The Digital Lifestyle Media Center Expert Blog by Garry Whittaker

TVGorge drops content

2010-03-14T18:14:00Z

A few weeks back that was a bit of a stir about a new source for Internet TV. TV Gorge had content from all round the world and no international restrictions on viewing. It seemed to good to be true and unfortunately it was. They recently released thisannouncement:

TVGorge has recently been advised to remove all of our indexed content. We understand content owners have a need to protect their content and we can only hope they take the initiative to provide easy access to all of their great TV shows at an international level. If anything, hopefully we have shown them that people are desperately looking for a place to watch their favourite TV shows.

We will still continue to operate and index streaming TV sources, however we will be changing our indexing methods and the sites that we link to. We will no longer be linking to or embeddding sources such as Wisevid or Zshare, instead we will be providing easy access to your favourite shows on a wide variety of network websites.

Basically what this last line means is they will be linking to NetFlix and Hulu.

New version of DVBLink for HDPVR released (No network pack support yet)

2010-02-12T22:31:00Z

Over at www.1Geek1Tool.com the guys have announced the release of DVBLink for HDPVR 2.0. First of all let me say the version number is confusing as this is not a version for DVBLink server 2 and does not include any of the network pack functionality. It does, however, bring with it a number of notable changes in particular the ability to have more than one HDPVR (of course that also means having more than one set top box)

If you want to know more about the HDPVR functionality check out my post from a few weeks back or listen to the podcast I did with Ian. One final note this version, unlike the latest DVBLink server builds still requires UAC to be turned off which I dislike.

The Official Release note:

The long time promised “2.0 Release” is finally here. For those who followed with the 2.0 Beta versions, here is what has changed since 2.0 Beta 3:

Added a “Prefix Key” in MceIR so that you can now prefix all your channel changes with a custom key of your choosing.
Added a “Learn Timeout” parameter in MceIR. It is usefull for some set-top-boxes remotes which we fail to learn correctly with the default value.
Added a new parameter “AcquisitionLostManualPowerCycleTimeout” which allows you to control how long to wait before calling the on-device-error-power-cycle hook. Default value is 30000 seconds (actually we retry once before calling the hook, so the total time is twice that). If you set it too short, you run the risk of power cycling your HD PVR needlessly.
Trial period is back to 30 days instead of 15 days. However, the trial counter is not reset.

For the others still using 1.0, here is a recap of the improvements between 1.0 and 2.0:

Full support for Multiple HD PVRs
Improved stability with a higher process priority AND an intermediary FIFO buffer between DirectShow and Media Center.
New built-in and easy to use line-up editor. That means you don’t need to use DVBLink Add-in anymore (within Media Center) to synchronize your line-up.
New improved installer. You only have a single installer to run and it will check UAC for you. The new installer also verifies that a compatible version of DVBLink is installed. You also won’t need to save your configuration manually anymore.
New hooks feature (change-channel, on-idle, on-standby, on-device-error-power-cycle). They allow you to customize your setup yourselves.
Fixed and improved MCE Compatible IR Blaster support (frequency detection, port selection and various options)
Added access to the Hauppauge HD PVR Encoder properties from within DVBLink for HDPVR (you don’t need to fiddle with graphbuilder or TME anymore)
Added support for sub-channel numbers (ex: 700.1 or 700-2)
Changed the hardware fingerprint to use the Ethernet MAC Address
Fix the registration dialog for all platforms.
Multiple UI/Configuration edition improvements.
Various logging improvements.

As an additional note, you should be aware of the following changes:

The location of the configuration files, log files, IR files and hooks has moved to %ProgramFiles%\Dvblink\Data\<sourcename>
The log file is now renamed to output.log

The upgrade from 1.0 to 2.0 is free. However, since this version now uses the Ethernet MAC address as the hardware fingerprint, 1.0 users will need to request a new activation key. Users using 2.0B2 and up do not require a new key and can use the same key used with the beta versions.

Due to the overall improvements, DVBLink for HDPVR 1.0 will no longer be available for download. All new installations should move to 2.0 and we also hope everyone still using 1.0 will progressively move to 2.0 as support for 1.0 will be more and more difficult to provide.

DVBLogic releases fixes for DVBLink V2

2010-02-11T20:27:00Z

Again I am incredibly impressed by how quick DVBLogic are in their customer service. A couple of issues affecting a very few people have already been fixed and in one case I know of in less than a day of being reported.

DVBLogic have bundled these fixes into two releases

DVBLink TVSource v2.0.1

This version contains the following fixes and updates:
- Fix for FireDTV/FloppyDTV cards that unable to find services during scan
- Fix for Terratec cards, where DVBLink prevents system from going to standby
- Potential fix for all other tuner cards, reporting "0 services found" during channel scan
- Experimental simple diseqc implementation for Hauppauge sat tuners (let us know whether it works for you)

Only DVBLink TVSource was updated to a new version. There is no need to update DVBLink Server if you are running release version of it. Note: DVBLink Server is not the same as DVBLink Server Network Pack below

This update is not critical, meaning that if your DVBLink TVSource installation works and you do not have any of the symptoms described above, you probably do not need this update.

DVBLink Server Network Pack v2.0.1

Fixes from the previous version:
- Fixed picture break-up and stuttering in MediaCenter on network clients.

The symptoms are that beta version 2.0.0003 of DVBLink used to work good on network clients, while RC1 and release version did not. Also playback was ok in MediaPlayer via UPNP, while it was stuttering in MediaCenter.
If you have these symptoms - you need to upgrade your DVBLink Server Network Pack installation to this new version.

All in all more great work from DVBLogic. Full info over at the forums at www.DVBLogic.com

Official release of DVBLink V2 with Network Pack software

2010-02-06T03:58:00Z

Its actually hard to believe this wasn't already a release as the beta versions have been so stable but today DVBLogic officially released DVBLInk of V2

This is the european release of the product and I am afraid our US friends will have to wait a little longer for their version but I am really pleased that DVBLogic have made it to this release point. They have worked amazingly hard on this and deserve the reward of the new purchasers I am sure they will be getting for this product.

I was expecting pricing to be around 50 euros for the TVSource + Network pack which as you only have to pay for one of each license and don't have to pay for client licences didn't seem unreasonable to me but DVBLogic have suprised me with what they are calling connected edition. With this you can get a bundle of TVSource and the Network Pack for 40 Euros.

As ever more inofrmation over at http://www.dvblogic.com

Official Press release:

DVBLink v2 products are released!

We are very proud to announce release of our DVBLink v2 products:
- DVBLink TVSource
- DVBLink for IPTV
- DVBLink for Dreambox
- DVBLink Server Network Pack

New version of DVBLink products has a huge list of improvement and new features comparing to the previous version. Almost every aspect of the program is improved - new easy-to-use user interface, improved reliability, compliance to UAC rules, increased number of supported tuner cards, network streaming to other MediaCenter computers to name just a few.

We would like to thank all our alpha and beta testers for their valuable input.

All DVBLink source products - DVBLink TVSource, DVBLink for IPTV and DVBLink for Dreambox - are available as Regular and Connected editions. Connected edition includes bundled DVBLink Server Network Pack and saves 20% of the price comparing to products purchased separately.

The retail price of Regular edition of DVBLink TVSource, DVBLink for Dreambox, DVBLink for IPTV and DVBLink Server Network Pack is 25 euros.
The retail price of DVBLink TVSource, DVBLink for Dreambox and DVBLink for IPTV Connected edition is 40 euros.
The prices include all future product updates.

