a question for all UK mediaportal users (1 Viewer)

[scotstrength]

Hi everyone,
I am 3 weeks away from returning to the Uk after a 6 year stint in the USA and am looking for information on peoples set ups.
My plan is just to run it on the one tv - i never got into the tv server thing! it took me long enough to get the basics set up....lol!
So i would like to know what type of capture cards people are using, cable providers, set top box brands and of course if there were any problems with their choices and MP.
Also because i have been away for so long how does it work with your channels, the cable cards and the STB outlets. Are all the regular channels able to be recieved without the box (only need it for the premium ones??) or do you have to run an outgoing cable from the box to your card?
I read some posts about guys using CI modules and some other stuff to be able to record HD, that sounds interesting but may be too complex for me to get my head round at first.
Are there any over the air free HD channels? They just started that in the states before we left.
I don't know who will be our cable provider yet so i am just trying to get some info on the prospective set up.
thanks in advance.

scotstrength

 

[crazyfool]

yes there are free some hd channels (not many) but these still require a satellite dish to get them , after the cost of that then yeh its free... as far as premium tv the main provides are bt, virgin and the big one being sky... all of these provide hd packages but i'm not sure on specifics as i only have freeview, which is basically all the free channels... the card i'm using is a nova t500 which is a dual tuner and works great in my mp setup... other poeple will be able to give u more details but its a start

 

[scotstrength]

Interesting, so you need a dish for most of the providers now? What about the various encrypted channels? How do you guys go about with capturing and watching these?
Has anybody ran into any problems with the various cable providers and their set ups?

scotstrength

 

[eetaylog]

im running a nova-t500 tv card as well, its great for running freeview over here, which is all youll need at the moment as freesat only has 2 channels right now (as stated above).

its a PCI card which plugs into your motherboard, so no need for external set top boxes, simply plug an aerial into the back of it, and it will allow you to scan and store all the channels that way and watch them through MP. its also a dual tuner so you can record one channel while watching another.

you can see my full MP setup in my user bar <------. im pretty pleased with it up to now and id recommend a similar setup.

 

[scotstrength]

thanks for the info eetaylog, that should come in very handy when i get myself settled.
Has anyone found away to record from sky HD or watch in real time yet??

scotstrength

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Nearest way to get MP working with sky

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-1-talk-45/uk-sky-tv-mediaportal-rc1-38570/

Scan.co.uk: Pinnacle PCTV 2000i Pro Dual DVB-T Pro TV-Tuner PCI OEM (*Card Only*) - 8202-26240-91)

This card does not suffer from S3\S4 resume problems, unlike the T500 which needs workaround to get to it to work on resume.

 

[eetaylog]

Nearest way to get MP working with sky

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-1-talk-45/uk-sky-tv-mediaportal-rc1-38570/

Scan.co.uk: Pinnacle PCTV 2000i Pro Dual DVB-T Pro TV-Tuner PCI OEM (*Card Only*) - 8202-26240-91)

This card does not suffer from S3\S4 resume problems, unlike the T500 which needs workaround to get to it to work on resume.

just to add, the 'workaround' for the nova t500 that Paranoid Delusion was talking about can be found here.

out of the box the t500 will fail to start TV in mediaportal when it wakes from hybernation, but apparently the above plugin will sort it out (tho i havent tried it myself yet).