New HTPC feedback - Page 5 - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

roger1818 · 2012-04-21, 08:48 PM

The other option is to avoid Micro$oft all together and install MythTV under Linux.

johnvan · 2012-04-22, 08:19 AM

I had to ditch MythTV because Netflix doesn't work with Linux. It's too bad, MythTV was great.

One of my computers didn't work well on 64 bit Windows 7, very glitchy, as soon as I switched to 32 bit everything worked fine. The others are 64 bit.

ScaryBob · 2012-04-22, 12:13 PM

I will agree that some (very few) hardware drivers will not work with 64 bit Windows. For a new PC, there is more reason to use 64 bit than not.

I stand corrected on WMC in Win8 CP. I wasn't sure and don't have a copy installed to check. Caveats regarding third party software compatibility still apply. Win8 CP worth a try since the cost is nothing for up to 9 months of use. If it doesn't work out, get a copy of Win7.

audacity · 2012-04-22, 12:39 PM

In 2009 I updated my HTPC OS and went from using a 32-bit OS to using a 64-bit OS. Unfortunately I did have a couple devices that had drivers that didn't support the 64-bit OS so... I replaced them.

That was a very easy decision, since at that point if a company still isn't producing drivers for their products many years after 64-bit operating systems became mainstream then they aren't putting much effort into supporting said products. Probably because they've been discontinued.

If anyone is curious, the devices that I replaced were Hauppauge PVR-500 cards. I went to Hauppauge HVR-2250 cards, but unfortunately those drivers had issues as well. They would start to fail when the computer went in and out of S3 (sleep). Oh, and if the Hauppauge HVR-2250 drivers and the Hauppauge HD-PVR drivers were installed in the wrong order, then the IR-blaster for the HD-PVR wouldn't function properly.

So, I concluded that Hauppauge must be putting a lot more effort into their hardware than they do their software and so I purchased tuner products from another company that did a great job with their drivers.

The moral of the story: when purchasing hardware, do what Linux users (or NT users back in the day) had to do - check to make sure that the hardware vendor has quality drivers before jumping in.

ScaryBob · 2012-04-22, 12:48 PM

I had similar issues with Hauppauge drivers. The were 64 bit "compatible" but by the time decent drivers and software were available for the HD-PVR the hardware was failing (or maybe it never worked properly, don't know

.) It was almost as cheap to buy a new HD-PVR than to upgrade the bundled software anyway.

ClgShaft · 2012-04-26, 11:14 PM

I am using media portal tv server, and the front end for live tv.

I use xbmc for movies and recorded tv, just really like it.

using 3 - 1600, 1 2250, 2 950q, and 1 collossus all hauppauge.

I have tried every htpc software out there, that i know of and was free.

Mediaportal does what i want for tv, and xbmc has everything but the live tv.

TV server does take some time to setup, but worth it, and pain free, easy to assign channels.

redzone · 2012-04-27, 10:43 AM

im useing media portal as well but i use it for all content. i found the scrapper was easier to use and fix when it didnt work right compared to xbmc

I use the moving pictures plug in for video content.

my biggest grip is a bug via hdmi that drops mediaportal from full screen. I did find a work around program but its frustrating and makes the set up not look as good as it could.

roger1818 · 2012-04-27, 01:33 PM

Can media portal be compiled under Linux or is it for Windows only?

OTAJuncqui · 2012-04-27, 02:18 PM

according to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...tware_packages

MP is windows only

But I see an omission in the list (I wonder what it might be) after all this is Wikipedia

roger1818 · 2012-04-27, 02:31 PM

^^^Hmm. Let me guess. Could it be the one you use?

Wikipedia relies on every day people (like you and me) to update it when they see omissions like this.

Since you are the expert on it (I haven't used it), I will leave the update to you.

Eljaca · 2012-04-27, 06:28 PM

You guys are a riot

Well I've picked up my case - went with Silverstone GD05 - and it's time to start filling it. I also got my CM4228 installed in the attic and I have the following channels coming in (a little off topic, but then again it's my thread!)