Owners of v1 of DVBLink TVSource, DVBLink for IPTV and DVBLink for Dreambox can upgrade to Regular edition of these products for free.

DVBLink v2 products are available for download from Download section of our website:
http://www.dvblogic.com/download.php

Installation and configuration manual is included with each product installation zip file.

If you are running v1 of these products you have to uninstall them before installing v2 products. Owners of DVBLink TVsource v1 can save tvsourcesettings.xml of their sources and copy it to the correspondent directories of new sources. It will restore scanned channels and channel numbers. The channel selection and EPG mapping however has to be done again.

If you are running beta of DVBLink v2, use bat files, enclosed in zip archive for update. This will update your binary files and will keep all your scanned channels and preferences.
Update the DVBLink Server first, followed by update of the installed products and network clients. You will have to enter again server IP address or host name after client update!

Enjoy!

Changes in the DVBLink V2 release from the release candidate

2010-02-06T00:27:00Z

Just got the following information from Oberon over at DVBLogic

The big change is a fix in DVBLink for IPTV, which was unable to play some of the streams where PMT pid was less than 0x1F.
Couple of small things:
- ability to assign channel numbers according to SID - this is something for our american customers
- Ability to pick up channel numbering of v1 - useful for upgrade from v1.

Why DVBLink is not just about network tuners

2010-01-30T13:41:00Z

Jason's post really sums up the excitement over DVBLogic's DVBLink's network ability but for me its not just the networking that is significant. Even without the network tuners the DVBLink TVSource enables quite a few scenarios:

1, Tuner that cannot be set up in Media-Center work - for example a friend in Denmark has a Pinnacle Quad tuner that supports DVB-C. (cable), DVB-T (over the air) and DVB-S (Satellite). In Media Center only the DVB-T ever worked and then poorly only bringing in about 40% of his available channels. Using DVBLink he was not only able to pick up all his channels on DVB-T but also get DVB-S and DVB-C working - the latter was really exciting to him as he has quite a few free-to-air channels.

2, More than Media Center's limit of 4 DVB-Tuners - because DVBLink maps all its sources to DVB-S you can use these in addition to inbuilt DVB-T sources. Someone else I know, prior to the advent of the network ability, had an issue. He had 5 TV's in his house with 1 master PC fitted with 4 tuners and 4 extenders, It was common for 4 screens to be watching different live shows and to run out of tuners avaialble for recordings. Using DVBLink he was able to add another 4 DVB-T tuners and map them as DVB-S tuners thus getting round the 4 tuner limit in Media Center.

3, CAM support. In Europe it is quite normal for TV's to be sold with CAM (Conditional Access Module) slots and for content providers (satellite or cable) to sell the owners a CAM and a viewing card for them to plug straight in and begin viewing. Some Tuners for Media Center also have CAM slots and few are actually supported out of the box. DVBLink supports a lot more ot of the box and more are being added with each release. The plugin support in DVBLink makes this very flexible.

4, Support for HD HomeRun DVB-C - the HD-HomeRun sold in europe has tuner's that can tune DVB-T and DVB-C but the DVB-C support has been limited. The HD-HomeRun software maps the DVB-C source as DVB-T tuners for Media Center. Because the DVB-T scanning is limited to the predefined DVB-T multiplex range, Media Center is not able to pick up the full range of HD-HomeRun DVB-C channels. DVBLink resolves this and fully maps all of the DVB-C channels the HD-HomeRun can find.

5, DVBLink also supports IPTV sources where available and as this works with RTSP streams can be used to consume the feeds of say network cameras as another channel in Media Center.

6, Although not supported in the network version yet there is a DVBLink for the Hauppauge HD-PVR which allows the analogue hole to be exploited to get virtually any source with component out into Media Center

These are just some of the scenarios I have come across and I am sure there are many more. So whilst the network tuners are truly worth being excited about there is more to DVBLink than just them.

DVBLink v2 Release Candidate 1 is available!

2010-01-28T13:00:00Z

Over at the DVBLogic forums (www.dvblogic.com) Oberon has just posted about DVBLINK RC 1.

The first line amused me. Looks like they have fixed some of the things that people have been asking for. I am pleased with the "default recorder" and the RTP streaming should certainly help with the bandwidth usage. For netbook users being able to resize the configuration dialogue will help a lot.

Bit worried about the ITV HD comment though (see edit below) and I will need to check if there is any US standard support. (EDIT: No extra US support in this release)

(EDIT: I have now installed this and everything went very smoothly. One thing to note the default recorder option is in the DVBLink configuration under extras on the Media Center - easy to miss when updating as you never go there in the update process)

Anyway here is Oberon's post:

The fact that it is RC now does not mean that there are no bugs in it :-) It simply means that there will be no big features added before release.

What is new/fixed since 2.0.0003:
- Added RTP support for streaming. This should improve playback performance on unstable/weak networks. It is important to mention here that not all routers and switches support multicast (especially the old ones). Please check the specs of your network hardware if you have no signal using RTP.
- Added option for one of the MediaCenters to be a "default recorder". In practice it means that channel requests from this MediaCenter are guaranteed to succeed by DVBLink Server (even at the cost of other connected clients).
- Fixed the issue where sometimes channels where not found during scan (however DVBViewer does find them).
- Fixed the "No TV Signal" issue for server computer having more than one connected network card
- Fixed Terratec synergy not finding channels in v2.0.0003
- Fixed DVBLink TVServer not working after server has been in standby
- Made DVBLink configuration dialog resizeable

The RC1 (version 2.0.0004) consists of the following products:
- DVBLink TVSource
- DVBLink for Dreambox
- DVBLink for IPTV
- DVBLink Server Network Pack

If you are running v1 of any of the enclosed products you have to uninstall them before installing this RC1 version.

If you are running previous beta of DVBLink v2, uninstall DVBLink Server Network Pack from the server computer before update! Do not worry - it will not erase you channel configuration on the server or on the clients. You will simply have to install DVBLink Network Pack again once update of the DVBLink Server and DVBLink products is completed.
Use bat files, enclosed in zip archive for update. This will update your binary files and will keep all your scanned channels and preferences.
Update the DVBLink Server first, followed by update of the installed products and network clients. You will have to enter again server IP address or host name after client update!

If you are installing this version from the scratch you need to install DVBLink Server first (DVBLinkServer.msi), reboot your computer when prompted and proceed with source product installation afterwards.

-- DVBLink TVSource --

Download DVBLink TVSource v2.0.0004 here:
http://www.dvblogic.com/download/DVBLin ... Source.zip

-- DVBLink For Dreambox --

Download DVBLink For Dreambox v2.0.0004 here:
http://www.dvblogic.com/download/DVBLin ... 2ForDB.zip

-- DVBLink For IPTV --

Download DVBLink For IPTV v2.0.0004 here:
http://www.dvblogic.com/download/DVBLin ... orIPTV.zip

-- DVBLink Server Network Pack --

If you would like to watch TV on Network computers, running Windows MediaCenter or on UPNP clients you need to install DVBLink Server Network Pack.
The zip file contains two installers:
- DVBLinkNetworkPack.msi. This file has to be installed on the machine where DVBLink Server runs. Simply launch the installer and follow the steps of the wizard. Installer will restart DVBLink Server at the end of installation so that your server is ready for use. There is nothing specific that has to be configured on the server side to use Network Pack.
- DVBLinkNetworkClient.msi. This file has to be installed on each network computer(s) where you would like to use MediaCenter to watch DVBLink channels. Launch installer, follow wizard's steps and reboot computer once finished. Upon computer restart launch DVBLink Client Configuration, enter IP address or network name of the computer where DVBLink Server runs and press Ok. After that launch MediaCenter, do TV Setup and synchronize DVBLink channels in the usual way. Once finished you can watch DVBLink TV channels in this MediaCenter.

