[Dennisreneholm]

Hello.

I'm looking for the best way to get a DVR system going at home.
I live in Denmark, and i have Yousee as my DVB-C provider.

I have these devices available, which are alaways turned on anyway.

XBMC media center ( XBMCBuntu )
Built on Atom / ION
Motherboard : http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-ion-itx-a-...tx-au.html

Windows Server 2008 R2
Specs:
Fractal Design Define XL Black
ASUS P8H61-M PRO B3 Sandy Bridge
Intel Core i3 2100T Sandy Bridge
Kingston 8GB DDR3 1333MHz (2x4) Hypex
HP Smart Array P410 Controller med HP 512MB BBWC Upgrade
8 x Western Digital 1500 GB Green 64 MB

What I have come up with is that I must have a Backend , and Frontend.
Frontend is what I 'm used to, XBMC , whether it is on Windows or Linux then it should be easy to get up and running.

The Backend I have a little trouble finding out what to do.
I have a basic package from YouSee , and i bought 3 extra channels, so I have a Yousee card, and must thus be able to decrypt channels, and the dream scenario is that I can do it on multiple channels simultaneously.
I am also unsure about the 2 computers that I have avaibable to be backend are the best choice? And if they are capable of handling HD material?
I'm not sure if it 's backend or frontend that's performing decoding.

If I run it from my Windows server, it seems that it is MediaPortal I need, and if it becomes XBMC so it must be MythTV .

Hoping for some help with little input

Thank you in advance for your help!
Best regards Dennis.

This was translated via google translate and roughly corrected afterwards, let me know if something is unclear!

[mayoman]

Your backend is not a problem spec wise, it does not take too much processing power to be a backend. My concern is YouSee encryption - but as I don't know about it I guess you will need to look a Danish forums to see what is recommended or if a card reader will work or not.
The obvious choice is to make the Windows server your backend, and use either Windows Media Center (WMC), MediaPortal, Argus, or NextPVR. I recall some have (had?) issues running on the server version of Windows - you may want to check first.
WMC is the easiest to setup but you can only access one channel per tuner at a time, the others will access multiple channels per transponder. Again, it depends on how many transponders YouSee uses and if it will allow more than one channel at a time to be decrypted as to how useful that is. I think WMC is also less decryption friendly.
I would check Danish forums to see which backend is most popular as that will most likely tell you which will work best for pulling EPG data etc.

A good frontend will be more troublesome, particularly if you have MPEG2-HD format channels. I think the Atom should be ok (the link you posted doesn't work for me by the way) - somebody else (who has one) would be better placed to answer Most Android devices won't work on this format & you will probably need to avoid Wifi for streaming.

Anyway, the first question you need to answer is what tuner card, and that depends on your YouSee service: can the card be used in a PC tuner, and how many transponders are used for encrypted and unencrypted channels. I suspect you want a twin tuner with a card slot, but as they are more expensive check the Danish forums for what will work first

[Dennisreneholm]

Thanks for your response!

I've read up on mediaportal, and you're correct, Windows server OS need to be patched for TV tuners to work, but it should be working perfect afterwards.

The main devices for watching TV is the Intel/atom XBMC installation, and me and my girlfriends PC's, which have plenty of power.
I suppose, as long as you can watch HD movies, you can watch HD channels?

These danish forum you're refering to, do you mean a specifec XBMC forum, or just generally a danish forum for DVR?


And yes, what TV tuner card to choose, this has been the most troublesome to figure out, i hope i can find help, getting the right TV tuner
I was hoping for dual tuners, or even quadrupel (spelled that very wrong xD ) so there can be more channels active, at the same time.

[mayoman]

I suppose, as long as you can watch HD movies, you can watch HD channels?

Not movies from the internet, but yes if it's something like a straight Bluray rip.

These danish forum you're refering to, do you mean a specifec XBMC forum, or just generally a danish forum for DVR?

General Danish forums for DVR. How YouSee encrypts and transmits its channels will determine your options.

By the way, just calling it a quad tuner is fine

[Dennisreneholm]

I'm thinking bluray rips.
I got a rip of Avatar that has a very high bitrate, the videofile is 15 gb i think.

If i can play that, i can play HD TV ?

[nickr]

If you use linux, the ION will definitely play HD television streams as well as your avatar rip.

It may also do so in windows, but I don't use windows so it is hard for me to say.

[Dennisreneholm]

On Windows it's gaming machines, so there is no worries there.

[negge]

According to Yousee they use Viaccess for encrypting channels, which means you'll able to use pretty much any method you want for decrypting. The traditional way is to get a CAM module that can decrypt more than one channel at a time, the other way (which could decrypt any number of channel simulataneously) can't be discussed on this forum, so you'll have to do some digging.

[Dennisreneholm]

Thanks for the answer.

I've ordered these two products from Digital Devices.
DD Cine C2T2 V7 - Twin Tuner Card DVB-C/C2/T/T2 (PCI Express Card)
DD Flex CI - Common Interface Expansion Modul

And i'm going with mediaportal.

I'm looking forward to putting all this together, and i will report back with my experiences

[Dennisreneholm]

If you use linux, the ION will definitely play HD television streams as well as your avatar rip.

It may also do so in windows, but I don't use windows so it is hard for me to say.

Hi, since you sounded sure that my ION setup would play HD without problems, i chose to quote you

I have problems with HD channels on my setup.


The channels runs 100% smooth on my other PC's, which has near high-end hardware.
But on my ION with XBMCbuntu, there is constant stutter.
It looks like it can't determine what fps to run it at, the sound is perfect, and i can see it matches the video sort of, so it's not out of sync per say.
But it keeps being in a condition of trying to get the right FPS, constantly speeding up, and slowing down.

If i check the FPS at HD channels, i can see it keeps changing.

Any suggestions to how to fix this?

Best regards, Dennis.

[nickr]

Do you have vdpau enabled?

[Dennisreneholm]

i think i do, but just to verify, where do i check that ?

[nickr]

Easiest quick check, while playing press o and see what is being used. you'll see something like ff-vdpau for decoder.

[Dennisreneholm]

I do not have a keyboard plugged in, but i got this:
http://i.imgur.com/2JQIwuS.jpg

[nickr]

As you can see vdpau is being used.

Time for a debug log please.