Questions regarding DirecTV and HD upgrade

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shocksyde

2[H]4U
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Jan 24, 2001
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Hello fellow HTPCers,

I've had an HTPC up and running for several months now and love it. No problems, life is swell, etc. Currently it only has a single DirecTV STB connected to a Standard Definition Hauppage 150MCE tuner card.

Within the next few months our household will be upgrading to HD. I went to the DirecTV website to try and find some answers as to what I exactly need, but it wasn't very informative.

On to the questions:

- I'm under the impression the Haupp 150MCE will only be good for tuning SD stuff, not HD. So do I need a seperate HD tuner to connect to the new HD STB to tune the HD channels, as well as a seperate HD tuner for Over-the-Air (OTA) HD channels? Is there a good one that has two connections for this purpose?

- I'm going to keep the current STB and continue to use it to watch/record shows. As far as I know they'll install another STB that is HD capable. I only NEED one additional box, but should I get 2? or 1 HD and 2 SD? I'm assuming if I only got one HD STB I'd regret not being able to record one HD program while watching another.

- Can MCE handle 2 HD Tuners?

- Which HD tuners are recommended for the above application?

- I currently have one MCE remote with receiver and an IR blaster. The receiver does have a second port for another IR blaster. Where can I get another blaster? I've never seen them for sale individually. How many receivers/blasters am I going to need? Will they all be a complete pain in the ass to set up?

- Am I completely overlooking anything?

Current Setup:
- Athlon64 3800 Venice
- AsRock 939-Dual mobo
- 1GB G-Skill pc3200 RAM
- 800+ GB HD Space
- MSI 7600GT (HDPC capable) vid card
- Sound Blaster Audigy ZS
- Hauppage 150MCE (I have a Hauppage 500MCE that I'm not using, bare card, no remote)

As far as I can tell from research, this setup will be fine for recording/playing HD, right?

I know it's a lot of questions. Sorry about that. I'm just hoping maybe someone with HD DirecTV has gone through this whole upgrade process and can help me out.
 
At the moment there's no easy way to get HD from your STB to your PC. HD Tuners are for OTA stuff, and some have limited QAM (cable) HD support, but there's nothing outside of a hardware mod to get HD from satellite.

This might be changing in the next few months though - I think that someone announced a deal to have a satellite tuner card here in the US, but it'll probably be limited to Vista MCE with a ton of DRM.

For now though, you're going to be stuck with SD out from your STB, but can add an HD OTA tuner to get your local stations.
 
Well, looking at the bright side, it'll make it a little easier to set-up.

So would the ideal setup be 2 STBs (have one connected to computer for recording SD content, one connected to TV for viewing SD/HD content) and an OTA capture card?

Is there any way to view glorious HD content from the STB thru the computer? Or will it be much better quality going straight from the STB to the TV? I'd really like to avoid using the DirecTV remote/Guide system as I hate it and prefer MCE's Guide and remote.
 
shocksyde said:
So would the ideal setup be 2 STBs (have one connected to computer for recording SD content, one connected to TV for viewing SD/HD content) and an OTA capture card?
Click to expand...
Basically. Is your incoming HD STB a DVR? If so, here is probably your best config:

1. Keep your SD STB connected the way it is, to allow SD recording through your HTPC.

2. Buy an OTA HD tuner card to watch/record your local channels in HD (NBC, ABC, etc).

3. Use your HD STB only for watching/recording non-local HD channels (ESPN, Discovery, etc).

I know this isn't ideal, but unfortunately non-local HD channels are pretty much blocked out of the HTPC world.

Like was mentioned below, some cable companies allow some HD channels to be viewed using a QAM compatible HD tuner card, but this is a craps shoot, depending on your cable provider.

The only other option is to get your HD STB upgraded with a USB or Firewire port. There are a couple companies doing this, but the process is pricey (around $500 IIRC), and obviously very much not officially supported by DirectTV, Microsoft, or anybody else for that matter. www.169time.com is one of the sites. I can't remember the other one.
 
why cant you have the HD STB connected to your PVR card with say... Svideo? or an RCA and use the IR blaster to control it.... wouldnt that give you the use of all your channels because your STB is decoding the QAM encoding and isnt it outputting non encoded video that your PVR can handle????
 
Adidas4275 said:
why cant you have the HD STB connected to your PVR card with say... Svideo? or an RCA and use the IR blaster to control it.... wouldnt that give you the use of all your channels because your STB is decoding the QAM encoding and isnt it outputting non encoded video that your PVR can handle????
Click to expand...

You wouldnt be recording in actual HD. And Sat doesnt use QAM.
 
oh so you would get the HD channels but the box would make it regular tv.. not HD becuase its S-video or RCA... if you had a TV in on a Video card or TV tuner card that was HD then would it work?

but i guess its good that you can get the channels... even thought i wouldnt be HD...
 
Adidas4275 said:
oh so you would get the HD channels but the box would make it regular tv.. not HD becuase its S-video or RCA... if you had a TV in on a Video card or TV tuner card that was HD then would it work?

but i guess its good that you can get the channels... even thought i wouldnt be HD...
Click to expand...
There is no easy way of doing 'TV in' on the PC, and the only HD tuner cards are for over-the-air (OTA) or cable (QAM) signals, and even then QAM should only tune the channels that you can get OTA.
 
Thanks guys, you've been very helpful.

In the end, it looks like this won't be all that hard (or expensive) to make happen.
 
not sure if this applies but,
Vista now natively supports HDTV without the requirement for an intermediate cable box, and will allow you to record content as allowed by the content provider.
 
I'm not sure when I'd make an upgrade to Vista. MCE 2005 (Windows XP Pro, really) is doing just fine for me right now.