DVBLinkNetworkClient.msi is not required for UPNP clients to work. So if you plan to watch TV using only software UPNP clients (MediaPlayer 12 or Nero or ...) there is no need to install DVBLin Network Client on this PC.

Download DVBLink Server Network Pack v2.0.0004 here:
http://www.dvblogic.com/download/DVBLin ... etPack.zip

-- Installation and configuration manual --
Short version of installation and configuration manual is available here (with the comments of GarryWMA):
http://thedigitallifestyle.com/cs/blogs ... osted.aspx

-- Things to pay attention to --
- We have re-written PSI parser for this release candidate. Although it was thorougly tested by us we would appreciate your feedback. Please pay attention to the following: channels, which were once found during the scan, are not found anymore, HBO HD channel not working, ITV channel not working at all.

- Although extremely rare, we still observe sometimes lock-up of the server on channel change or stop streaming. We have added extra logging to this version to be able to pin-point it. If you have this issue, please set log level of the server to Info and, once ity happend again, send the dvblinkserver.log to us.

Enjoy!

Oberon: Edit: I queried ITV HD with Oberon and got this reply: ITV is definitely supported. What I wanted to write is that if it is not working for one or another reason it might be because of re-written parser. If this is the case we will fix it.

Looking for a step by step guide to setting up DVBLink server in WHS may I recommend...

2010-01-23T03:17:00Z

http://mswhs.com/2010/01/22/setting-up-dvblink-on-whs/

Phillip Churchill has put together a really good guide with pictures at almost every step.

EDIT: Credit where credit due although posted on Phillip's site this article was actually written by Al West. My apologies Al.

How close to SoftSled can you get? Pretty close! DVBLink + Recording Broker

2010-01-22T11:00:00Z

For many years the holy grail for a lot of Media Center users has been a mythical creature known as 'Soft Sled.'

This was muted quite a few years back as a Software version of a Media Center Extender that was supposedly being developed by Microsoft. Where that rumour came from or even where the 'Soft Sled' name came from, and why it was supposed to be called that, are lost in the mysts of time but the 'fairy-tale' remains a compelling one for many people.

Over the years people have set out on their own quests to discover Soft-Sled, with the noble knight WebGuide still being much lamented, and recently with the advent of Windows 7 and Homegroup most of the mystic spells softsled was supposed to be able to cast have been achieved:

Shared Music - check

Shared Video - check

Shared Recordings - check

Shared Live TV - ah still an issue but wait...

Into this mythical world has ridden a white knight with the name of DVBLink Network TV Source and now I can share live TV (well at least the tuner) from my main media center to another PC (in my case an Acer Revo NetTop screwed onto the back of a multitouch monitor) This works well, at least if your mythical world is located in Europe, but one thing remains that differentiates this from a true extender:- centralised recordings.

Now on a true extender if you hit record the recording occurs on the Media Center PC that is hosting the extender session - alas not so with our 'Soft Sled' variant. If I schedule a recording on the NetTop that recording will take place on the NetTop not on the main Media Center.

This might be fine for some people, after all Home Group will share those recordings round the network, but I want all my recording on the main Media Center. Fortunately I remembered some software that the amazing Babgvant (of DVRMSToolbox fame) had written a while back and which I had featured on this blog. Recording Broker allows you to schedule a recording on one PC but if it is unable to record due to a tuner conflict then have it 'brokered'to another pc to do the recording. It also in its later version has a great feature where you can broker all recordings. I did have one issue in that I couldn't find a Window's 7 version but a quick tweet at Babgvant got me the reply that it could be found in the forums at www.babgvant.com.

Armed with this I quickly installed it on the main media center and the NetTop, set the NetTop to broker all recording and pointed the NetTop Recording Broker to the Media Center. I then set a recording and sat back. Low and behold the magic worked and my recording was handled by the main media center.

Now there are still a few issues the prime one being that the recording schedule is not shared between media centers so i can't change the main Media Center's recording schedule without being on the Main Media center. Another being that at the moment DVBLinbk doesn't prioritise recordings over live tv. So despite having two tuners in my Media Center PC and having only scheduled two simultaneous programs to record, I still lost a recording the other day because one of the tuners was being used by the NetTop. DVBLogic are aware of this latter issue and are working on a solution for the next beta.

Oh and one final thought on this the good Knight DatabasJase has successfully installed DVBLink on his Window's Home Server with a Virtual Version of Windows 7 being hosted on the same box seeing those shared tuners which bodes well for people wanting a one box serving solution.

So foresooth and such we are nearly there and perhaps we can all live happilly ever after.

www.DVBLogic.com www.Babgvant.com www.twitter.com/databasejase

For those of you who have asked you can follow me on twitter as well www.twitter.com/garrywma

DVBLink - How tuner pooling works

2010-01-20T14:00:00Z

I asked Oberon over at the DVBLogic forums if he could clarify how the tuner pooling works in the new version of DVBLink as it is causing a lot of confusion, this was his reply:-

This is simple, but at the same time a complicated topic. With the variety of tuners, their number and combinations of channels on them there is not a single best answer to how it should be done.

We have selected certain approach that we think is a good compromise, which will work for most of the situations.
Let me explain how it works and why we have selected it so that everyone can draw conclusion on how it will operate in his/her particular setup.

The boundary conditions are:
- DVBLink can have a variety of streaming sources:
- One or more sources (tuners) of the same or different types
- Channel line-ups of each source may have some common channels
- MediaCenter can handle no more than 4 tuners at the same time
- Tuners can be accessed from local machine as well as from remote MediaCenter and UPNP clients

We were thinking first to use the same scheme as it was in v1: map one DVBLink source to one DVBLink tuner. However that would put a hard restriction on a number of DVBLink sources that can be installed and used at the same time. Any other way to flexibly combine limitation of 4 tuners in MC and variety of tuner/channel combinations seemed to be too complex to understand and configure.

So we have ended up with the following approach:
All DVBLink tuners in a MediaCenter and network clients operate with logical DVBLink channels. Logical DVBLink channel is the virtual entity that combines several physical channels having the same content. Physical channel is exposed (e.g. tunable) directly by a particular source. DVBLink Server is responsible for finding free physical channel when logical channel is requested by a client.

UPNP clients see all logical channels. This means that they can ask anytime for a particular channel and DVBLink server will serve it as long as there are free tuners in its pool.

DVBLink Server puts all logical channels onto the DVBLink Tuner #1. DVBLink Tuner #2 gets all logical channels for which there is more than one physical channel. DVBLink Tuner #3 gets all logical channels for which there are more than two physical channels and so on - it is building up like a pyramid.
So the number of physical channels under single logical channels defines maximum number of tuners that can be used simultaneously by a single MediaCenter.
On the DVBLink server side number of channels that can be used at the same time is limited by the number of sources - local and network MediaCenters and UPNP clients working at the same time can utilize all available sources.

