Whole Home Media Center

[barnabas1969]

Let me see if I am getting this right. Venom is recording an analog signal and converting it to digital with some of that hardware he has there? And since he is the author of the digital content there is NO DRM added to the content. This type of setup eliminates the need for extenders.

This analog hole thing you mentioned. I read that this "hole" is being closed up by 2014. Does this closure apply to satellite dish as well as cable?

From what I've read, the "hole" is going to be closed by limiting the analog outputs to 480p. This is facilitated by the use of a flag, which will be sent in the content. However, I don't know if all receivers are setup to correctly interpret this flag. It may be possible that certain devices will not honor the flag, and will continue to output 720p/1080i on the analog output.

Just as with all things good for consumers, Hollywood will do their best to kill it. They hate you and they don't want you being able to record their medicore content. As soon as they do close the hole someone will be along to show them that their DRM or encryption mechnaism is weak and they will circumevent it. Then Hollywood will bitch about it and come up with something else they think will "protect" their content from "Pirates" which has to this date not done so in anyway. THe only people it protects their content from are the people who would willingly use it in a personal use manner.

When and if they do close my 720p analog hole I'll be forced to join the other side of the battle and circumvent their doody.

It's already been circumvented. Google "HD Fury".

[bobbob]

HD Fury's have been out for years. That was where i started my adventure into MC back in 2009. i used it to get a HD component feed into my Hauppauge HD PVR from my cable box before i realised i could do away with the cable box altogether

[Crash2009]

Venom has no protected recordings. He uses the Hauppauge HD-PVR to record from his satellite receivers, so he is making use of the "analog hole" (Google it). If you have a CableCARD tuner, you can only view copy-protected recordings on the PC where it was recorded, or with Media Center extenders like the XBox360, HP X280N, Linksys DMA-2100 or 2200, and the soon-to-be-released Ceton Echo.

Let me see if I am getting this right. Venom is recording an analog signal and converting it to digital with some of that hardware he has there? And since he is the author of the digital content there is NO DRM added to the content. This type of setup eliminates the need for extenders.

This analog hole thing you mentioned. I read that this "hole" is being closed up by 2014. Does this closure apply to satellite dish as well as cable?

Just as with all things good for consumers, Hollywood will do their best to kill it. They hate you and they don't want you being able to record their medicore content. As soon as they do close the hole someone will be along to show them that their DRM or encryption mechnaism is weak and they will circumevent it. Then Hollywood will bitch about it and come up with something else they think will "protect" their content from "Pirates" which has to this date not done so in anyway. THe only people it protects their content from are the people who would willingly use it in a personal use manner.

When and if they do close my 720p analog hole I'll be forced to join the other side of the battle and circumvent their doody.

Well good for you then. It's nice to see someone is getting a piece of something that Hollywood is trying to take away from the rest of us. I'm sure you will keep us informed. I was doing a little more reading on the analog hole earlier today. It is unbeleivable that they have stopped the manufacture and trade of electronic equipment that can utilize the signal. It's the same old story I guess......

"Changed from a consumer to a criminal with the stroke of a pen"

[LuckyDay]

Very nice. Someone is a race fan. You on iRacing?

[Venom51]

Very nice. Someone is a race fan. You on iRacing?

Yep...Run mostly Hosted League events. Multiclass Endurance racing...

[Venom51]

So here we are about to roll into 2015 and everything I put into place is still humming along and doing exactly as it was intended. The Rackable server that runs the DVBlink backend hasn't missed a beat since it was installed and all the little Acer Revo's are still humming along. I think I've had one drive failure in a Revo and a couple Dell switches damaged by lighting but that's it for failures.

Nothing has been moved to Win8 and won't be. I still have 3 spare Hauppauge HDPVR's sitting on a shelf but to date none of my units have failed.

Until something better comes along or all this equipment dies nothing will be changing.

[giepie]

Hi guys

Venom, that is one awesome setup! I can only imagine how much time and effort went into your setup, and it couldn't have been too cheap either!

My setup isn't nearly as advanced. I've got 2x 47U cabinets in the garage, but they are being used for my business, except for my file server which also sits in one of these cabinets. In the living room I've got an Intel i3, 8GB RAM, 2x Hauppauge tuners (one dual and one single card used to connect to my STB's), DVB-S2, DVB-T2. Then I have some Xbox360 extenders in the bedrooms and one (soon two) Windows 7 HTPCs in other rooms.

I started this thread: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 768#p84768 in the search of my solution, and was referred to this forum with the hope that you could perhaps help me.


