BBC HD (1 Viewer)

[alexeix]

Okay, so I timeshifted BBC News, then changed to the BBC HD channel for a bit, then stopped it.

Using VLC, I opened the timeshift file and could view the BBC News recording. When that cut across to BBC HD, there was a picture, but it was blocky and it froze almost instantly. I could clearly make out a wildebeast though!

When I let it carry on playing or tried to skip forward in the recording, my PC hung. I don't know if the bad picture and picture freeze was because of the signal or because my PC isn't powerful enough.
Likewise, I don't know if the PC hung because HD was too much for it, or because there's a bug in VLC.

I might try taking the file across to my more powerful laptop and playing it back there.

Any thoughts on what might be the problem?

Is anyone else able to watch BBC HD on Freeview as far out as Maidenhead???

 

[chenks]

if you are in maidenhead... you might just be getting a very faint signal (enough for the sound but not enough for video).

other reasons for blockyness and hanging is the PC not being up to the job to decode the HD video.

i would think it's probably the first option though (faint signal - not strong enough)

 

[alexeix]

Shame! I'd love to see Planet Earth in HD.

Not to mention the odd football match...

 

[chenks]

get Sky HD

 

[alexeix]

I don't even have standard SKY TV.

1) I don't agree with the Rupert Murdoch monopoly on football and other sports,

2) there are too many channels and most of the stuff on them is rubbish (notable exceptions are 24 and The Simpsons), and

3) it's just too expensive!

Terrestrial TV is good enough for me, but it'd be nice to have some HD content.

That said, the SKY HD box is supposed to be great and looks the business.

 

[trevor]

You could just get the dish, quad LNB and a couple of Technisat or technotrend DVB-S cards...mind you saw laptop in there somewhere so cards might not be much help!

Its not so much the sport I disagree with but the fact they lock down the encryption to only kit supplied by them...right downer as far as putting together a decent HTPC setup with out having to have a sky box!!

 

[alexeix]

My Media Portal machine is a Shuttle SN95G5V2, but I'm thinking of testing the files on my work laptop, which is newer and faster.

Having said that, I don't think HD had anything to do with my PC hanging. I've just tried watching a DVD with VLC and the same thing happened. Weird.

Nice case trevor! I like the look of those Origen ones, especially the one with the LCD screen built in.

 

[funkstar]

Heading slightly OT here, but if you did want to use a laptop for DVB-S viewing, as long as you have Firewire you are fine. FloppyDTV cards are firewire and there is no reason you couldn't rig up an external power supply and case for one or more.

 

[sean1983]

Hey guys, I have BBC HD working fine with Media Portal via Standard DVB-S.

It had me going crazy for a few days, trying over and over again with each SVN snapshot, but the problem i have having was not Media Portal or my Hardware, But the codec's. I was using my system default codecs which were, for H.264 i was using CoreAVC, which is a great codec BTW, just not for this usage and for Audio the MPA Audio Decoder. Now after a bit of playin around, googling i discovered that BBC HD does not like the CoreAVC or MPA Audio Codecs. So i reinstalled the latest PowerDVD 7. and AC3Filter.

BBC HD is broadcast currently over DVB-S1 using H.264 and AC3 Audio.

So its just a case of using the Cyberlink H.264 Codec and AC3Filter with Media Portal.

So far i have 2 HD Channels working perfectly. BBC HD and Luxe.TV Both working full screen with 5.1 Audio

BTW, i am running it from my media server to my HTPC via TVServer. There is no lag, nor no Audio Sync problems. Plus my HTPC is not really that powerful, So im a happy bunny

If anyone knows any other Free-to-Air HD Channel on DVB-S1 can you let me know. Im dying to move my dish round to get some other stuff. any American Stuff would be good

Hope this has helped anyone out......

Cheers to the Media Portal Team for there QUALITY software.


Sean Harrison

 

[alexeix]

Sounds great! If only I had a satellite dish and DVB-S decoder... (

I think I'm going to wait for the BBC/ITV Freesat service to launch in a few months and see what can be done then.

My last attempt to get any sort of reliable TV signal on my PC (DVB-T), ended with very patchy results, never mind HD broadcasts.

I'm currectly using an Hauppauge NOVA-T500 dual tuner with Vista Media Center (as a test). Would Media Portal handle a poor signal any better?

Sorry, going off-topic here, I know.