Free Digital TV and Foxtel Digital possible?

[drturner]

I am building a HTPC and have read through a lot of these threads, but are still confused. I have a Fusion DVB-T with S-video/RCA inputs. I also have an old Flyvideo 2000 analogue card. I understand that you can't mix digital and analogue cards in MCE 2005.

Does this mean I can't use my dvico card for free digital tv as well as using the analogue inputs on the same card for foxtel digital?

Can I install both the cards and use the analogue card in MCE for foxtel recording and just use the fusion software for free to air digital recording?

I have seen the ways to download the foxtel digital EPG and some people are using this to schedule recordings. Does MCE somehow assign different channels to the foxtel digital channels coming through the analogue inputs. I'm having difficulty understanding how all the foxtel channels are stored when only 1 analogue signal is input.

Does microsoft plan to make it possible to use the inputs on digital DVB-T cards? Is there any registry hacks to make it possible?

[arkay]

Hi DrTurner,

Short answer is no. You can't do it within MCE and there are no plans I know of to make analog inputs on digital cards accessible within MCE.

The reason for this is because analog inputs on digital cards don't have mpeg2 hardware encoders (as analog cards do), so in order to be able to record from those inputs you'd need to implement software based encoding. Something that is very CPU intensive. It's possible to do and they may implement it one day but I wouldn't hold out waiting for it.

The best way to deal with this situation is to use webscheduler to record all your digital shows external to MCE. Record them in DVR-MS format and have them saved to the MCE "My Videos" folder and watch them later on. That way you can fastforward the ads It's not the greatest solution but is an option. Specially of use if you have a server in the house somewhere serving content to other media centers. Put all your digital cards in the server and program it to do all the recording and just use the analog card for live tv and foxtel.

The MCE remote comes with an IR blaster that is able to send channel change events to the foxtel set-top box. So when you pick a particular channel from the foxtel guide information MCE will change the channel for you.

Cheers,
Arkay.

[drturner]

Thanks Arkay for fast reply. I will try webscheduler. I watch live TV through a digital set top box and don't necessarily need to run live TV through my computer. It is mainly for recording and watching recorded shows. I only have one computer. Can I install both cards - analogue and digital, but tell media centre only to setup the analogue card and use an external PVR(such as webscheduler or DVICO's software) to record digital free to air TV?

Are there any hacks to make MCE accept both a Digital and an analogue tuner?

[arkay]

MCE (the OS) will let you install as many tuners as you like.

MCE (the PVR app) will let you choose to use 1 type or the other (analog or digital), but you can have multiple analog or multiple digital. So you can use the DVB-T card(s) at the OS level for recording with Webscheduler and use the analog within MCE for foxtel.

There is no hack that I know of to make them both work within the MCE App.. Even if there were you'd have trouble as MCE isn't smart enough to discern which card to use for which channel and it would most likely end up using your analog for free to air while it tried madly to change the channel for foxtel on the DVB-T card!

Cheers,
Arkay.