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[mountainman]

Is anybody successfully using MJ as a PVR in conjunction with DirectTV?

I tried using my ATI All In Wonder Radeon card with analog cable TV, but the picture is really poor on the VHF channels due to local broadcasts.  Some channels will not even lock.  I've given up on this.

I just bought a Sony SAT-A65 box for DirectTV.  It has a "low speed serial port" which can be used to change channels.  It appears that with Media Scheduler and an external program to control the serial port, this could work.

I don't want to use any other program other than MJ for the PVR functionality because I doubt I could ever get two audio/video applications to play together nicely while running simultaneously (Windows 2000).  I'm not even sure if MJ can record TV while playing back un-related audio.  If not, at least I could keep all my audio/video files in one library by solely using MJ.

Anybody blazed this trail already?

[Frank]

Yes i want to know about this too.  Is Media Jukebox set up to be a PVR?  cause if so, i need to get a TV card.

[Matt]

MJ isn't a super strong PVR right now. (there's no time shifting)

However, it's something we're talking a lot about and hope to provide in a later version.

Stay tuned...

-Matt
JRiver, Inc.

[Yaobing]

Here is what you can do:

You can connect Cable/Antenna to a TV card; or
you can connect other video sources to the TV card via SVideo or Composite video; then
Watch TV;
Record TV program instantly; or
Record TV program by Media Scheduler.

[Cotton-Eyed|PLS|Loo]

That would rule. I've been a tivo customer for years and I love it. Lately something scary happened - I was forced to view ads on the main menu page. Considering I pay month to month for service and they didn't lower my rates they shouldn't be worsening my experience.

Sigh.

It seems that time to find an alternative to Tivo is approaching.

[mountainman]

Time-shifting would be cool, of course, but I would be thrilled to be able to replace my VCR with MJ for starters.  The main thing needed is the ability to select a channel on a DirecTV box.  Snapstream (www.snapstream.com) has already done this with their product - who knows how much effort it took.

Yes, I want nothing to do with a TIVO box or any of the others.  If you read the fine print, they have the right to change the software at any time to do whatever.  In the U.K. recently, one of the PVR makers forced everybody to record a certain program and then denied the ability to delete it for a week!  No thanks.  I had rather spend the time maintaining a Windows machine that does the same thing in return for having greater control and less monthly costs.

JRiver is in a really good position to provide all of this someday with MJ.  I just hope some large company like Microsoft doesn't buy JRiver as that will be the end of the creative, open, quick, enhancements to Media Jukebox.  I'm sure you guys could cash out big-time, though, and there is no way I would fault you as that is your reward for the risk you have taken.

[Abby]

I've got a DirecTV receiver with TiVo (and we called them to ##### about those ads, btw, maybe if enough people call and complain..!).

Anyway, I've got a feed from our receiver in the living room that runs into my office so that I can watch whatever is on that tv on my computer.  But, then all channel switching and everything has to be done off of the receiver (in another room, kind of annoying).  

I didn't think I had any other options though with satellite TV - are you saying that I could simply run the direcTV feed directly into my TV Tuner card?  Don't you actually need something to emulate the DirecTV receiver?


Abby

[Yaobing]

I didn't think I had any other options though with satellite TV - are you saying that I could simply run the direcTV feed directly into my TV Tuner card? Don't you actually need something to emulate the DirecTV receiver?

No. Most probably you will have to use your DirectTV box for tuning. I never tried it since I do not have DirectTV service.

[mountainman]

You would have to use the DirecTV receiver box for tuning.  The satellite boxes have a card that decrypts the signal according to your service subscription.  A PC video card can not do this through its analog cable connector.

I plan to connect the S-video output of my satellite box to the S-video input of my All-in-Wonder Radeon card.  I plan to connect the TOSLINK output of my satellite box to the TOSLINK input of my PC's sound card.  Hopefully I can configure MJ to use the desired audio/video inputs.

If that works, the next step will be automating the channel selection through the low speed data port on the satellite box.  I found a program someone has written to control DirecTV boxes with a PC via a serial port.