INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: glynor on November 03, 2005, 12:17:01 am
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I've recently been using a Windows DVR Application on my HTPC for controlling my DirecTV receiver and generally using my computer as a TiVo (without having to pay the monthly "Guide" fee). I've quite frankly
fallen in love okay, I like it a lot (my wife wouldn't like the love thing much).
I still love my MC for Audio/Video library organization and playback, which is what I do mostly, but for capturing video with my Sapphire ATI Theater 550 Pro card, very little can beat a real DVR application. If you haven't ever used one, it basically works just like a TiVo and can control external cable boxes and satellite dishes using either a serial cable or an IRBlaster. I slapped a 320GB drive in my HTPC and I've got a TiVo like no other to feed my MC Library!
I've got to say though. The field of DVR applications currently on the market is quite disappointing. I often find myself wishing that it could be integrated better with MC, and way less stupid in most ways. This quickly leads to the thought/wish/hope that JRiver could do something better. That being said, these apps aren't simple beasts to design, and they usually cost quite a bit of money (mine was about $70 and I really needed to buy at least the Theater 550 card for another $80). Microsoft's MCE is even more expensive (and is a whole OS -- no thanks, talk about bundling)!
I would love to see what innovations JRiver (with their customization capabilities and organization mastery) could bring to the HTPC-DVR world. The question really is, would we be willing to pony up the cash if they could put out a quality product (as I'm confident they would)?
I obviously am. Any other takers?
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Ideally I would combine Media Center with Snapstream's Beyond TV.
I have found Beyond TV to be an exellent client-server PVR, accessible from many clinet PCs with a great 10 foot UI.
Snapstream's Beyond Media product, hower doesn't hold a candle to MC for a whole host of reasons: no client-server architecture, no smartlists, lack of customizability, database relies on WMP.
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I agree somewhat, but I have problems with all of the current DVR options out there.
I found BeyondTV to be buggy and crash prone. It loads about a hundred services which slow down boot/shutdown times signifigantly, plus if one of them dies (as the BTVNetworkService app did regularly) then you have to kill the process to get the app to even open. I missed more than one of my "scheduled" recordings just during my 20 day trial of the latest version. (Including an episode of "Rome" which really ticked me off.)
SageTV on the other hand, doesn't suffer from these "stability" problems, but is FAR less intuitive. It has a lot of potential, but the UI is pretty clunky (and looks very 1994). That's what I'm using currently, but I'm dissatisfied with both of them.
Barring an actual JRiver product, I too would like to see more ability to integrate MC's Theater View with one of these types of applications. I just think Jim and Co could do a better job!
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Glynor,
You may know that you can add an application to Theater View. Tools/options/Theater View/Add.
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does anyone here use MythTV? ive been interested in this for a long time but don't have the money or reason to invest in such a project (colllege life...)
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I currently use DVB Webscheduler ( http://dvb-ws.sourceforge.net/ ) to schedule my recordings and save these to a directory that KingSparta's autoimport then loads into the MC library. This works really well and both are FREE!
I can then play these files back in the Theaater view interface. Webscheduler has a keyboard interface which can be controlled via my remote or a full Html intreface you can schedule recordings remotely with.
Because I'm using a DTV card I can't currently use MC to watch live tv, but look forward to this getting added soon.
I'd love to see MC have a full TV interface where I can watch live TV with timeshifting, or schedule/manage recordings all from the Theaterview interface.
Richard
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I'd love to see MC have a full TV interface where I can watch live TV with timeshifting
MC's TV can be paused and resumed now.
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Glynor,
You may know that you can add an application to Theater View. Tools/options/Theater View/Add.
I had forgotten that Jim. Thanks!!
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Thanks Jim, but MC doesn't currently support BDA HDTV cards as yet.
Once it does, then I'll be using it for timeshifting and webscheduler for scheduling recordings.
Cheers
Richard