2.1 WGRZ-HD 1080i NBC - buffalo
2.2 WGRZ-AT 480i NBC - buffalo
4.1 WIVB-HD 1080i CBS
5.1 CBLT-DT 720p CBC
7.1 WKBW-HD 720p ABC
9.1 CFTO 1080i CFTO
15.1 WNYB-SD 480i SUN
15.2 WNYB-HD 1080i
15.3 WNYBSD2 480i
15-4 WNYBSD3 480i
17.1 WNED-HD 1080i PBS
17.2 WNED-SD 480i PBS
17.3 WNED-TH 480i PBS
19.1 C 1080i TVO
23.1 WNLO-HD 1080i CW
25.1 CBLFT-D 720p SRC - French
29.1 WUTV-HD 720p FOX 29
29.2 TCN 480i County Network
36.1 CITS-HD 1080i CTS
41.1 CIII-HD 1080i Global
41.2 CIII-SD 480i Global
47.1 CFMT 1080i OMNI
49.1 WNYO-HD 720p MyN
49.2 Cool TV 480i Buffalo
51.1 ION 720p ION barely comes in
51.2 qubo 480i QUBO barely comes in
51.3 IONlife 480i IONLife barely comes in
57.1 CITYTV 1080i CITY TV
69.1 CJMT 1080i OMN

I am 99% sure I will go with the HD Homerun at this stage. Would love to hear from anyone about plain ol' Windows Media Centre....why would I not want this? OK..this should get interesting!

Eljaca

ScaryBob · 2012-04-27, 11:33 PM

The main reason for not using Windows Media Center is that Canadian TV lineups are not supported directly. There is an unofficial patch and nearby US lineups will work in some areas (Buffalo in this case.) WMC is included in Win7 but not Win8. It will be an extra cost add-on for Win8 Pro.

Wayne · 2012-04-27, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by audacity

The moral of the story: when purchasing hardware, do what Linux users (or NT users back in the day) had to do - check to make sure that the hardware vendor has quality drivers before jumping in.

The problem is that you don't always have much choice. If you want to record HD cable channels in Canada then the HD-PVR (or the Collosus which is pretty much the same thing) are your only choices.

Eljaca · 2012-04-28, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScaryBob

The main reason for not using Windows Media Center is that Canadian TV lineups are not supported directly. There is an unofficial patch and nearby US lineups will work in some areas (Buffalo in this case.)

Does this mean stations like CITY TV will not be available in a guide format, or is it "smart" enough to capture this since Buffalo could pull in the Toronto station?

Just as an update, I am almost ready to pull the trigger on the rest of my HTPC..here's what I am looking at now thanks to everyone's feedback and edumacation!:

ASUS P8Z68-M Pro LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Model #:P8Z68-M Pro
$132.99

HDHomeRun DUAL - High Definition Digital TV Tuner (Network Attached) HDHR3-US (Black) by SiliconDust
Model #:HDHR3-US
$124.99

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ...
Model #:EA-380D Green
$54.99

Intel Core i3-2105 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I32105
Model #:BX80623I32105
$139.99

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Model #:AGT3-25SAT3-60G
$89.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
Model #:F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
$29.99

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Model #:HD204UI
$109.99

LITE-ON Black 12X Blu-ray Burner with Blu Ray 3D Feature SATA IHBS112-04 - OEM
Model #:IHBS112-04
$79.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
Model #:GFC-02050
$109.99

Wayne · 2012-04-28, 01:38 PM

If you are not going to be using a Canadian cable/sat tuner in your system then I would STRONGLY recommend setting up your system as a US based system with a NY state zip and use a VPN or unblockus. This lets you get InternetTV which is very well implemented and let's you get online content from many US networks, Netflix, etc. You can also integrate the Hulu desktop with an addon. But you can't do any of this if you say that you are based in Canada.

