DVB Tuner cards for PC recommendations?

[uberlad]

Can't make any final noise comments yet - it's still naked and needs to be until Windows is installed (apparently the world will end if I plug in the card reader before I have installed the driver on Windows).

I turned it on last night (pretty blue lights on the front panel!) and I was able to tell that fans were spinning. The side panels do seem nice and sturdy though.

Windows goes on tonight and I'll chime in with some subjective sound comments soon.

Main problem so far is that the blower module requires two free PCI slots to fit which is annoying. Hopefully I won't need it.

I shall look into SPDIF modules - although I might have to cut my own hole for it if I plan on getting another tuner at some point.

first machine I've ever built that booted first time, without horrified bleepings . The gods have taken a chunk of my finger as sacrifice (it's quite tight fitting the AGP card with the power supply in place).

Uberlad

[Fat Tone]

So how is that Hauppauge working in MCE? I normally shudder when I think of their software

[uberlad]

Accursed Real Life has once again stymied my chances of getting a good run up at it. We have the people buying our house popping over today to have another look at it, and decide which of my white goods they want to buy.

Also the fact that $%^&ing Gigabyte decided not to put the SATA driver in the motherboard box or somewhere easily findable on their website.

A lot of cooking, cleaning and vacuuming later I managed to get Windows installed, graphics and TV card drivers installed and the wireless card working (another driver that was far more trouble than expected to track down).

the box is very nicely quiet - much quieter than the X-Box whose place it has usurped. the Maxtor HD is a bit noisier than my Barracuda at full pelt but I might be able to switch it to quiet mode if it annoys me.

The pioneer 109 sounds like a muffled jet, but DVD reading is mostly going to be what it's used for and that's not going to be spinning it up very far.

Largest complaint so far is the cheapa$$ wireless keyboard that I'd send back had it not cost £15 with a mouse. Every time I start Windows the keyboard stops communicating. It works during boot, for goodness's sake. I'll trawl the manual this evening and see if I've done something wrong (it could happen).

Still no sound or proper VIA chipset drivers installed. Maybe this evening I'll actually be able to run up Media Centre and check out the TV quality. Stranger things have happened.

Updates as they happen.

Uberlad

[Fat Tone]

ok, been reading the dvbn forums, the xpmce forums, and re-reading the posts here (thanks guys) and this is my shortlist:

LN8447 Microsoft Windows Media Center HARDWARE Kit (Remote/Receiver) OEM £17.99 £21.14

LN8448 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005 Edition Software *OEM* £68.22 £80.16

LN9848 250Gb Seagate Barracuda ATA-100 (7200rpm,8MB) - PATA £68.32 £80.28

LN4295 256Mb PC3200 (PC400) DDR Memory (Major Elixir) Retail £11.58 £27.21 (x2)

LN2677 50cm 3XS Round ATA133 Certified IDE Cable £1.31 £1.54

LN10458 NEC ND-3540A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK £26.95 £31.67

LN8613 Microsoft Wireless Desktop Comfort Curve Design Keyboard Mouse V3 £25.49 £29.95

LN5471 Asus A7N8X-VM-400, nForce2 IGP, uATX, DDDR400, 10/100 Lan, USB 2.0, 6Ch Audio, IDE, GF4 MX VGA £43.63 £51.27

LN8825 AMD Sempron 3000+ (SoA) (2.17ghz) CPU Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty £60.30 £70.85

LN6194 Gigabyte 6 Channel SPDIF Sound Kit Upgrade for Gigabyte Motherboards (works on many others also) £3.89 £4.57

LN10244 Compro VideoMate DVB-T300 Combo PCI Tuner Card for DVB-T and analog TV reception + FM Radio £45.49 £53.45

LN10577 SilverStone "LASCALA" LC11BM-300 + RC (BLACK) Aluminum Front & SECC Body Desktop case + 300W PSU £140.94 £165.60

Total is £635.31, which I think I can just run to. May have to lop off the keyboard& mouse.

Any comments? Please remember I am basically limited to Scan (and Dabs, but one order will go down much better with the people placing it).

[Fluff]

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=309423&cks=PRL

They have a htpc bundle for £515 Its based on an Athlon64 too. No DVB but if they have a freeview box already..... / SKY etc.

[uberlad]

Sounds like a good collection Fat Tone. If you could PM me a picture of the SPDIF kit when you get it so I know if I can modify the case to support it that'd be great.

I finally got TV working last night! First I had the wrong drivers for the TV card and then there was some kind of problem with the Hauppauge MPEG2 decoder that came with it. Uninstalling that and installing DVD player software appears to have fixed that right up.