As I mentioned above, my master HTPC has 2x Hauppauge tuners. I used to have a single tuner until I needed another source. I then purchased a dual tuner (and left the single tuner inside the PC). I was happy to use only the two inputs, but recently I decided to utilize the third tuner as well. In South Africa we have no other choice but using RCA leads between the STB and Analog Tuner and use IR Blasting to change channels on the STB

At first I ran into the problem where WMC told me there wasn't not enough IR Blasters available. Luckily I had a spare MS IR6 receiver. So I installed the second MS IR6 receiver with 1x IR Blaster. When running the TV setup in WMC, I could get a signal over the third IR Blaster (you know, when you click the "Try next IR Module" button). I was very excited, so I continued in setting up my 3x Analog/RCA Tuners. But after configuring my dual Hauppauge Tuner, I was expecting to see the configuration options to configure the THIRD Hauppauge tuner (the single channel card), but Windows never asked for it's config. At the end of the TV config wizard, WMC told me it wasn't able to configure the third tuner "at this time".

I notice you have 3x USB operated HD PVR's in your setup. Did you run into similar problems? I also read that you change channels via IP, something I'm not able to do as in South Africa we are forced to use the decoder (or STB as some call it) provided by the TV service provider. For the same reason we also have to use IR Blasting to change channels on the decoder.

My question to you is, do you have any idea why I'm not able to configure the third tuner, and if you do, do you have any idea how I could resolve this?

I've tried several times, but no luck. I even tried not configuring my DVB-S2, DVB-T2 etc inputs, but still only TWO out of the THREE tuners could be configured.



My last idea (thanks to Crash2009 who sparked thought) was to add a dedicated PC for my single tuner and use DVBLink to send its signal to my main HTPC. I'm sure this would work, but it would be messy having a dedicated PC JUST to add one more tuner. If I have to go this route, I should probably move all my decoders (STB's) and PC's with tuners to the garage and only have one PC in the living room. I have plenty of rack space available to do this, but would need to run a lot of coax to get this right.


Then I have one more "by-the-way" question (which is kind of related). You know the error message when trying to change a channel, but the tuner with that channel is currently recording another channel? My inlaw's are currently staying with us, and they have no idea how technology works. So many times when we wish to watch our favorite recorded sitcom, we notice that someone forced a channel change so our show was not recorded. They've got an XBox360 extender in their bedroom. Do you know of any way to ensure they CAN'T change channels when the particular tuner is in use?

Sorry for writing such a long post, I'm notorious for being unable to keep my story short!

All your input would be greatly appreciated!

G

[Venom51]

I'd like to help but I don't use any IR blasters in my configuration. All my channel changes are handled via IP directly to the DirecTV receivers via a hook within the DVBLink software. Using DVBLink might be an option for you as each of the tuners would be a separate device in DVBLink and could have their own hooks for tuning channels. You might also look at something like the USB-UIRT combined with EventGhost.

I'm not sure why Media Center is only letting you operate 2 blasters.

[ciregnol]

OK, I'm dangerously close to having this all figured out, thanks in part to this excellent article. Nice to see another networking and Windows Server guy doing cool things. I'm ditching Comcast for DirecTV April first (going to miss my 2 decades old email address).

I do have a few remaining questions & unknowns despite hours of research:

1. Will Hauppauge HDPVR 2s work just as well as the HDPVR? Same or better picture, IP channel changing, etc...? I'm always attracted to latest technology but sometime newer breaks things. I don't explicitly see the WMC driver/add on from Hauppauge for these, so assume I should stay away from them (but maybe the same software works for these too)?

2. Is the recorded video 720p or 1080p or 1080i using the composite cable?

3. For a relatively simple environment (1 WMC computer that drives the TV and occasional watching of the recorded shows from another LAN computer or two), would using HDMI instead of composite cable yield any better results than the composite cable?

3a. I understand there are digital rights/encryption issues with HDMI (hence the analog loophole), but is the issue that the Media Center itself receives encrypted video stream, or is it just that remote computers or extenders won't be able to watch it (which since 99% of all watching done from the single WMC connected TV won't be an obstacle)?

4. Are you using Genie HR34s or HR44s? If you have 34s, is there any reason to believe that your setup with HR44s instead would work?

5. Is the multiswitch connected to the DirecTV Slimline 3 provided by them or did you get it? Is this just a coax splitter or something specialized (SWM or whatever)?

