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[zydeco]

I’ve built an A/V set-up around JRiver that uses the audio DSP functions (coupled with a multi-channel USB DAC) to deliver cross-over and room eq. duties for my active DIY speakers. The family has adopted the set-up for music and movies but for TV playback a TiVo remains steadfastly connected direct to the TV via HDMI. My goal, now, is to sort out a TV playback approach within JRiver that the family will adopt over TiVo – thus allowing for much better audio playback. The requirements are that the system has to be rock solid, highly intuitive as well as provide for both live and time-shifted TV viewing. It must also allow use of my existing audio DSP within JRiver. The simplest solution seems to be to add a PCIe TV Tuner Card to my current HTPC and use JRiver’s native PVR functions. My concurrent HTPC / JRiver set-up has proven highly stable but I’m worried that adding the real-time PVR functions might present a challenge that could be problematic given that the unit is a single point of failure for all A/V. Is this concern real? Or can I think of the unit as a true “appliance”? Finally, has anyone with separating the PVR and A/V playback functions – either by purchasing a PVR that supports DNLA playback or building a second HTPC / JRiver that is used exclusively for TV Recording?

[BartMan01]

How do you get TV service?  Usually I see people getting TiVO for cable, and most cable channels are encrypted.  Recording/playing back encrypted cable content requires TiVO or Windows Media Center.

If you are talking about over the air (OTA/antenna) reception then the HDHomeRun boxes seems to be the favorite way for adding tuners to your system these days.

[mwillems]

How do you get TV service?  Usually I see people getting TiVO for cable, and most cable channels are encrypted.  Recording/playing back encrypted cable content requires TiVO or Windows Media Center.

That very much depends on your cable provider and area.  My cable service (Verizon) only encrypts the pay channels like HBO or Showtime with "copy-once"; everything else is copy-freely, so, at my house, all basic cable channels and most premium cable channels work just fine in JRiver with a cablecard tuner (an HDHomerun Prime).  I don't pay for HBO or Showtime, so every channel in my cable subscription "just works" with JRiver for viewing or recording.

I can personally recommend the HDHomerun Prime for cable; it has the advantage of being an external ethernet box, so it's available to all PCs on the LAN and doesn't need a given computer to be on all the time.

All that said, check your local cable company's encryption policies before you buy anything; it may be that you can use JRiver for almost everything (as in my case with Verizon), or you may have a different situation.

Off-topic, I also run active speakers and use JRiver as my front-end for my cross-overs, etc.  That's why I was very glad to get TV working in JRiver with my setup 

[BartMan01]

Thanks for clarifying that.  I have Comcast and they also (normally) don't encrypt most channels but premium channels and a few others are encrypted, so since I am not 100 unencrypted I am stuck with WMC.  Some companies like Time Warner encrypt everything they can.  If you do have 100% unencrypted cable, I am partial to the Ceton InfiniTV 6 (I have the older 4 tuner version) since it gives you 6 tuners with one cable card.  If you do go that route, watch for sales on the device around holidays for big savings.

[zydeco]

Thanks all. I'm in Australia with access to just free "over the air" TV. The idea of something like HDHomerun appeals as it separates the TV hardware from the HTPC / JRiver although I'm a little concerned about the network traffic that will occur (although I do have gigabit, wired, LAN).

[zydeco]

I'm taking it then that a HTPC / JRiver combination can be a stable TV / PVR "appliance"? If so, then it seems as if the two options are an internal PCIe Tuner Card or a Network Tuner. My situation is that most of the TV viewing is in our main room where the HTPC is located but, going forward, I can see that we'd want to be able to view recorded TV in a few other rooms. My thinking, then, is tending towards installing a PCIe Tuner Card with 1TB HD into the HTPC on the basis that this would be the most reliable for most of our viewing and not clog up our home network with TV streaming. I'd then set-up a NUC / JRiver combination in the second room that would have access to the 1TB HD on the main HTPC for playback of recorded TV. Will this approach work (for the second room)? And is it sensible (or is the concern about network congestion ill-founded.)?

[JimH]

I'd use a network tuner.

[kstuart]

This is only my personal experience with one particular PC, but I found that if I was using TV Recording on JRiver MC19 at the same time as any other major use of CPU or network bandwidth, then I had stability problems.

So, I currently use my old HTPC as a DVR with Hauppauge internal tuner cards and then my newer HTPC access those files across the LAN for playback.

This also fits my previous - and complimentary - experience that one wants the least amount of other processes running on one's playback HTPC.

[JimH]

... one wants the least amount of other processes running on one's playback HTPC.

You only need more power available than is required.  The number of processes is otherwise not meaningful.

[adlelare]

zydeco, i will provide you with my potentially useful experience which is similar to what you may be trying to do.  I purpose built an HTPC to PVR, store, serve. transcode  all my audio, pictures, TV and movies, and to do it all and serve multiple devices at once.  I built an Win 8.1, an AMD 8320, 16g ram, an SSD and a 3TB HDD (which in just a few months is almost full) (my first try was with an old duo core 2.2 ghz AMD that well was woefully under powered).  I use OTA with both a Hauppauge 950Q and HD Homerun tuners (I use this set to have one dedicated tuner only for the main HTPC and the two tuners in the HDHR can be used by all network PC's (u need to the newest HDHR that does auto transcode to use it for any HD viewing on tablets, etc.). I tried WMC, XBMC, NextPVR, etc. but eventually settled on JRiver as: a) it does provide the highest quality viewing and PRVing (but very large .ts files e.g. an hour of Criminal Minds at 1920x1080 10801 is about 8gb (so 8 gb/hour of HD PVR'ing) b) it integrates via Gizmo exceptionally well c) if you use HD Homerun and JRiver on various PC's you get direct and great reception.  I use my wired network for all streaming wherever possible and use wireless only for phones and tablets.  You will find that the JRiver EPG for its TV is i believe derived from Microsoft(as i am a Canadian and live close to the US i had to do multiple set up runs to get full EPG data)  I have experienced the occasional lockup with JRiver when really pushing things but i suspect it is me driving the conflicts.  One nice thing about the JRiver PVR vs say WMC is that you can set up your PVR functioning exceptionally well due to the functionality of JRiver which greatly surpasses WMC.... but while i'm posting i will ask Jim one thing, the other nite the TV playing via JRiver was on all nite... can i program an auto shut down at say 1 am mon-fri and say 2 am on sat and sun?? anyways JRiver in my experience is the way to go (but it does need some work particularly related to Inet TV integration which XBMC does a far better job but it may be that XBMC as "freeware" and non-profit has some legal advantages that JRiver may have problems with (but pure spec on my part).

[JimH]

It should shut down when TV recording finishes.

There have been a couple of reports that MC is not releasing the tuner when it's finished recording.  If so, we'll find it.

[adlelare]

Jim,  FYI i record the tonight show every nite and then auto shutdown the HTPC a couple minutes later.  I've been doing this for months without fail.  The only time it failed was once last week, so i don't know what exactly happened but my assumption was that live TV was on (additional to PVRing) and it was likely live TV that didn't release for auto shutdown and not the PVRing.  i can probably via windows tasks auto shutdown JRiver before the PC shutdown but i would prefer to auto shutdown JRiver within JRiver as it is always "on" (ie auto startup with HTPC startup).  regards.