[tabish]

Ok, so I've decided that I want to start digging into the HTPC hobby and I've been doing some serious reading on the subject but I'm still a little fuzzy in some areas, so I thought I would ask some questions.


My first question has to do with PVR and what I would need in order to handle my current setup which is a Dish Network Receiver and OTA locals. Can you use a single Capture Device such as the PVR250 or similar to record from either (obviously not at the same time), or would I need two Capture cards?


Secondly I've seen some references to needing a P4 if I want to do VPP on DVDs, is it really true that an AMD CPU is not sufficient for VPP tasks. I want to start zeroing in on hardware to buy. In the end I would like to have an HTPC that plays DVDs with the quality of a High end DVD player.


In the end what I'd really like to do is have one PC that acts as a media server, connected to two Dish Receivers so I can record one show while watching another, and also house all my MP3 music there as well. Then in the Living Room and in my office have PC that act as viewers of the data on my Media Server PC. That way I can have as many TVs as I want throughout the house and instead of needing another Sat receiver at each TV I'd just need another HTPC for each TV, allowing all TVs access to PVR capabilities and letting each room also tie into my music archive, etc. I figure the PC in my Living room would need a little more power since it will be my main DVD player and hook into my 7.1 amp.

 

[Jeraden]

How do you get your OTA locals currently? Through the dish receiver or just directly into your tv? If its 2 separate signals, you'd probably need 2 separate capture devices. If you have digital OTA stations going into a Dish 811 receiver for example, it might be possible to record those along with regular dish channels, assuming the digital OTA is still displayed over an s-video output. You just probably wouldn't have guide data and would have to schedule each recording manually.


If you have 2 dish receivers, a common setup is to have 2 PVR250 cards and run SageTV, which handles multiple encoders. Then you'd need a USB-UIRT device, which your PC will use to change channels on the dish receivers. Thats what I use, but I just have 1 receiver/card. I use a Fusion 3 card to record OTA locals in HD. I'm not sure if the fusion handles non-digital channels for recording though.


People tend to prefer a P4 because the latest builds of ffdshow are optimized for SSE2, which regular Athlon XP's don't support. AMD64 chips do though. Other than that, I don't see any reason to stick with Intel. I have AMD in both my HTPC and my main "client" computer.


I have a main HTPC that acts as the server for pretty much anything. 1 hard drive for SageTV recordings. 1 hard drive for Fusion HD recordings. 1 hard drive for all my mp3s and ripped DVDs. As long as you use a wired network to connect all the clients you won't have any issues. I can play 1080i HD clips fine over a 100mbps network. Some have reported stutters and stuff using wireless-g though for even normal video files, depends on how strong your signal is. Also, with SageTV they have a SageTV Client application that you an run on your client PCs to make it interface with your recorded shows a bit better, although it costs money PER client which is kind of a ripoff. You can still just watch the recorded mpeg2 files with any old viewer though, so you don't absolutely need it.

 

[stanger89]

Quote:

Originally posted by tabish Ok, so I've decided that I want to start digging into the HTPC hobby and I've been doing some serious reading on the subject but I'm still a little fuzzy in some areas, so I thought I would ask some questions. My first question has to do with PVR and what I would need in order to handle my current setup which is a Dish Network Receiver and OTA locals. Can you use a single Capture Device such as the PVR250 or similar to record from either (obviously not at the same time), or would I need two Capture cards?

If you're talking SD OTA, then yes one PVR 250 will work, just connect the Sat box to the S-Video input and your antenna to the RF input. If you're talking OTA HD, then you'll need another card to do the HD.

Quote:

Secondly I've seen some references to needing a P4 if I want to do VPP on DVDs, is it really true that an AMD CPU is not sufficient for VPP tasks. I want to start zeroing in on hardware to buy. In the end I would like to have an HTPC that plays DVDs with the quality of a High end DVD player.

AMD will be fine, although you'll definitely want an Athlon 64.

 

[tabish]

Yes I was referring to SD OTA, should have said that but since I'm at work so I was in a hurry. I'm glad to hear that I don't need a card for SD OTA and for Sat, that makes things simpler. I understand now about the SSE2 instructions being necessary, that didn't register with me at first when reviewing posts, but it makes sense.


Another question that I've been trying to answer is if there is currently a way to play DVD-Audio and SACDs via the HTPC. I haven't seen much mention of it.


Also do you know if there are plans for the Athlon 64 Boards to incorporate Soundstorm technology like the NForce 2 MCP-T chipsets has now? I don't currently play games all that often but having only only line out to the receiver would be nice, but I could live with running 5.1 cables if needed.

 

[stanger89]

Quote:

Originally posted by tabish Another question that I've been trying to answer is if there is currently a way to play DVD-Audio and SACDs via the HTPC. I haven't seen much mention of it.

Essentially no, SACDs are impossible (seems even the CD layer is tricky for some drives). DVD-A is impossible without an Audigy 2. Technically WinDVD6 will pay DVD-A but if it's copy protected it will down-convert it on non-A2 cards. Personally I don't think the A2 is an acceptable HTPC card (resampling issues and all) so I've just given up on DVD-A/SACD for the time being, it's not worth the hastle for now.

Quote:

Also do you know if there are plans for the Athlon 64 Boards to incorporate Soundstorm technology like the NForce 2 MCP-T chipsets has now? I don't currently play games all that often but having only only line out to the receiver would be nice, but I could live with running 5.1 cables if needed.

Rumours are that the nForce4 will have "Soundstorm 2", what exactly that entails is unclear at this point, it could be HW encode DD like the current one, might be software based, might not happen at all, we'll have to wait and see.