6. Have you had any issues with the Genies going to sleep and pausing recording? I read (http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... ctv#p84581) that Collosus had issues but assume you haven't experienced it with the HDPVRs or you'd have mentioned it and used HDMI splitter.

Thanks to anyone who has answers to these questions.

[Venom51]

OK, I'm dangerously close to having this all figured out, thanks in part to this excellent article. Nice to see another networking and Windows Server guy doing cool things. I'm ditching Comcast for DirecTV April first (going to miss my 2 decades old email address).

I do have a few remaining questions & unknowns despite hours of research:

1. Will Hauppauge HDPVR 2s work just as well as the HDPVR? Same or better picture, IP channel changing, etc...? I'm always attracted to latest technology but sometime newer breaks things. I don't explicitly see the WMC driver/add on from Hauppauge for these, so assume I should stay away from them (but maybe the same software works for these too)?

HDPVR 2 are not supported by the DVBLink/1Geek products. They are HDPVR only. The Gaming edition should work as it's essentially the same device.

2. Is the recorded video 720p or 1080p or 1080i using the composite cable?

Depends on how you set the DirecTV receiver. I run mine at 1080i. 1080p is not an option unless you want to put some kind of converter in between to hand shake the HDMI with a component output..

3. For a relatively simple environment (1 WMC computer that drives the TV and occasional watching of the recorded shows from another LAN computer or two), would using HDMI instead of composite cable yield any better results than the composite cable?

See item 3.

3a. I understand there are digital rights/encryption issues with HDMI (hence the analog loophole), but is the issue that the Media Center itself receives encrypted video stream, or is it just that remote computers or extenders won't be able to watch it (which since 99% of all watching done from the single WMC connected TV won't be an obstacle)?

See item 3.

4. Are you using Genie HR34s or HR44s? If you have 34s, is there any reason to believe that your setup with HR44s instead would work?

2 - H21's and 1 H23.

5. Is the multiswitch connected to the DirecTV Slimline 3 provided by them or did you get it? Is this just a coax splitter or something specialized (SWM or whatever)?

Every TV in the house has a small form factor PC connected to it and runs the DVBLink client in Media Center.

6. Have you had any issues with the Genies going to sleep and pausing recording? I read (http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... ctv#p84581) that Collosus had issues but assume you haven't experienced it with the HDPVRs or you'd have mentioned it and used HDMI splitter.

I haqve never tried a Collosus so I can't comment. I turned off the power saving functions on mine to keep them on.

Thanks to anyone who has answers to these questions.

[ciregnol]

Thank you
More questions. Condensed the posting
2. Is the recorded video 720p or 1080p or 1080i using the composite cable?

Depends on how you set the DirecTV receiver. I run mine at 1080i. 1080p is not an option unless you want to put some kind of converter in between to hand shake the HDMI with a component output..

What would that type of converter be called?

3a. I understand there are digital rights/encryption issues with HDMI (hence the analog loophole), but is the issue that the Media Center itself receives encrypted video stream, or is it just that remote computers or extenders won't be able to watch it (which since 99% of all watching done from the single WMC connected TV won't be an obstacle)?

See item 3.

So are you saying that the MCE COULD record all content over HDMI or would some of it be encrypted?

4. Are you using Genie HR34s or HR44s? If you have 34s, is there any reason to believe that your setup with HR44s instead would work?

2 - H21's and 1 H23.

Do you think it would work with the HR44 or HR34? HR44 is supposed to be noticeably faster DirecTV interface, so I'd like that one if it would work.

5. Is the multiswitch connected to the DirecTV Slimline 3 provided by them or did you get it? Is this just a coax splitter or something specialized (SWM or whatever)?

Every TV in the house has a small form factor PC connected to it and runs the DVBLink client in Media Center.

Yes, I saw your Acer netbooks... I was referring to the Visio diagram you posted of your setup... From the Slimline 3 to the 3 DirecTV HDDVRs... did you provide the splitter or will the Tech bring it during install?

Thanks again

[Venom51]

Thank you
More questions. Condensed the posting
2. Is the recorded video 720p or 1080p or 1080i using the composite cable?

Depends on how you set the DirecTV receiver. I run mine at 1080i. 1080p is not an option unless you want to put some kind of converter in between to hand shake the HDMI with a component output..

What would that type of converter be called?

http://www.hdfury.com/

3a. I understand there are digital rights/encryption issues with HDMI (hence the analog loophole), but is the issue that the Media Center itself receives encrypted video stream, or is it just that remote computers or extenders won't be able to watch it (which since 99% of all watching done from the single WMC connected TV won't be an obstacle)?