2012-04-21, 08:48 PM	#61
roger1818 Veteran Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Ottawa (Stittsville), ON, OTA (Radio Shack Omnidirectional Antenna and 5Y6S in Attic), MythTV HTPC Posts: 5,612	The other option is to avoid Micro$oft all together and install MythTV under Linux. __________________ Link to my TVFool results is in my profile Homepage URL. I suggest others do the same.

2012-04-22, 12:13 PM	#63
ScaryBob Veteran Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: The Dandelion City Posts: 7,133	I will agree that some (very few) hardware drivers will not work with 64 bit Windows. For a new PC, there is more reason to use 64 bit than not. I stand corrected on WMC in Win8 CP. I wasn't sure and don't have a copy installed to check. Caveats regarding third party software compatibility still apply. Win8 CP worth a try since the cost is nothing for up to 9 months of use. If it doesn't work out, get a copy of Win7. __________________ At 20 I had a good mind. At 40 I had money. At 60 I've lost my mind and my money. Oh, to be 20 again. --Scary

2012-04-22, 12:48 PM	#65
ScaryBob Veteran Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: The Dandelion City Posts: 7,133	I had similar issues with Hauppauge drivers. The were 64 bit "compatible" but by the time decent drivers and software were available for the HD-PVR the hardware was failing (or maybe it never worked properly, don't know .) It was almost as cheap to buy a new HD-PVR than to upgrade the bundled software anyway. __________________ At 20 I had a good mind. At 40 I had money. At 60 I've lost my mind and my money. Oh, to be 20 again. --Scary

2012-04-27, 01:33 PM	#68
roger1818 Veteran Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Ottawa (Stittsville), ON, OTA (Radio Shack Omnidirectional Antenna and 5Y6S in Attic), MythTV HTPC Posts: 5,612	Can media portal be compiled under Linux or is it for Windows only? __________________ Link to my TVFool results is in my profile Homepage URL. I suggest others do the same.

2012-04-27, 02:18 PM	#69
OTAJuncqui Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Nepean, ON Posts: 334	according to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...tware_packages MP is windows only But I see an omission in the list (I wonder what it might be) after all this is Wikipedia __________________ Srvr:ASUSF1A75-VPro,RadHD6000,A6-3670K,WD2TB,W7Ult NPVR,5.1,2xHaup2250MC,ATI650,CM7777,WGHD8800,5clts

2012-04-22, 08:19 AM	#62
johnvan Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 113	I had to ditch MythTV because Netflix doesn't work with Linux. It's too bad, MythTV was great. One of my computers didn't work well on 64 bit Windows 7, very glitchy, as soon as I switched to 32 bit everything worked fine. The others are 64 bit.

2012-04-22, 12:39 PM	#64
audacity Veteran Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: 127.0.0.1 Posts: 1,805	In 2009 I updated my HTPC OS and went from using a 32-bit OS to using a 64-bit OS. Unfortunately I did have a couple devices that had drivers that didn't support the 64-bit OS so... I replaced them. That was a very easy decision, since at that point if a company still isn't producing drivers for their products many years after 64-bit operating systems became mainstream then they aren't putting much effort into supporting said products. Probably because they've been discontinued. If anyone is curious, the devices that I replaced were Hauppauge PVR-500 cards. I went to Hauppauge HVR-2250 cards, but unfortunately those drivers had issues as well. They would start to fail when the computer went in and out of S3 (sleep). Oh, and if the Hauppauge HVR-2250 drivers and the Hauppauge HD-PVR drivers were installed in the wrong order, then the IR-blaster for the HD-PVR wouldn't function properly. So, I concluded that Hauppauge must be putting a lot more effort into their hardware than they do their software and so I purchased tuner products from another company that did a great job with their drivers. The moral of the story: when purchasing hardware, do what Linux users (or NT users back in the day) had to do - check to make sure that the hardware vendor has quality drivers before jumping in.