This scheme is a good compromise as it:
- Provides maximum benefit for the most common case: multiple tuners having the same channels
- Provides reasonable advantage for the tuners with partially the same line-ups
- Fully utilizes all available tuners when shared among local and network clients
- Is easy in configuration and implementation

Oberon also posted this as a reply in the forum and if you want to ask any questions I suggest you head over to the DVBLink2 forum at www.DVBLogic.com

One thing this reply did sort out for me was the order physical tuners were assigned to logical tuners I had thought it the other way round which didn't make much sense as with this way round. Still not quite sure how this will avoid issues where say you have a DVB-T tuner and DVB-s tuner with some share channels but more DVB-S than DVB-T and if Media Center chooses to use the DVB-S tuner to record a channel that is shared then it cannot record another channel that is only on the DVB-S tuner. Hopefully DVBLogic are doing some prioritisation.

DVBLink V2 instructions posted

2010-01-18T15:34:00Z

Over at the DVBLogic forums Oberon has just posted a quick set up guide for DVBLink V2. For your convenience I have copied it here with some of my comments in bold italics and underlined

DVBLink Server installation and configuration.

1. Install DVBLink Server. Launch DVBLinkServer.msi and follow instructions of the Wizard. Reboot PC at the end of installation as prompted. Rebooting is really important
2. Install DVBLink TVSource. Launch DVBLinkTVSource.msi and follow instructions of the Wizard. DVBLink TVSource installer will launch DVBLink Server Configuration utility when it ends.
3. Configure MC Guide Services source. It will greatly simplify Guide channel mapping on the server MediaCenter as well as on the clients. Press ... button next to MC Guide Services source in configurator and follow the steps of the Wizard. When channel information is received from MediaCenter, status information of MC Guide Services source will turn green. Mine was already configured due to I think upgrading
4. Add TVSource instance for each physical tuner that you have in the server. To do this select TVSource in the left column and press green arrow button.
5. Configure each TVSource instance:

a. Press ... next to the TVSource instance that you would like to configure
b. On the first tab activate the hardware tuner that you would like this instance of TVSource to control. Check that it has a correct type - cable vs. sat vs. terrestrial. Select a correct one if needed.
c. Go to Headends tab and add headends. Select correct provider/satellite from the list and configure LNB properties (diseqc and LOF) for satellite tuners. Just to clarify you can also choose DVB-T and DVB-C headends here and most european services are already available. If you can't find a quick check in the DVBLogic forums will usually help.
d. Go to Scan tab and scan the channels
e. (Optional) Instead of scanning all transponders you may wish to scan only transponders of your provider using Network Scan feature.
f. (Optional) You may check all scanned channels and preview them in VLC on the Channels tab of TVSource configurator I would highly advise doing this to spot check a few channels to ensure everything is working before proceeding to the next stage.
g. Press Ok to close TVSource configuration dialog

6. Switch to Server Configuration tab This is at the bottom of the screen
7. Move all channels that you would like to watch in MediaCenter from the left tree to the right on Channel Selection tab of DVBLink Server Configuration. You can move individual channels as well as whole sub-tree(s). You can also use double-click to quickly move individual channels. Important if you have more than one tuner with the same channelsyou can save time by only setting up the channels for one tuner and then use the central button on the screen (two arrows intertwined) to copy these settings to the other tuner
8. (Optional, but important) If you have more than one tuner installed, which provide the same (sub)set of channels, it is important that you merge those channels into the same logical channel. This will allow DVBLink Server to efficiently share tuner hardware among several clients (either local or networked). You can do this on Channel Merge tab of DVBLik Configuration I wouldn't have called this optional :-)
9. (Optional) If you would like to have specific channel numbering in MediaCenter you can enter channel numbers on Channel Numbers tab of DVBLink Configuration. Using the MC Gide Services EPG in 10 below will add channel numbers automatically in some cases probably worth trying before adding them manually
10. (Optional, but important). Assign EPG sources to your DVBLink channels. MC Guide Services EPG source lets you assign the Guide services, provided by Microsoft, to DVBLink channels. You can also opt for getting information from the stream, xmltv or none. It is important that you do this on the server. This will greatly simplify setup of network clients. For fast mapping you can use "Set EPG source by channel name" feature. This feature is brillaint and will do intelligent mapping e.g. suggexting Eurosport for British Europsort
11. When done, press Ok button to complete DVBLink Server Configuration.

MediaCenter configuration

1. Perform TV Setup in Windows MediaCenter (if you have not done it earlier). Go to Settings -> TV -> TV Setup. Follow steps of the Wizard, provide your regional information and configure at least one DVBLink Tuner during this process. DVBLink virtual tuner is a SATELLITE tuner - this is the type of the signal that you need to select in MediaCenter. When asked for satellite selection SELECT ANY SATELLITE. DVBLink will substitute channels of this satellite with its own! Complete TV Setup by pressing Finish button. When prompted for transponder type choose the first one.
2. Synchronize DVBLink channels using DVBLink Chanel synchronization addin. This addin is located in Extra's folder of MediaCenter. Launch addin and select "Synchronize channels" option. The wizard appears showing all selected DVBLink channels. If you have performed channel configuration at the server side properly there is nothing special you should do in this wizard. Just press Next-Next-Finish. You may find you are prompted to do this when starting mediacenter
3. Go to Guide, select a channel to play and enjoy!

DVBLink Network Pack installation

1. Install DVBLink Server Network Pack. Launch DVBLinkNetPack.msi on the computer where DVBLink Server was previously installed. Follow instructions of the Wizard. There is no reboot needed - DVBLink Server Network Pack is ready for use when its installation completes. There is not specific configuration that has to be done for NetPack.

DVBLink Network Client Installation

1. Install DVBLink Network Client. This software has to be installed on the client computer. Launch DVBLinkNetworkClient.msi and follow instructions of the Wizard. Reboot PC at the end of installation as prompted.

2. After reboot launch DVBLink Client Configuration and provide IP address or network name of the computer where DVBLink Server runs.

3. Perform MediaCenter setup as described above.

Oberon

Tip: What to do if Media Center TV setup gets stuck Loading TV Setup Data

2010-01-16T02:35:00Z

This is a tip I keep meaning to write up and as this situation just happened to me again I thought it was about time I did.

If Media Center hangs Loading during TV Setup Data there are two possible solutions I know of

First try pressing Windows Key R to get a command prompt and enter:

C:\Windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -manual -nogc -p

This will start the Media Center Update service if stopped

If that still does not fix it and particularly if you have change region try going to Rmeove Programs in Control Panel and remove PlayReady. Restart Media Center and TV Setup. PlayReady ill be reinstalled as part of this setup. Once it is reinstalled TV Setup Data should start loading if it doesn't then repeat the first step.

Hope this helps - can't lay claim to having discoverd these fixes if you dig deep enough on the webyou will find them - unfortunately I haven't been able to find the originators to give credit but, whoever you are, thank you.

DVBLink Network Pack - it works (well at least in the UK and Europe - sorry USA)

2010-01-15T18:00:00Z

I have been asked quite a few times today what I think of the new DVBLink Network pack and I have to say my initial impressions are very good.