Picture quality is great, but the aeriel on the roof is not great and I am getting picture breakup occasionally when the wind blows. Hopefully the next place will have better reception.

My only complaint about the Media Centre interface at the moment is that there is no 'Set Reminder' button that I have found yet. I supposed any progarm I want to watch I can just set it to record and it will switch right over but I would like an option of just making it switch. I haven't read any doc yet so I might just be missing something obvious.

I might strike whilst the iron is hot and try to get MythTV installed this weekend.

Uberlad

[Fat Tone]

Will do on the SP-DIF.

Just wondering if I should save myself over £50, forego the VFD and RC and get this case instead:

LN10576 SilverStone "LASCALA" LC11B-300 (BLACK) Aluminum Front & SECC Body D/top case 300W PSU £94.55 £111.10

?

[Fat Tone]

Will cut the waffle shortly, and hopefully get this stuff ordered tomorrow.

I decided to stick with the VFD and RC for two reasons: The RC is MCE2005 compatible (so saving the cost of the MS remote and having the receiver unit) and the VFD gets very good reviews. I'd be kicking myself later for not getting it.

I also considered the LC10, which saves worries about space, but it is quite noisy by comparison.

[uberlad]

The MS reciever is pretty bulky, but the remote itself is quite shiny. there is a gap between the TV screen and the base that should fit it nicely and they have at least had the decency to put a nice long lead on it.

If I can get around to teaching it the codes for my TV I should be able to control everything I need from the one remote.

Hope the order goes through nicely. I've never felt that I coudl do enough with a VFD to make it worthwhile but the case does look pretty shiny.

My MythTV experiment fell at the first fence - Gentoo didn't immediately detect my wireless card and I wasn't in the mood to run up and downstairs with bits of paper with huge unix command strings on on a sunday morning.

I shall tap into local geekery and see if I can get another run up at it later in the week.

Uberlad

[Fat Tone]

I guess if the VFD were coming directly out of my pocket I'd think like you

Pics?

[uberlad]

I'll get my signal booster installed so that I can put the box in its final resting place and then get some shots up on the thread.

Uberlad

[uberlad]

Signal booster has stabilised flicky channels but hasn't miraculously given me any extra ones (I get E4 +1 but not E4 ). Obviously the aeriel on the roof is not well aligned with the transmitter.

Still all very nifty though. The fact that Microsoft has crippled the networking is fantastically annoying however. The machine will not automatically log onto a network drive on boot up - if you've got media on another machine you actually need to open the mapped drive with explorer before media centre can see it. I suppose I can write a batch file that opens them up on boot but it's an annoyance.

Piccies any day now- tidying up for a party tonight so machine will have to be squared away.

Uberlad

[Fat Tone]

Well I got all my stuff yesterday, and started cramming it into the case last night.

Rats nest is not the word! The PSU has tons of power connectors, way too many for a case this size if you ask me.

Slight problem with the sp/dif connector in that the mobo plug is not compatible.
What I need is this: http://se.asus.com/products/mb/mb_accessories.htm#spdif
which no one in the UK is stocking, but a quick call to ASUS UK reveals they'll send me one for £6. (as an aside, they pronounce ASUS as ASEUSE or AYSOOS!)

The riser card gives me an AGP and 2 PCI slots on the back, so I'm putting the TV-out bracket where the AGP card would go (If I have to get an AGP card this becomes redundant anyway) and the other two will be for the wifi nic and the Compro. It is a shame that I can't use the 3rd PCI slot for another tuner...guess I'll have to run some CAT5E or get an external tuner (yuck) at that point.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to turn it on tonight.

[uberlad]

As the Digital out plug doesn't work on your board can I buy it from you? It should fit mine ok as it's a gigabyte board. then I get to drill some mounting points in the case somewhere Hopefully postage to get it from you will be slightly less evil that the money that Scan charge (as I'm in no hurry).

Rats nest is the word - I have no idea how it stays cool enough to be almost silent with that little space in it

In all your searching did you find a tool for converting DVR-MS -> MPEG or better yet straight into Xvid? all the ones I've found so far have been expensive or non-functional.

Hope it worked first time. I'm already eying another tuner with hungry eyes and I _still_ haven't got wireless working in Linux hence no commentary on Myth-TV.

Uberlad

[uberlad]

Whoops! Hadn't done a decent search on DVR-MS -> XVid before.

I'm just about to try this:

http://www.tech-forums.net/computer/topic/62779.html

Uberlad