I guess when I get the hankering to record HD stuff other than OTA, I'll upgrade to Vista.
 
shocksyde said:
I'm not sure when I'd make an upgrade to Vista. MCE 2005 (Windows XP Pro, really) is doing just fine for me right now.

I guess when I get the hankering to record HD stuff other than OTA, I'll upgrade to Vista.
Click to expand...

It really won't make a difference. The issue with recording HD from Sat or Cable isn't a question of the software. It's the hardware. There are no consumer level tuner cards with HD inputs for these sources. You can only do OTA HD.

Personally I ditched the whole HTPC and just use the HD DVR from my sat provider. Much more user friendly, significantly cheaper and better image quality.
 
Archer75 said:
It really won't make a difference. The issue with recording HD from Sat or Cable isn't a question of the software. It's the hardware. There are no consumer level tuner cards with HD inputs for these sources. You can only do OTA HD.
Click to expand...
Yep the HD HTPC sucks, at this point, due to the lack of non-local channels, except in limited circumstances with QAM
Personally I ditched the whole HTPC and just use the HD DVR from my sat provider. Much more user friendly
Click to expand...
Not always
significantly cheaper
Click to expand...
Again, depends on the situation
and better image quality.
Click to expand...
This is incorrect, unless you have something set up wrong.

Consumer DVR STBs also introduce a whole mess of issues like limited storage, lack of backup, and overbearing DRM. These reasons are why we will continue to strive to find a viable way to integrate premium HD channels into our HTPCs.
 
jebo_4jc said:
Yep the HD HTPC sucks, at this point, due to the lack of non-local channels, except in limited circumstances with QAMNot alwaysAgain, depends on the situationThis is incorrect, unless you have something set up wrong.

Consumer DVR STBs also introduce a whole mess of issues like limited storage, lack of backup, and overbearing DRM. These reasons are why we will continue to strive to find a viable way to integrate premium HD channels into our HTPCs.
Click to expand...

Well getting a free 4 HD Tuner DVR from direct tv is ALOT cheaper than building an HTPC with 4 tuners. Even with 2 tuners it's alot cheaper.

I have never had issues with DRM on ANY DVR. Storage isn't really an issue either. My DVR is running practically non stop and it's never been an issue. But with the Direct TV Tivo units you can simply add another hard drive. Other's allow you to plug in an external drive for additional storge.

And from when I had a HTPC and tested several DVR programs I find my HD DVR from Direct TV way more user friendly. Not alittle bit. It's a long shot.
 
My main gripe with just using the provided DVR unit is their GUI is SO FREAKING SLOW. It's borderline ridiculous.

I also like messing around with computers, so an HTPC was bound to enter my household at some point.

Also, add in DVD storage, music storage, pictures storage, etc and it just made sense to me.
 
shocksyde said:
My main gripe with just using the provided DVR unit is their GUI is SO FREAKING SLOW. It's borderline ridiculous.

I also like messing around with computers, so an HTPC was bound to enter my household at some point.

Also, add in DVD storage, music storage, pictures storage, etc and it just made sense to me.
Click to expand...
Yep, when I was building an HTPC for all the above items, the TV was an afterthought, and actually didn't come later. Also, you don't have to sign 2 year contracts to use an HTPC.
 
shocksyde said:
My main gripe with just using the provided DVR unit is their GUI is SO FREAKING SLOW. It's borderline ridiculous.

I also like messing around with computers, so an HTPC was bound to enter my household at some point.

Also, add in DVD storage, music storage, pictures storage, etc and it just made sense to me.
Click to expand...

The newer DVR menus are significantly faster. Mine has some slow moments but it's not a big deal. The channels change fast and that's what matters. It's just slow sometimes when bringing up menus.

I like building PC's too but was not impressed by my HTPC. Not worth the cost or the hassle.

I don't bother with music storage as I can just plug my ipod into my stereo. And there are those units that can just plug into your receiever and stream content from your PC(apples itv). I have no use for looking at pictures on my TV and I don't buy DVD's as I can just rent them quickly whenever I need something from netflix.
And if you have a SD tv it looks like total crap on it. Makes it difficult at times to navigate things.
 
Yeah, I built mine outta of spare parts mostly (upgraded some major components).

So, it didn't cost me that much, AND I don't have to pay the monthly lease fee, initial lease cost, etc.

WIN WIN!
 
jebo_4jc said:
Yep, when I was building an HTPC for all the above items, the TV was an afterthought, and actually didn't come later. Also, you don't have to sign 2 year contracts to use an HTPC.
Click to expand...

You don't have to sign a 2 year contract on sat or cable either. I can get it from cable with no contract at all. And the contract for the sat units are optional. You can buy the unit outright for alot cheaper than building an HTPC and then not have a contract at all.

But you go with an HTPC and you'll have numerous sat boxes along with IR blasters. It adds alot to the clutter.
 
shocksyde said:
Yeah, I built mine outta of spare parts mostly (upgraded some major components).

So, it didn't cost me that much, AND I don't have to pay the monthly lease fee, initial lease cost, etc.

WIN WIN!
Click to expand...

Sat doesn't have lease fees like cable. I pay no lease fee and had no setup fee.
 
Ah, interesting to know.

Ok, change my previous statement to: "I'm just a computer dork and wanted to build one" :D
 
shocksyde said:
Ah, interesting to know.

Ok, change my previous statement to: "I'm just a computer dork and wanted to build one" :D
Click to expand...

If there was a way to build a HTPC that allowed me to use my sat cards I would then do it. So everything is integrated cleanly. And would also allow me to record all my sat HD channels.

But as you are a current Direct TV customer just call up thier retention department and tell them you want the new HR20 HD DVR for free or you'll leave and you'll get it for free.
 
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