Once you have the DVBLink TV sources configured on the server it is incredibly easy to set up the network component:

On the Server you install the Network Pack for server - no configuration is necessary it just appears as a plug-in in dvblink server.
On the client install the Network Pack for client and run the client configuration tool (this last bit is not obvious) and then tell the client where to find the server. It says enter the ip address but I found the network name of my server worked.
It should go off find the server and list all the channels available on the server.
You then need to go through media center TV setup, cancel signal detection and manually add a satellite source and choose how many dvblink tuners you have configured on your server (up to 4 will be listed and I am not currently sure how it will work if you install more than 4 in your server)
Once you have done this DVBLink should notice the change and pop up a message asking you to configure the tuners (in Expert mode - I don't think there is another mode)
Make sure your media center screen is not Full-Screen and say yes to the prompt
You will then be presented with a list of channels and asked to map them to guide data - using match by name works pretty well
And that is it

All of this took me about 5 minutes on my Acer Revo Ion unit and I had lovely DVB-T channels streaming but just acting like it was any other tuner in my box.

Very impressive.

Also remember DVBLink Network Server is a DLNA source and all your channels can be browsed just using a DLNA client (i.e. Windows Media Player or even a playstation 3) they appear under Recorded TV in the DLNA folder list (at the moment no programme info is shown but hopefully this will improve over time)

On the server side I am also very taken with some of the small user interface changes they have made. The new intelligent map channels by name is one example where it will look for partial names (e.g. British Eurosport for Eurosport)

All in all very good first impressions. With a decent network I have not had any stuttering on streaming and have even managed to stream SD comfortably over just Wireless G (although I wouldn't recommend it for HD.)

Using DVBLink in USA - the word from DVBLogic

2010-01-15T15:32:00Z

Ok so since I posted about the new DVBLink network server I have been getting a lot of questions about US tuner support. I wasn't totally sure on this so I thought I would go to the horse's mouth and ask Oberon over at DVBLogic. Below is his reply which has both good and bad news for US users. If anyone with technical knowledge of ATSC/CableCard would like to help DVBLink with this get in touch and I will pass on your details.

Hi Garry,

Thanks! It is indeed a big step for us. And luckily enough it works rather stable for the first beta :-)
I have seen the questions from US users on DVBLink. Unfortunately TVSource does not support ATSC/CableCards yet. It does support US satellite by working with Genpix tuners. We have a number of users happily using TVSource with it. However in this case users have to actual decrypting via plugins.
Analogue tuners are not supported at all due to the nature of DVBLink operations.
So not very good news for US users. It happened to be historically that way as ATSC was supported from the beginning by MediaCenter and there was no need to do anything else.
We have plans to support ATSC/cableCard etc. This will happen already after release of current v2. The thing is a bit complicated as we are European company and can hardly access US signal types. We'll see what we can do here. As a minimum we can offer our SDK to those who would like to build support for it.

Oberon

Want Networked Tuners?! - DVBLogic will give them to you

2010-01-12T13:53:00Z

Just wanted to get this out quick so I am going to post below the announcement from Oberon over at the dvblogic forums. This looks superb and has already been patched to allow install on Windows Home Server. I love the fact it can act as uPNP server.

http://dvblogic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=8923

Introducing new version of DVBLink Server with DVBLink Server Network Pack!
Now you can watch your TV channels on network computers running Windows MediaCenter as well as on UPNP clients!

This beta version 2.0.0003 consists of the following products:

-- DVBLink TVSource --
If you are installing this version from the scratch you need to install DVBLinkServer.msi first, reboot your computer when prompted and install DVBLinkTVSource.msi afterwards.

If you are currently running v1 of DVBLink Server and DVBlink TVSource you have to uninstall them before installing this beta version. You may save tvsourcesettings.xml files of your TVSources. This will restore your scanned channels. However you will have to do mapping, numbering, guide channel selection and synchronization in MediaCenter from the scratch.

If you are upgrading from previously installed v2 beta, you have to use bat files, enclosed in zip archive. This will update your binary files and will keep all your scanned channels and preferences.
Run DVBLinkServerUpdate.bat first, follow steps of the wizard and reboot computer when prompted. When computer is rebooted do not start DVBLink Server Configurator!
If you have at least one xmltv source you need to do an extra manual step: copy two DLLs (XMLTVSource.dll and XMLTVSourceConfig.dll) from DVBLink2\Templates\Sources\XMLTV to the correspondent xmltv source instance folder in DVBLink2\Sources.
Then proceed with DVBLink TVSource upgrade by running DVBLinkTVSourceUpdate.bat. Once it's finished your system is up to date and you may enjoy watching TV again.

Download DVBLink TVSource v2.0.0003 here:

http://www.dvblogic.com/download/DVBLin ... Source.zip

-- DVBLink Server Network Pack --

If you would like to watch TV on Network computers, running Windows MediaCenter or on UPNP clients you need to install DVBLink Server Network Pack.
The zip file contains two installers:

DVBLinkNetworkClient.msi is not required for UPNP clients to work. So if you plan to watch TV using only software UPNP clients (MediaPlayer 12 or Nero or ...) there is no need to install DVBLin Network Client on this PC.

Download DVBLink Server Network Pack v2.0.0003 here:

http://www.dvblogic.com/download/DVBLin ... etPack.zip

-- Known issues --

-- Tips and tricks --

http://dvblogic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=8923

As Seen at CES: More E-Books, Soundolier wireless speakers

2010-01-11T07:19:00Z

I spent the morning touring the E-Book/E-Reader showcase and I can confidently predict the cost of ownership for e-reader technology is going to come down this year. With so many manufacturers pushing very similar form factors with similar e-ink technologies it is going to be difficult to find a competitive edge.

The things I think to look for are going to be battery life, refresh rate and screen quality.

Some of the devices I looked at today were taking some 20 to 30 seconds to change page which is unacceptable others were almost instantaneous (Cybook and Samsung impressed here)

We are trying to arrange an ebook reader shoot-off sometime soon to try and compare face to face various readers.

I have just completed my final walk round and passed again something which has impressed me all week. My experience with Wireless Speakers has always been poor but the Soundolier wireless speakers which look like designer lamp-stands have always sounded crisp and detailed as I have walked passed them without any hint of interference. www.sondolier.com

As Seen At CES: Amulet Voice Control Remote for Media Center

2010-01-11T04:07:00Z

Way at the back of the south hall in the EHX section Amulet are showing off one of the coolest bits of Media Center kit at CES.

Their prototype Amulet 2nd Generation Voice-enabled Remote looks like a fairly normal Media Center Remote but has a built in microphone for voice control.

The really neat thing is how the voice control is activated. When you tilt the remote vertical a light shows illuminating the microphone and you can then just say your command. No need to prefix the commands with a safe word as say with OneVoice instead of saying OneVoice Goto Music you just say Goto Music, Play Artist U2 etc.

Of course the proof is in how good the recognition is. I was very impressed - My voice is quite difficult for Voice Recognition Software to analyse with its strange English accent and bass content but I picked up the remote and was recognised immediately. Even when I stuttered over an album name it played the correct name. I had one hundred percent recognition in a noisy hall. Compared with my experience of OneVoice at home where I would get about 80 percent recognition at best that is phenomenal.

The voice control can be used with the normal Media Center interface but Amulet have also added their own native Media Center app to streamline media selection with voice. This is a very impressive user experience and I could see myself using this even if I didn’t use voice control. It is a bit like a cross between mymovies and media browser but incorporating Movies, TV and Music.

Connection to the PC is by a combination of RF for voice and IR for control.

The unit is only a prototype but they have announced a manufacturing deal here at CES and the unit should ship Q1 for $249 which sounds expensive but when you compare it with buying say OneVoice software and the array microphone you would need to operate it is very comparable.

