I've never needed more German than: Ein Bier, bitte.

[barnabas1969]

Funny stuff. Don't forget the pizza with that beer. It's been a long time since I took two years of German in high school. I remember enough to listen to a conversation and understand what is being said. It works out well when I go to the UC4 technical conference every year... those guys are all from Austria... and when speaking to the group, they often accidentally slip in some German. And, man, can they drink!