Help with a HTPC and DirecTV (1 Viewer)

[Brian Simpson]

I've been researching building my own PVR for the last few months, but the amount of information out there is just staggering.

I'm hoping to shortcut some questions I have if someone would be nice enough to help me out.

I want the PVR I'm building to record HD and normal TV, with 2 tuners, and hook it up to the DVI connection on my Sony HDTV LCD Monitor.

I also have DirecTV as the provider for my TV signal. I have a DirecTV tivo now, and will probably be ditching that for DirecTV set top box when I get this built.

What do I need to use as far as TV capture cards that would decode in hardware and work with DirecTV?

What video card do I need that would work with that card, and output via DVI to the TV?

How fast of a processor would I need do this?

I want this to replace my Tivo, so that is my primary concern, it will be a dedicated box, and won't be used for gaming, normal computing, etc.

Thank you so very much for any advice!!

 

[mzemina]

Just wondering if you have researched on this forum (through search) using the keyword directv? You can then ask the people specifically that have directv connected through MP.

 

[aforonda]

Let me know what u find out i'm in the same boat.

 

[gxtracker]

A directTV Set Top Box (STB) is just like any other STB - meaning that there really is no way of directly communicating with it, with a couple exceptions:

1) if the STB has a serial RG-9 connection, sometimes you can hook up your STB to the the HTPC through the serial port and with community developed sotware communicate commands to the STB like volume up/down, channel changes, etc.. You will need to connect the output on your STB one of your tuner cards.

2) if your STB has a IEEE 1394 (firewire) connection, then you can connect it directly to your HTPC's firewire connection and actually stream data to/from the STB. Again though, you will need independently developed sotware and to top it off, even though most STB's have firewire connections, many of them are disabled by your service provider. This options, if workable, will not even need a tuner card.

Which then leaves us with the only other option; connecting your analog TV out (composite/svideo or RF) to one of your analog tuner cards and using an IR blaster to control channel changes on the STB.

this method only works for analog broadcasts, because there are no HDTV tuner cards that can accept component/digital input signals - all the HDTV tuners on the market are Over The Air (OTA) and are all software based if I remember correctly - meaning no hardware encoding for recording TV shows. You will need a pretty beefy CPU while recording. Of course, please correct me if there is a hardware based HDTV card.

so, to summarize:

2 analog/hardware SDTV capture cards - one connected to your STB
1 digital/software HDTV capture card - which will only be OTA, so ensure that there is broadcast of over-the-air HD in your area first.

 

[aforonda]

So customers of DirecTV are sol unless they do step 1 or 2? And if so does that mean most of you are cable customers and not satellite customers?

Thanks,
Newbie

 

[gxtracker]

You are not at all SOL. If you cannot do option 1 or option 2, than that leaves you with the last option - connecting your STB directly to your tuner.

Regardless of if you are a cable, satellite, or IPTV customer, you will most likely have a STB. The only annoying thing with a STB is that things like channel changes will still have to be done on the STB. The solution is fully workable - its just not eligent.

 

[jhalpin]

DirecTV and MP Setup

Has any one on this thread figured how to configure DirecTV with MP yet? I have a DirecTV box with a data port to serial connection to my PVR.

In my PVR I have a ATI Radeon 9800 pro receiving the A/V feed from my DirecTV box through a composite connection.

MP recognizes the ATI capture card, but from there I'm stumped as to the steps I take to get the A/V feed into MP.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

joe

 

[mzemina]

I just need to ask if you DirecTV guys (who have a STB with a serial connection) have looked at this post: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/viewtopic.php?p=66324#66324?

You should be able to find that there is a plugin which allows MP to control the DirecTV (only with serial connection). Then you can talk with those guys who have made it work!

 

[jhalpin]

DirecTV and MP

Yes, I have looked at that post. But, it does not explain how to configure MP to receive an A/V signal from a tuner card with a composite connection to a DirecTV box. I believe it is discussing how to tune the DirecTV box from within MP once you have it setup.

I'm not even at the tuning stage. I need to know how to get the A/V signal first before I tune.

Thanks for any help.

joe