Freeview Set top Box

[doc]

I'm about to cut back on my sky subscription and replace the multiroom box with a freeview set to box. I'm using a USBUIRT to control the sky boxes at the moment.

I want a set top box rather than a PC card so that I can use it independantly to sage if I ever need to.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good cheap stb that works ok with the usbuirt? or any to avoid......

Its always best to check before spending and then wishing you'd bought a different one (oh I am in a good mood today )

Any advice appreciated.

[ukmgranger]

Originally Posted by doc

I'm about to cut back on my sky subscription and replace the multiroom box with a freeview set to box. I'm using a USBUIRT to control the sky boxes at the moment.

I want a set top box rather than a PC card so that I can use it independantly to sage if I ever need to.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good cheap stb that works ok with the usbuirt? or any to avoid......

Its always best to check before spending and then wishing you'd bought a different one (oh I am in a good mood today )

Any advice appreciated.

Buy a DVB-T card instead! I have a Happauge Nova-T and both the picture quality and ease of use is great. There is also no delay real delay when changing channels, which can get slightly annoying using a STB.

Saying that, I used to have two Freeview STB's connected using the USB-UIRT. 1 x Sagem ITD68 (I think) and 1 x Ferguson FDT500. The Ferguson was by far the better box as the Sagem box had a habbit of updating the channel lineup automatically, which would make it (the STB) shut down. If I didn't check things from time to time, I would find that my Sage had recorded half an hour of the Sagem startup screen. Really annoying.

The only difficulty with the Ferguson box was the remote codes. There was some kind of duality on the button presses which meant that I had to make some pretty funky remote codes for Sage to work.

If you do get this box - let me know as I could post the codes for you

Regards

[rickgillyon]

I used a cheap one from Asda at one point (£20) which gave a good picture. BUT if you get a card, you avoid that whole digital-analogue-digital conversion nonsense, the picture from a card is *far* clearer...

Hell, with STBs available for £20, get a dual-tuner card and a STB.

[doc]

Yes you have good points there. Most stb's that I've read up on seem to need swicthing off and on now and again and not as reliable as the sky boxes, and as I'm away all week thats not ideal.

I have a spare pvr350 so thats why I was thinking of the stb.

Do the dvb-t cards do the mpeg encoding, or is it software encoded by the pc? or is it downloaded straight as mpeg? I'm showing my lack of knowledge about digital TV here aren't I! If its software encoding would it affect playback on the mvp if the servers recording 2 channels simultaneously.

I suppose I should go out and buy one and play shouldn't I, keep me busy for a couple more weekends

[ron.smythe]

Hi doc, freeview is currently broadcast in mpeg2, so the freeview cards and usb devices just stream digital content to your computer system, what you get is a pure digital stream as broadcast. This means, that there is no encoding going on at all, just capture!

[rickgillyon]

The whole point of using a card is that there is no encoding/decoding at all - the signal comes in as a MPG stream and is recorded directly - no messing. This MPG is playable without any change on the MVP, and there's not that much for your PC to do. Means that you can't change the quality like you might on an incoming analogue stream, but why would you want to?

See my .sig for the cards I'm using with good effect. YMMV!

EDIT: Damn, beaten to the punch again...

[doc]

great, that would explain why when I read up on the cards on the hauppauge site, that it didn't mention anything about mpeg encoding. I feel daft now!

The only remaining problem is getting someone onto the roof to put a good aerial up. Its a 130 years old mid terrace house and the slates have seen better days. I guess its time to call for a professional.... or someone daft enough to climb up there

[doc]

Those Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT dual DVB-T tuners look nice, and they're not a bad price too. As I'm stuck with PCI slots it would give me a good excuse to upgrade the whole thing

[rickgillyon]

Mine functions just fine off the many-years-old standard aerial on top of my 150-yr-old 3-floor mid-terrace. I get a few anomalies in the signal but not many. No doubt you'll need a booster if you're splitting though.

As to having no PCI-X, there's a dual-tuner Hauppauge freeview too, but you know that new Core 2 Duo CPU is calling your name...

[motobarsteward]

Originally Posted by doc

great, that would explain why when I read up on the cards on the hauppauge site, that it didn't mention anything about mpeg encoding. I feel daft now!

The only remaining problem is getting someone onto the roof to put a good aerial up. Its a 130 years old mid terrace house and the slates have seen better days. I guess its time to call for a professional.... or someone daft enough to climb up there

I woudn't ask Rod Hull, if I were you.

Sorry, very sick, but I couldn't resist it!

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by motobarsteward

I woudn't ask Rod Hull, if I were you.

Rod would have been fine, if Emu hadn't attacked him at exactly the wrong moment...

[doc]

what they didn't say on the news is whether or not he fixed the aerial before he was attacked.

[motobarsteward]

Apparantly, his son went outside to see what the load 'crump' was. Now, using a little bit of deductive reasoning..

They were both avid footy fans (although which team escapes me). the argument goes that if his dad had fixed the arial before falling off, it was highly likely then son would not have gone to look for him until after the game!

Oh, and I don't think we can blame Emu for this one. The Emu is a are bird. How the b***y hell would it get up on the roof to attack him?

[motobarsteward]

Oh, and on a different note, when do I get promoted from being just a 'Sage User'? is it after 50 posts? Do I get a card or certificate?

[doc]

I remember thinking the same thing when I was around 50 posts. I think its about 70ish, can't remember exactly though.

It says I'm an advanced user - if you read some of my posts I think you'll get a differering opinion on that!

Some of the people with thousands of posts must have been on this forum before the internet was conceived! If you post 1 message a day, which I think is being quite active, thats 365 a year, 1000 in 3 years (approx), so opus must have been on here for 30 years..........

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by motobarsteward

Oh, and I don't think we can blame Emu for this one. The Emu is a are bird. How the b***y hell would it get up on the roof to attack him?

It was probably hanging on to his belt the whole way up. Hell, this was Rod Hull, Emu was maybe on his arm the whole time!

We can just hope that he fixed the aerial and, after the emu attack, saw his home team score a goal through the lounge window just before he hit the ground. Then he'd have died happy.

Especially if he landed on the bird.

[rickgillyon]

BTW, I think "Expert" used to be 50 posts, "Aficionado" was 100, but it's all changed now. I'm pretty sure "Fanatic" is 750 because I just passed it, but "sad geek" would probably be more appropriate.

[motobarsteward]

Now Andy has got involved, I guess that when I get to 74, they'll move the goal post to 100.