Networked TV

ericvic

Active Member
I need some ideas and opinions. Let me start with my goal and my current setup.

I want to be able to watch TV on the machine in my office. I currently accomplish this by using an ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 and it works pretty well. The big issue I have is the cable going to this card is strung across the floor of my office back over a door to a cable connection in the other room. I want to get rid of the cable and there is no way to get the cable into the wall due to many factors that I have already tried to get around.

What I was thinking about doing was using one of my spare machine and start building a media server. Here is where the questions come in. Should I get another ATI tuner card and use EasyShare to get the signal across the network? Should I get a different type of tuner card (I'm not real thrilled with the ATI card or software)? What other software out there would give me the capability of PVR functionality and the ability to stream the signal across the network. I have started looking at Snapstream's Beyond TV and Beyond TV Link but I know nothing about them. Any opinions?

One other thing that is not important now but will become so later. I need the ability to control the software through HA software and the ability to contorl multiple tuners.

Thanks,
Eric
 
I have a DirecTiVo that I have put on my network. With some free software (TyTool), I can copy anything off the TiVo to any computer on my network - and watch it through any DVD software (WinDVD, etc). My setup does not stream live TV (I don't need it - my goal was to download movies, car races, etc to my laptop to watch when I'm traveling). This is also how you can make your own DVDs...

I believe there is some software that helps you stream from the TiVo, but I've never tested it.

TyTool link: http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthre...?threadid=39740
 
Not to hijack the thread, but, how much of a pain was it to set up your dtivo for that?

Thanks,
Tony
 
eric,

There are several ways of doing this. Some of the ones I can think of are to just get a Hauppauge PVR series card (i.e. PVR-150), and you could set up a streaming server using the free Windows Media Services (I have streamed TV that way to my wireless pocket PC and such). If you want the easy way out, and don't mind paying, you could go with the Orb.com service, which allows you to access your TV tuner from anywhere in the world, using any device which supports windows streaming (smart phone, pocket pc, windows based machine, etc.).

BeyondTV is not a bad product at all, so if you think it will do the job, you might want to take a look at it. I believe SageTV supports remote TV viewing as well, but I have never tried that functionality (it is a solid product however, and turns your system into a full PVR platform).

Last but not least, you could also build a MCE based machine, and invest in extenders, they are basically set top boxes which allow you to access the MCE machine in other rooms, including live TV, and all other media you might have. There is also an addon which allows you to control MCE by simulating key presses which can be sent over TCP/IP. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediace...s/extender.mspx for more information about the Extenders.
 
Thanks for the replies. Is there a site anywhere that describes the differences between all the Hauppuage cards? They seem to be the most talked about cards out there but I'm confused about the different versions.

Eric
 
Keep in mind that the PVR-350 hardware decoding part isn't supported by every application, including MCE.
 
TonyNo said:
Not to hijack the thread, but, how much of a pain was it to set up your dtivo for that?

Thanks,
Tony
Sorry - off-topic discussion, but in case anyone is watching for the answer...

Contact me via PM if you want details - but it wasn't difficult. Purchase a special network card (not an off-the-shelf card), install some software and you're up and running. It's nice, besides downloading shows to my laptop, I have a web browser interface for programming TiVo, wishlists, etc. Very nice :eek:

Here is a link to the cachecard/network card. The cachecard is sweet too - add some memory and it makes your TiVo interface work much faster!
http://www.9thtee.com/tivocachecard.htm
 
Back on Mar 26 post, electron mentioned Orb. It's now free!!!!!

I installed it on my MCE2005 box, and can remotely watch live TV, prerecorded TV, Audio, pictures,etc from anywhere.

Comparing a live TV broadcast, with viewing the same cable channel remotely via Orb, seems to be about a 10 sec delay. Using a wireless connection, or cable modem.

Can remotely record programs.

Pretty slick, and the price is great! FREE!

http://orb.com
 
bfisher said:
Sorry - off-topic discussion, but in case anyone is watching for the answer...

Contact me via PM if you want details - but it wasn't difficult. Purchase a special network card (not an off-the-shelf card), install some software and you're up and running. It's nice, besides downloading shows to my laptop, I have a web browser interface for programming TiVo, wishlists, etc. Very nice ;)
For any other lurkers following bfisher's OT discussion, ReplayTV is a *MUCH* simpler way to get TV shows onto a laptop.
  • The network card is built-in
  • The software *ONLY* needs to be installed on the PC [DVArchive - *FREE*] - on the TiVo (last time I looked), you had to pull the HD, install it in a PC and run some LINUX programs to modify the TiVO's OS, and then put it back (with the possibility that a TiVo Software Upgrade could overwrite it forcing you to do it all over again)
  • Stream to your PC with VideoLAN - *FREE* from any PC running DVArchive (allowing access also to any ReplayTV, IIRC)
  • *FREE* Commercial (removing) editors
  • Many DVD Players can play "raw" ReplayTV MPEG-2 (IIRC) files burned onto CDs and/or DVDs, without the need for "authoring"
  • Web browser access, Poopli (sharing with other ReplayTV Users), conflict resolution, yada, yada, yada...
Just to present another option in this OT discussion...
 
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