Aussies, can media portal combine FTA and Foxtel (1 Viewer)

A

Anonymous

Guest
I'm an Australian who has been using Windows Media Centre fine for quite some time, however I've always kept an eye on Media Portal development. The boss however, has one gripe with the whole PVR setup, that being that we dont get all the benefits of it with Foxtel pay TV.

So what I want to know is can I seemlessly integrate Foxtel into MP with FTA channels so it looks like they are all one source? Perhaps using the MCE IR blasters. At the moment I'm using a couple of DVICO cards so I'll need to get an analogue card for the Foxtel.

So can it be done or am I dreaming?
 

Callifo

Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • December 7, 2004
    1,439
    21
    Adelaide, Australia
    Home Country
    Definately, but the only gripe is the speed at which the tv guide can be grabbed. Ive got it setup on my MP box but Ive only got the select few channels I watch. I can schedule a program to be recorded on foxtel and it changes to that channel on the foxtel box using the MCE blaster.

    Grabbing all the foxtel channel data would take hours, grabbing all the channels with descriptions would take days.
     
    A

    Anonymous

    Guest
    Ok, looks like I may have to bite the bullet and investigate doing this.
     

    winsys11

    Portal Member
    September 26, 2005
    44
    0
    Melbourne
    I'm using two VideoMate DVB-T 's for digital, and a PVR150 just for Foxtel, and it works great.

    I grab the guide with D1XMLTVGrabber, takes about 20 seconds.

    The Myblaster plugin controls the Foxtel STB.

    My Boss loves it !
     

    James

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • May 6, 2005
    1,385
    67
    Switzerland
    Hi Guys,

    If the D1 source has all the foxtel guide info. Then the channel definitions can be configured in WebEPG to also support these channels.

    Cheers,

    /James
     

    Taipan

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • February 23, 2005
    2,075
    44
    Melbourne
    Home Country
    Australia Australia
    BGH said:
    At the moment I'm using a couple of DVICO cards so I'll need to get an analogue card for the Foxtel.
    I think that you should be able to use the analogue input (composite or S-video) of your DVICO card to connect your Foxtel STB to MediaPortal - no need for another TV card..... :)
     

    squidina

    Portal Member
    August 5, 2005
    45
    4
    I currently have my PC setup to have both digital FTA and Optus Cable ( which is the same as Foxtel, just slightly different channel numbers I think ).

    The trick I've found with the EPG, is that you should include any channels you don't get in the MP setup, but make sure the tick-box is empty. If you don't do this your channel mapping may not be correct. If you want to move to channel 6, for instance, it will go to the sixth channel in your EPG. Took me a little while to figure this out, but now I have it all working beautifully.

    I use the MCE remote control and IRblaster to change the STB channels. It works great! Grab the myBlaster plugin, and once it's "learnt" the foxtel numbers you'll be good to go.

    For the grabber, I have a batch file which uses tvharvest to grab first FTA then cable channels. Once it has the two files, it strips off a couple of lines out of each file, then combines them automagically. Takes a couple of minutes to download it all including descriptions, but I have it run just after 6 each morning, so I don't care how long it takes :D
     

    angusmann

    Portal Pro
    October 22, 2005
    145
    32
    I have written a grabber. It is specific for Australian FTA and pay TV and can access any combination of these all in one program.

    I have few people testing it and I'm getting good reports. It can exclude channels you don't subscribe to, and rename channels to your liking.

    If you're interested, PM me and include your email address and you can join the testing team.
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom