Foxtel working along with HD tuner cards

phillx · **3rd October 2007, 10:59 AM**

I bought an Acer 510 idea Media Center Vista PC with 3 AV inputs and ran into something interesting with Foxtel that I thought should be shared.

I ran my foxtel box directly into the AV inputs ( using composite) on the Acer and in Media Center selected the AV1 input and foxtel ran through Media center in 4.3 mode. Effectively I can still use the HD tuners as well as using Foxtel through the multiple AV inputs within Media Center.

After changing the Media Centers screen resolution to 1024 x768 foxtel worked perfectly in 16.9 mode without stretching the image on the HD digital tuners. The only problem was that windows on a 16.9 screen in 1024 x 768 is stretched, but I am only using media center as a PVR so it not a real issue. It seems that foxtel is needs an image resolution on the PC of 1024 x 768 to work properly. Also the Acer also records foxtel.

It's not quiet a perfect solution, but with the extenders coming out it seems to be a solution for streaming HD and Foxtel around the home.

ExtremePC · **3rd October 2007, 02:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillx

I bought an Acer 510 idea Media Center Vista PC with 3 AV inputs and ran into something interesting with Foxtel that I thought should be shared.

I ran my foxtel box directly into the AV inputs ( using composite) on the Acer and in Media Center selected the AV1 input and foxtel ran through Media center in 4.3 mode. Effectively I can still use the HD tuners as well as using Foxtel through the multiple AV inputs within Media Center.

After changing the Media Centers screen resolution to 1024 x768 foxtel worked perfectly in 16.9 mode without stretching the image on the HD digital tuners. The only problem was that windows on a 16.9 screen in 1024 x 768 is stretched, but I am only using media center as a PVR so it not a real issue. It seems that foxtel is needs an image resolution on the PC of 1024 x 768 to work properly. Also the Acer also records foxtel.

It's not quiet a perfect solution, but with the extenders coming out it seems to be a solution for streaming HD and Foxtel around the home.

Are you in Australia? Sorry stupid question when you talk about Foxtel...feeling sheepish.

.

Okay so that means Acer have factory hacked Vista to handle analog and digital signals at the same time....interesting.

phillx · **4th October 2007, 07:07 AM**

You are correct. There is an extra option in mediacenter to handle AV inputs.

The point is that is it possible to handle digital and analogue together, but how they have done it is not as seemless as cable card.

jiggadaboo · **2nd November 2007, 02:57 AM**

Hi guys, long time viewer, first time poster...

After searvhing for hours in vain for some way to connect my playstation into media center, i came across this post, which appears (to me at least) that i might be able to get my playstation to work exactly the same way you got foxtel to...

For starters, let me just clarify a few things. I am NOT trying to connect my playstation to my computer for online play. It's connected through the s-video input on my Phillips SAA7133 compatible dtv-b card in my vista system. i can already play the playstation via ChrisTV Lite, but would prefer to be able to do it through the media centre interface, and just use the one app for anything tv/game related. I don't have a tv in my room that i could connect the playstation to because this computer IS my tv. Thats what it was built for.

I don't mean to rant, but every post i cam across that asked a similar question to mine was, quite frankly, shat upon.

My Playstation av-cable has an xbox connector on it as well, and I also aim to connect my xbox360 through this setup.

Thanks in Advance.

dgaust · **2nd November 2007, 07:06 AM**

You won't be able to connect a games machine through the MCE interface. Well, you can, but it would unplayable.

MCE buffers a couple of seconds of video when it starts, so anything you see on the screen will be a couple of seconds behind the actual game.

juzdownunder · **2nd November 2007, 11:31 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by dgaust

You won't be able to connect a games machine through the MCE interface. Well, you can, but it would unplayable.

MCE buffers a couple of seconds of video when it starts, so anything you see on the screen will be a couple of seconds behind the actual game.

Consider it shat upon once again!

jiggadaboo · **4th November 2007, 07:48 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by juzdownunder

Consider it shat upon once again!

lol.. this is true, but at least i got an actual reason for an answer, not just the usual "Why would you want to play your playstation on your computer? thats just stupid!" that i saw in my research...

Thanks dgaust for the info... looks like i'll just stick with ChrisTV for now...