See item 3.

So are you saying that the MCE COULD record all content over HDMI or would some of it be encrypted?

THe link above will make your idea light turn on.

4. Are you using Genie HR34s or HR44s? If you have 34s, is there any reason to believe that your setup with HR44s instead would work?

2 - H21's and 1 H23.

Do you think it would work with the HR44 or HR34? HR44 is supposed to be noticeably faster DirecTV interface, so I'd like that one if it would work.

I believe they will.

5. Is the multiswitch connected to the DirecTV Slimline 3 provided by them or did you get it? Is this just a coax splitter or something specialized (SWM or whatever)?

Every TV in the house has a small form factor PC connected to it and runs the DVBLink client in Media Center.

Yes, I saw your Acer netbooks... I was referring to the Visio diagram you posted of your setup... From the Slimline 3 to the 3 DirecTV HDDVRs... did you provide the splitter or will the Tech bring it during install?

It's built into the slim line dish. NO longer any need for an external switch as was the case in the past.

Thanks again

[Venom51]

Well I originally said I wouldn't do it but everything in the house has been converted to Windows 10 thanks to the hard work by the group that figured out how to wedge Media center into it. The only machine that has not been upgraded is the server hosting the DVBlink 4.1 package.

Everything works as expected and in some case a little quicker than on 7.

[Venom51]

Here is a neat trick I just pulled off at home. I swapped the spinning platters in my little Acer REVO clients for SSD's. I then built an iSCSI target on one of my Windows servers down stairs for each of the 5 clients that are 100 gigs each. I then attached those iSCSI targets to each client. I then mapped the normal "C:Users\Public\Recorded TV\TempRec" folder to the new iSCSI drives. Now I have the best of both worlds. The speed of the SSD in the client and a long wearing buffer drive on a spinning patter in the server. There is zero activity on my SSD while watching TV. Works perfectly and should provide long life for the SSD.

If you don't have a Windows server at home this could be done on a Freenas server or one of the little iSCSI capable NAS devices. You could even drop Freenas on an older machine you don't use just to host the iSCSI targets.

[Crash2009]

Sounds like you are having some fun.

[Venom51]

I think I can stretch the Revo's for another few years after the 10 upgrade and the SSD's. The are fairly sporty now. They run as good as my more robust machine in the living room. I may pick another up and displace the original machine in the living room.

[sbaeder]

which model CPU?

[Venom51]

Intel Atom 330 with the ION chipset for graphics.

[londonfog]

I don't know if this is the spirit of this thread, but this is what I have going right now:

HTPC:
CPU & RAM: i3-530 & 16gb
GPU: GTX 460 768MB
Tuner: Ceton Infinitv 6 pci
Hdd: 120gb OS SSD, 1tb DVR drive

Server:
Windows Home Server V1 - This is where all my DVR stuff gets archived, and also serves the whole house with all my media. I'll probably be upgrading this to 2012 soon.

Two MI424WR rev I MOCA 1.1 FIOS routers: The first router is the main FIOS router that provides my house with FIOS internet and my HTPC is directly connected to it. The second is setup on the opposite corner of my house as a MOCA Bridge (DHCP shut off to act as a bridge, MOCA 1.1 speeds of 175Mb/s) over COAX. It also extends my wireless to the other side of the house, but not for HT purposes.

Media Center Extenders
Two xbox 360's. One pulls full time duty as a Media Center Extender and is plugged directly into the Moca Bridge.
The other sits next to my HTPC as a Netflix/youtube/Gaming Machine, and occasional "Extender" when my HTPC decides to have DRM or HDMI handshake issues.

The Handshake issues probably have something to do with my old Plasma and receiver, and just generally WMC 7's quirkiness.

HT control:
Logitech harmony home hub for the main Home Theater, coupled with a Logitech multi-Bluetooth radio keyboard and Gigabyte mouse when things go awry.
Logitech Harmony 350 for the XBOX 360 extender

[Crash2009]

We recently discovered that CableCard Tuners are not discoverable in WMC, on Win10 14393. Actually it was reported 6 months ago through one of the Insiders, but it didn't effect me until about a week ago. Someone asked the question "Are virtual tuners discoverable?" Next thing you know, I downloaded DVBLogic v6 and found out the answer to that question. Yes, virtual CableCard Tuners are discoverable and all channels work with the exception of Premiums (DRM). Since I know that you have been running DVBLogic for quite some time in the USA, I thought I would ask you....

What are you using for EPG?