HTPC success!!

Crusty Burke

Hi folks,

My Dreambox 7025 was switched off this weekend when I installed a second tuner card on my HTPC.

I've wanted a "one box" solution for my TV watching for a long time and I think I've just about cracked it. I have a Hauppauge Nova-S2 card with a WinTV-CI module attached for Astra 2 and my Irish Sky sub card. This works like a dream now and to keep the card alive I've pressed my old Pace Sky Digibox back into service and will pop the Sky card back into it when necessary.

For my motorised dish I've shopped around because I needed a card that would reliably use USALS to drive the dish. I bought the AzureWave DVB-S2 card along with the CI module. This card works well and reliably drives my dish. Getting the FTA HD channels is great and I can schedule recordings using DVBViewer.

Using the latest Catalyst drivers I can get nice smooth video as the PC runs 1920X1080 using a refresh rate of 25i.

My Hauppauge remote gives a nice handy way of tuning the TV so I'm hoping I can wean the wife and kids off the Sky+ box and its increasingly expensive subs before too long.

The one issue I have is that I have a Bis sub card mostly for TF1. The AzureWave CI module is attached but doesn't seem to run. I have tried the AzureWaves's basic software which can detect the CAM in my CI module but not the card. DVBViewer cannot see the AzureWave's CI and my CAM at all.

Other than that I now have Blu-Ray DVDs, Sky Ireland, Freesat and lots and lots of FTA HD & SD channels to play with. I'm also experimenting with the DVBViewer server so I can watch TV on my wireless network in the same way I could with the Dreambox.

Crusty Burke

Small postscript to this - I've experimented with assigning the WinTV-CI to the AzureWave card as its external CI module. This works, provided I use my T-Rex cam for the BIS card.

I've ordered an extra T-Rex cam and another WinTV-CI module to see if I can run Irish Sky, UK Freesat and BIS together. If I get all this lot working that will be it for the Dreambox for me!

Topper

Sounds like you have all this boxed off, well done and thanks for posting the information which I am sure others will find useful

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Crusty Burke

Thanks Topper, your kind comments are much appreciated! I'll put a few more updates on this thread as I add more functionality to the HTPC.

Crusty Burke

OK - a big attraction of the Dreambox for me was its fairly easy Web Interface. This allowed me to stream TV of my choice to a client PC on my wireless LAN - which when I consider the main TV gets used mostly for the kids choice of nonsense is a dealbreaker.

Would I be able to stream TV from my HTPC on the LAN?

Luckily there is a Web Interface available from the members section of the DVBViewer site. What DVBViewer don't tell you is what works on the server.

The server interface consists of a small dialog box - use the web address 0.0.0.0 to allow any device on your LAN to connect to DVBViewer. Define a port - 80 is possible but I used 8080.

Client PCs will need the latest Windows Media Player or VLC version 0.8.6i. SImply enter the IP address of your server PC in the browser address bar and you're off.

Generally I found running VLC the best option in terms of picture quality. Client PCs will kick off DVBViewer (with sound) on your server PC so it might be worth muting the volume!