If you are still at CES I highly recommend checking the Amulet stand out and if not we will have Amulet on the show sometime soon.

Oh and I also forgot to mention it is also a learning remote.

Update: website is at www.amuletdevices.com

As not seen (but heard about) at CES Dolby Volume

2010-01-10T00:30:23Z

Ian and I were lucky enough to visit Dolby’s Showcase yesterday and one technology which I could see some really interesting possibilities for is Dolby Volume. This is an intelligent volume levelling software. This ensures all sources are at a consistent level and avoids such things as blaring changes in volume when the adverts come on. It does not just vary the volume level but also analyses the signal and applies processing to avoid loss of detail in much the same way as some amps do with their night modes.

Whilst this is currently only implemented in some receivers and set-top boxes it doesn’t take much of a stretch to envision Dolby implementing this as a software solution in much the same way they have Dolby Headphone.

As Seen at CES: Set Back – where your Media Center will be

2010-01-09T23:42:44Z

One trend I am really noticing this year is the number of small ION based PC’s which you can mount on the back of your TV using the VESA mounts.

I was standing by the Microsoft stand earlier and someone asked about a large screen-size all-in-one pc and I got to thinking why would you choose an all in one when you could have a Set Back PC on your TV

You could couple this with either an air-mouse style keyboard, or indeed the multi-touch remote Ian mentions on the CES coverage on the podcast, for control. You would then have a very impressive all-in-one equivalent for a few hundred dollars.

In fact people would never know you had a pc unless you told them – they would just think you had a very intelligent TV.

As Seen at CES: Arcsoft

2010-01-09T21:50:05Z

Ian and myself went to see Arcsoft today to talk about 3d support in Total Media Theater within Media Center. Whilst this was certainly amazing to see I was even more impressed by their support in an upcoming version of High Bit Rate HD audio directly over HDMI from the recently announced Intel Home Theater chip sets. This software update which will be free for existing users will also support ATI chipsets which have High Bit Rate output.

The demo we had seemed really good.

More detail will be in next week’s podcast with Ian.

As Seen At CES: NXT technology

2010-01-08T19:06:00Z

I attended NXT’s press breakfast this morning and was impressed with a couple of things. First an upfront disclosure I have a small number of shares in NXT.

Amongst many iPod docks and radios etc using NXT’s flat panel technology were a couple of new technologies.

If you have been in the UK recently and read any of the TV magazines you will have seen adverts for the Q-TV2 speaker system. This is a 2.1 speaker system which attaches to the vesa mount on the back of your tv. To quote from manufacturer Q-Accoustics

An unobtrusive speaker system, delivering 'HD cinema sound' for all 30" - 42" flatscreen TVs.

Upgrade your TV experience and enjoy HD Sound

100w 2.1 Stereo system
Ultra-slim, vibration-free subwoofer
'BMR' drivers for wide sound dispersion

One size fits all
- Adjusts to fit any 30" to 42" screen
Plug and Play
- Simple to connect
- No speaker cables required
- 3 x EQ setups to suit environment
Easy to use
- Uses existing TV remote
- Auto standby when not in use (with low power consumption)
Auxiliary Input
- Connect an iPod or other personal audio player
Digital 'Lip-Sync' adjustment

Whilst only 2.1 I thought the sound stage was very wide with good tight bass.

for more info http://www.qacoustics.co.uk

Another thing that NXT showed which whilst in its infancy was interesting is an evolution of their SoundVue technology to add haptic feedback to the already existing ability to use the lcd panel as a speaker. This allows for haptic feedback on a multi-touchscreen. I have to be honest I have experienced better haptic feedback here at CES particularly the tech preview that Pacinian are showing off. With the Pacinian technology you can have a keyboard on your touch screen and when you press the buttons it will actually feel like it is depressing. With the NXT technology its more of a buzzing feeling under your finger.

I can really see a future where your home will be controlled with a touch panel that has haptic feedback so that you can even find your touch light switch in the dark.

For more info www.Nxt.com and www.pacinian.com

Technorati Tags: CES2010

As seen at CES: eBooks and lots of them

2010-01-06T17:04:00Z

It certainly looks like this is going to be the year of the eBook reader at CES. Marvel in conjunction with AU Optronics were showing some ultrathin reader's base on AU's EPD (electronic paper display) E-Ink displays

The quality and refresh rate of these displays looks to be very good.

What was interesting from the Digital Lifestyle point of view was a dual screen unit with E-Ink on one side and a colour lcd on the other. This was intriguing as the lcd screen allowed for streaming of video.

As seen at CES: Fit PC2 - A media center for the palm of your hand

2010-01-06T16:42:00Z

Compulab's FitPC is astoundingly small when you see it in the flesh - it truly is a PalmSize PC but a powerful one as, harnessing the GMA500 chipset's hardware acceleration, it is quite capable of running HD Video - in fact it was demoed running an h.264 video in 1080p. It is also totally fanless and truly silent. The only real issues I can see are that there is nowhere to fit an optical drive, the hdmi port is actually only dvi so doesn't do audio and the 1gb ram is not expandable.

- Ultra-Low Power Intel Atom Z510/530 Processor
- 1GB DDR2 RAM
- 160GB SATA Hard Drive (Windows 7/XP and Linux models)
- GigaBit 1000BaseT Ethernet (LAN)
- 6 x USB 2.0 + IR
- 10W Maximum power consumption
- TINY - 11.5cm x 10.1cm x 2.7cm (313cc)
- Standard Warrantee - NOW 2 YEARS
- 802.11 b/g WiFi (Optional)
- AUTO-RESUME AVAILABLE on most models - i.e. they can be set up to restart on power failure
- RANGE OF FIT-PC2 ACCESSORIES AVAILABLE.
inc. 58Whr Portable Battery + UPS, 7" USB Touch-Screen Monitor

But really the specs are not important it's just one of those things that when you see it in the flesh makes you go 'I want one'

I took some picture but I came across this one when looking at the uk site www.fitpc.co.uk and thought it gave a much better impression:-

The model shown has 6 usb ports (2 front - 4 rear), HDMI audio in/out and an ethernet port. They are also releasing a new version with 2 Ethernet ports - handy if you have an hd-homerun and want to isolate the bandwidth.

The Fit PC2 is made by CompuLab more details including pricing at www.fit-pc.com

I'm hoping we will be able to get one to review.

DVBLink 2.02 beta out

2009-12-31T19:47:00Z

If you are running DVBLink 2 then you need to head over to the forums at www.DVBLogic.com and download the latest beta update. As well as fixing a memory leak this will extend the beta period which is due to expire shortly.

I've been trying the new patch for a few hours and it seems quite a bit stabler than the original release. This is only an interim release and the guys at DVBLogic are working hard to get the new Network tuner package out shortly.

Sites you should know: HTBananas

2009-12-31T19:42:00Z

Got a question about setting up your Home Theater equipment. Don't know your Dolby from your DTS? Can't plug your HDMI in a round hole? HTBanas is porbably going to have the answer. Run by Home Theater enthusiasts for Home Theater enthusiasts this is going to be the ultimate site for getting your questions answered. The people behind this read like a Who's Who of Home Theater community - I won't name check them all just head over to the site and see who is answering the questions.