2012-04-26, 11:14 PM	#66
ClgShaft Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 702	I am using media portal tv server, and the front end for live tv. I use xbmc for movies and recorded tv, just really like it. using 3 - 1600, 1 2250, 2 950q, and 1 collossus all hauppauge. I have tried every htpc software out there, that i know of and was free. Mediaportal does what i want for tv, and xbmc has everything but the live tv. TV server does take some time to setup, but worth it, and pain free, easy to assign channels.

2012-04-27, 10:43 AM	#67
redzone Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 1,027	im useing media portal as well but i use it for all content. i found the scrapper was easier to use and fix when it didnt work right compared to xbmc I use the moving pictures plug in for video content. my biggest grip is a bug via hdmi that drops mediaportal from full screen. I did find a work around program but its frustrating and makes the set up not look as good as it could.

2012-04-27, 02:31 PM	#70
roger1818 Veteran Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Ottawa (Stittsville), ON, OTA (Radio Shack Omnidirectional Antenna and 5Y6S in Attic), MythTV HTPC Posts: 5,612	^^^Hmm. Let me guess. Could it be the one you use? Wikipedia relies on every day people (like you and me) to update it when they see omissions like this. Since you are the expert on it (I haven't used it), I will leave the update to you. __________________ Link to my TVFool results is in my profile Homepage URL. I suggest others do the same.

2012-04-27, 06:28 PM	#71
Eljaca Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Whitby, Rogers Posts: 152	You guys are a riot Well I've picked up my case - went with Silverstone GD05 - and it's time to start filling it. I also got my CM4228 installed in the attic and I have the following channels coming in (a little off topic, but then again it's my thread!) 2.1 WGRZ-HD 1080i NBC - buffalo 2.2 WGRZ-AT 480i NBC - buffalo 4.1 WIVB-HD 1080i CBS 5.1 CBLT-DT 720p CBC 7.1 WKBW-HD 720p ABC 9.1 CFTO 1080i CFTO 15.1 WNYB-SD 480i SUN 15.2 WNYB-HD 1080i 15.3 WNYBSD2 480i 15-4 WNYBSD3 480i 17.1 WNED-HD 1080i PBS 17.2 WNED-SD 480i PBS 17.3 WNED-TH 480i PBS 19.1 C 1080i TVO 23.1 WNLO-HD 1080i CW 25.1 CBLFT-D 720p SRC - French 29.1 WUTV-HD 720p FOX 29 29.2 TCN 480i County Network 36.1 CITS-HD 1080i CTS 41.1 CIII-HD 1080i Global 41.2 CIII-SD 480i Global 47.1 CFMT 1080i OMNI 49.1 WNYO-HD 720p MyN 49.2 Cool TV 480i Buffalo 51.1 ION 720p ION barely comes in 51.2 qubo 480i QUBO barely comes in 51.3 IONlife 480i IONLife barely comes in 57.1 CITYTV 1080i CITY TV 69.1 CJMT 1080i OMN I am 99% sure I will go with the HD Homerun at this stage. Would love to hear from anyone about plain ol' Windows Media Centre....why would I not want this? OK..this should get interesting! Eljaca

2012-04-27, 11:33 PM	#72
ScaryBob Veteran Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: The Dandelion City Posts: 7,133	The main reason for not using Windows Media Center is that Canadian TV lineups are not supported directly. There is an unofficial patch and nearby US lineups will work in some areas (Buffalo in this case.) WMC is included in Win7 but not Win8. It will be an extra cost add-on for Win8 Pro. __________________ At 20 I had a good mind. At 40 I had money. At 60 I've lost my mind and my money. Oh, to be 20 again. --Scary

2012-04-28, 01:38 PM	#75
Wayne Veteran Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Scarboro Posts: 5,568	If you are not going to be using a Canadian cable/sat tuner in your system then I would STRONGLY recommend setting up your system as a US based system with a NY state zip and use a VPN or unblockus. This lets you get InternetTV which is very well implemented and let's you get online content from many US networks, Netflix, etc. You can also integrate the Hulu desktop with an addon. But you can't do any of this if you say that you are based in Canada.

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