Advice Needed Combi-box recommendations

[RNDThoughts]

Hi,

I wonder if it would be possible to pick your knowledgable member's brains with regards to some advice around buying a combination Freeview/Sat/European satellite box? I've spent a few years using Windows Media Center and MediaPortal so I have experience setting up TV tuner cards and satellite cards within a PC/Windows environment. I also have a dish outside which a dual LNB rig that picks up the UK FreeSat and German Astra signals but am getting fed up constantly rebooting, fixing PC problems, etc and would like to replace the whole thing with some sort of (reliable!) combi box which does the following:

Picks up Freeview/Freesat (record from 2 while watching another would be good)
Records German TV via Astra
Is able to download TV listings for both countries and do all the usual recording/series link gubbins.
(Optional) Blu-Ray disc player
(Optional) Catch up tv function
Recordings accessible over a LAN (Windows network)

I am aware that getting all this functionality may be equivalent to watching pigs fly but i'd really like some pointers if possible I did look at the TopField boxes a few years ago but there seems to be a bewildering amount of machines around now.

Steve

 

[pgh13]

Hi Steve,

Welcome to the Forum. I think that for your requirements (flexibility of tuners) you'll be looking towards the high end Linux receivers which I haven't used, but their several enthusiastic users who will, I'm sure, be along to sing their virtues and point out the drawbacks.

I'd be interested in what you've explored down the PC route. I have a PC running W7 with NextPVR. It has 3 DVBT tuners and 1 DVBS tuner. This is the current setup which has been pretty reliable for the last 2 years, maybe needing a reboot once in a while, but I've been using the W7/NPVR combo for 6 plus years now.

I get 7 days EPG on Freeview and German FTA channels and I can view recordings, listen to music etc in other parts of the house. I used to use Hauppauge MediaMVP but recently started using XBMC on Raspberry Pi.

I occasionally get the "why have you got all that just to watch TV? Nobody else does!" but when I look at other options it always falls down at flexibility of tuners etc.

I've a friend who wants to ditch S_y but wants to be able to see all the F1 GPs this year (perhaps on RTL) so this would suit him but he's not PC savvy so I hesitate to recommend (and support) this to him, so would also be interested to see other replies

 

[RNDThoughts]

Hi,

What this basically boils down to is passing the "wife" test . I moved away from Windows Media Center as it stopped being developed and was always having terrible rendering problems with tv streams. Switching to MediaPortal worked well, but I always had remote problems. In both cases, I ran the systems for over 18 months and after this time they usually started exhibiting issues. All it took was for one power failure or the missus hitting the reset button in frustration and i'd end up with driver problems, etc.

I too have a tablet in the kitchen and a small pc in the bedroom to stream tv around the house so i'd really like something that streams. I may take a look at NextPVR as you've recommended it

Steve

 

[PaulR]

What this basically boils down to is passing the "wife" test

LOL a difficult one indeed.

Have you thought of hiding the reset button underneath or inside?

 

[RNDThoughts]

Thats a fair idea! The trouble is, there's always the mains plug...

 

[pgh13]

Hi,

What this basically boils down to is passing the "wife" test . I moved away from Windows Media Center as it stopped being developed and was always having terrible rendering problems with tv streams. Switching to MediaPortal worked well, but I always had remote problems. In both cases, I ran the systems for over 18 months and after this time they usually started exhibiting issues. All it took was for one power failure or the missus hitting the reset button in frustration and i'd end up with driver problems, etc.

I too have a tablet in the kitchen and a small pc in the bedroom to stream tv around the house so i'd really like something that streams. I may take a look at NextPVR as you've recommended it

Steve

To be fair, occasionally the recording service stops but can be restarted without problem and sometimes, usually after Windows update has called a restart, NPVR loses focus, but there is a configurable option to keep it 'always on top' but the PC is also used sometimes for XBMC so I don't