Excellent. Head on over to www.HTBananas.com

DVBLink 2 1st Beta Here

2009-12-15T16:52:00Z

Oberon just posted this over at the DVBLogic Forums - shame that the Network Functionality hasn't made it yet but the appropriate word is yet. Network BDA drivers coming soon. Having said that the new release already improves an awful lot of things as mentioned below in Oberon's post:-

---

Meet the second generation of MediaCenter connectivity products - introducing DVBLink v2!

We are very excited to release for public beta testing the new version of DVBLink products: DVBLink Server and DVBLink TVSource.
DVBLink v2 has a lot of improvements and new things comparing to v1. Just to name a few:
- Simplified and unified user interface
- UAC compatibility
- Server side channel management
- Simplified MediaCenter channel synchronization

Just try it for yourself to see what it can do!

Several of things to know before you start testing our new DVBLink version:
- Network functionality - upnp server and network BDA drivers - is not included in this first beta release.
- DVBLink v2 cannot be installed on the same machine where DVBLink v1 is already installed. You need to uninstall it first.
- There are no tools now to migrate your channels from DVBLink1 to DVBLink2. You will have to re-synchronize the channels in MediaCenter (you may however copy your tvsourcesettings.xml to restore your scanned channels)
- There are no user manuals. It is done on purpose to see where the interface has to be improved.
- There are no controls to stop/start DVBLink Server. They are not needed anymore - just let DVBLink Server run. You may consider restarting it from the Control Panel only if things really go wrong.
- Do not turn off UAC. This version of DVBLink is compatible with it and will ask you kindly whenever it needs administrator rights
- You may configure all DVBLink tuners at once during TV Setup in MediaCenter
- Although we have spent quite some time testing it there still can be (and will be) bugs in the new products. So we do not recommend these installation for mission critical setups (the one that your wife is using for example :-))

The DVBLink TVSource v2 can be downloaded here:

http://www.dvblogic.com/download/DVBLin ... Source.zip

Enjoy!

Oberon

DVBLink 2 - coming very soon

2009-12-15T00:12:00Z

Oberon over at DVBLogic.com has dropped me a mail following on from this week's podcast to say that DVBLink 2 is only day's away and to prove they really do listen it removes the requirement to turn off UAC. I am really excited to see what DVBLink 2 has to offer - I suspect it may be an answer to some of the things Sage TV people have always criticised Media Center for lacking - network tuners maybe but I don't have any inside information.

Full disclosure: up to now I have always paid for all my licenses for the products I use from DVBLogic. They have recently kindly offered me some free licences for the products I don't currently own so that I can test their other products. I will not let this affect how I write about these products and will be critical where I feel it is needed (UAC :-) ) but I thought it was only fair to let my reader's know.

Sites you should Know (particularly if your are in the UK): Rathes Blog

2009-11-29T14:11:00Z

http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/rathe_media_center_blog/default.aspx

From what appears to be an insider in the Dublin dev team for Media Centre, this blog is in its early stage but already has some reall nuggets of information. At the time of posting there is a great post on how to get SkyPlayer working if it doesn't show up.

Looks incredibly promising - reminds me of Matt Goyer's blog in the early days.

DVBLogic release DVBSource for DVBLink

2009-11-22T21:28:00Z

Great to see the announcement posted over at www.dvblogic.com that they have released their DVBSource program which allows the use of DVBLink to view TVSources directly without the need for further third party software (dvbviewer, dvbdream etc)

This new releases contains:

- Support for diseqc and CI control for skystar hd2/twinhan/azurewave/terratec tuner cards

- Fixed XMLTV transfer during background EPG scan - Built-in csa (no need for csa.dll anymore)

- Support for external ffdecsa.dll. This dll should be put in plugins folder of TVSource. There is a number of ffdecsa.dll around. DVBLink TVSource supports those exporting "get_keyset_size", "decrypt_packets" and "set_control_words" functions.

A bit more news from DVBLogic and 1Geek1Tool

2009-11-14T03:18:00Z

Really pleased to see this post from Oberon over at DVBLogic's forum:

We are working hard on DVBLink v2. Alpha may be expected next week (5-10 days).
DVBLink TVSource will be released next week. Users of DVBLink TVSource will get free upgrade to DVBLink TVSource v2.

DVBLink2 looks like it might be very exciting and I will do a more indepth post when it is released. TVSource is already working very well and is a great way of getting unsupported sources into Media Center (Or even supported ones - I know someone who has added another 4 DVB tuners using it - 8 Freeview Tuner's anyone, I know that sounds crazy but when you have lots of extenders it makes much more sense)

Also over at www.1Geek1Tool.com you may have missed there has been an update to DVBLink for HDPVR (see my Virgin Cable article) which adds some really good new features:

Added a “Stream Saver” feature to get rid of the infamous “No TV Signal” message. That is, if the HD PVR Streaming is lost, we feed a dummy stream that Media Center continues recording “unknowingly”. This way, if you have an “on-device-error-power-cycle” hook present, Media Center won’t abort your recording.

Added support for sub-channel numbers (ex: 700.1 or 700-1)

Much improved MCE Compatible IR support (fixed the frequency bug AND the port selection)

Improvements and bug fixes to line-up editor.

Added the ability to change the “set-top-box” number for your channels in your line-up.

This last one is really useful for UK cable box viewers.

One thing I don't like with this new release is it forces you to turn of UAC (the security prompting in Vista and 7) I personally think this is a really bad thing = those prompts are there to protect the unsuspecting form malicious code turning them off should be the very last resort. I have always managed to install the app without turning off UAC by running Media Center and some of the components as administrator and I would like the option to continue doing so. I don't really want to knock the guys over at 1Geek1Tool because they have made some fantastic media center software including the awesome GuideTool which has also been updated.

Now up to V1.2.1 this version of Guide Tool includes a lineup configuration backup/restore operation. 1Geek1Tool are requiring a paypal donation (minimum 5$) for this feature to become enabled - I think that is a real bargain

More information over at

www.1geek1tool.com

and

www.dvblogic.com

Sky Player in Media Center - the wheel turns slowly but it does turn

2009-10-21T23:35:00Z

With all the excitement over here in the UK about the integration of Sky Player into Media Centre - which I have to say does look extremely well done particularly the integration into the guide - I got to thinking about slow cogs moving at big business. Most people seem to be assuming that this was a suprise and unexpected announcement but in fact, if we had believed Bill Gates, we would have known this was coming. For Mr Gates told us Sky's forthcoming online service would be integrated into media center way back at CES in 2006.

So when you are dark in despair about nothing happening with your favourite speculated future feature for Media Center, remember this:- the wheels may move very slowy and take a while to pick up momentum but the wheel's of Media Center development do move.

Momentum seems to be building... I suspect we have seen nothing yet!

DVBLogic TV Source reaches beta 2

2009-10-21T01:01:00Z

I posted a little while ago about DVBLogics TVSource for DVBlink and have to say the team over there are coming along leaps and bounds with this. If you don't know the DVBLink technology acts as a bridge to allow a number of sources (for example IP TV) to be fed into media center as though they are Satellite tuners. Their TVsource allows a number of tuners to be used in this way including many not directly supported by Media Center (DVB-C tuners for example).

One other neat thing is as this is acts as a Satellite source in Media Center you can have 4 of these in addition to 4 terrestrial tuners. As the DVBLogic TV Source tuners can be terrestrial as well that gives a potential of having 8 tuners!

Head over to www.dvblogic.com for more details

Silicon Dust fix tuner 0 issue for DVB-C in latest beta

2009-10-17T17:36:00Z

I mentioned in my last blog post that some of our European friends were having some success in viewing free to air cable channels using the DVB version of the HD Homerun Network tuner from Silicon Dust but with one puzzling feature - only tuner 1 was working reliably with tuner 0 being either unusuable on very unreliable. Well it appears there was a bug in the driver/firmware which has now been resolved and I'm getting reports that tuner 0 works really well.

I am very impressed how pro-active silicon dust are on this - I have friends in scandinavia who have actually had one on one sessions with Silicon Dust's stateside engineers to try and resolve their issues!

So if this issue is affecting you head over and download the beta from http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2484

Garry

SiliconDust bring DVB-C FTA into Windows MC in latest HDHomerun beta build

2009-10-09T04:34:00Z

Its not well known but the DVB-T version of the HDHomeRun networked TV tuner also allows each tuner to work as a DVB-C tuner for Free-To-Air channels - potentially very useful in continental europe where some cable providers have a lot of FTA content. Up to now there have been two issues with this:

1, The tuners struggled to tune anything in

2, When they did tune anything Media Cent(er)(re - sorry Josh) would not find the channels as DVB-C is not directly supported under cable (Clear-QAM is but that is slightly different)

SiliconDust's beta resolve both of these issue but somewhat strangely:

First from reports on the forums tuning seems to work really well on tuner 1 but poorly on tuner 0.

Secondly to tune in MC you first set up the scan in the HDHomeRun software as Digital Cable but in Media Centre you say you have a Terrestrial tuner and choose the HDHomerun. Scanning terrestrial channels in Media Center(OK Josh) causes the cable channels you scanned earlier to magically appear.

http://www.silicondust.com for more details but very interesting stuff - although only having one tuner working properly does make for an expensive box.

Edit: thought I'd better explain the Josh comments - these refer to Josh Pollard from The DigitalMediaZone and the Entertainment 2.0 Podcast and if you want to know what it is all about I suggest you listen to their Europe we still love you edition of the podcast.

Off Topic: Need to get a new iPod to work with an old dock. Sites you should know: CableJive.com

2009-10-06T12:30:00Z

I had an email pop in today from CableJive.com about two new iPod synch cables "duraSync is the world's toughest sync cable for iPod and iPhone, and xlSync is an extra-long sync cable for iPod and iPhone"

This reminded me of a blog post I had been meaning to write for a while....

Like many of us now my car comes with an iPod dock and purely for that reason I got my self a cheap iPod Nano.

Now this worked great except it wouldn't charge in the dock. It turns out that this was one of the newer iPods that only has USB power. Guess what the dock was an older design which used firewire. Fortunately after much research I cam across CableJive.com and their Charge Converter product http://www.cablejive.com/charge-converter#car-charge-kit which basically takes the firewire power feed and turns it into usb. CableJIve are upfront and say it doesn't work for all docks and there are some caveats on the site. Fortunately it did work for my Pioneers dock (they didn't have the warnings about Pioneer radios up then) and very well.

One other thing that CableJive has is an adaptor to turn an iPod dock into a universal dock so you can for example plug your zune into a set of iPod speakers (or even your media center - ok that is stretching things a bit and was dragging on topic kicking and screaming :-))

Garry Whittaker - The DigitalLifestyle.com

DVBLogic beta testing tuner platform

2009-10-05T06:20:00Z

DBVLogic who already have a vast number of products to link a myriad of TV sources into Media Center have decided to go one further and create their own TV source. Based on the DVBDream platform this will eventually allow a significant number of pc based satellite and cable tuner cards to act as a direct source for DVBLink and therefore be accessible in Media Center directly.

One really neat thing on this maybe the ability to support multiple tuners easilly.

Interesting stuff but very much in beta. More info in the forums at www.dvblogic.com

BBC look to copy protect BBC HD on freeview

2009-09-17T19:35:00Z

Interesting article on the BBC News site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8259154.stm

Basically it looks like the content providers are pushing the Beeb to impose content protection once Freeview HD is up and running. Have to say it sounds like the way they are planning to implement it might be feasible to implement in Media Centre but whether it would be may be another matter. Not yet approved by the regulator and there is some opposition. Anyway give the article a read for more details.

Zune HD - Dock - Big screen UI video

2009-08-05T14:51:00Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cMi_Qp7eb4

Suspect this will be taken down soon. Someone sneaked some video at the GDGT event last night where MS were demoing the UI for the Zune HD when connected to a big screen using HDMI from the dock. All very interesting - no sign of a media center extender :-( but also no telling if this is the final interface. Does look very quick though.

Virgin Media launches new HD channels in the UK - How to watch them in your Media Center

2009-07-31T05:25:00Z

I have been planning to write up my experiences trying to get HD content from my Virgin Media V+ cable into my Media Centre. Up to recently there didn't seem a lot of point as Virgin only had 1 HD channel but today 3 more launched and with ESPN covering the premiership football (Soccer to my US friends) from monday in HD there now seems a lot of point.

Firstly why bother as the only way to get HD from Virgin is by renting one of their V+ cable boxes which is a multi tuner PVR in its own right. This is a really good question and for me the main reason is convenience. I like only having to go through my Media Center interface to view TV, I love the way guide data is displayed and its just a hell of a lot quicker to find the channel I want through the Media Center than the V+ box.

So how to get the Virgin channels into the Media Center. Firstly a major caveat - there are two V+ boxes the older Scientific Atlantic box I have which had both HDMI and Component Outputs and a newer Samsung Box that only has HDMI. Why is this significant well this solution requires to use the so called analogue hole and that requires Component Output. A second caveat this is only going to work with Windows 7 Media Center as previous version do not properly support the required HD codecs (OK you could use the hacked TVPack version but why! 7MC is just so much better)

Now our friends in the States use the component hole to get round the fact that their digital feeds tend to be encrypted and the same is true with Virgin. Basically the idea is very much like how in the very early days of Media Centre before DVB-T (Digital Terrestrial) tuners were common in the UK I had to use an analogue tuner to capture output from a standalone freeview box (Freeview is the UK's over the air DVB-T service) and control this using the Media Center's IR Blaster.

Using an Analogue tuner is currently the recommended way of watching Virgin TV in the UK in media center but of course a standard analogue tuner can only capture Standard Definition.

At this point I hear our European readers cry DVB-C tuners. These are the cable equivalent of the DVB-T tuners most people now use to view Freeview directly in Media Center and they work very well with most European Cable channels. Unfortunately there is a huge question over there legality in the UK and at the very least Virgin could cut off your service if they found you using one - stupid really as it would probably increase there subscriptions but at the moment that is the way it is - although I know a lot of people do question these legal facts and a lot of people in the UK do use DVB-C tuners as can be seen over at AVForums.

A lot of people are convinced of the legal position and won't take the risk of using DVB-C tuners so we are left with the Analogue Hole but how to use it.

Obviously a conventional analogue tuner is not the way forward so what is? Enter the Hauppauge HD-PVR, specifically designed to take advantage of the analogue hole, this black box about the size of a mac-mini takes a component input at up to 1080. This is encoded to H.264 and passed via a USB port to your PC. It even has its own IR Blaster.

Fantastic problem solved! Eh not quite. The HD-PVR is not currently natively supported by Media Center even in Windows 7. Hauppauge are rumoured to be working on a native driver but nothing has seen the light yet.

So are we stuck, fortunately not. The good people over at DVBLogic have always been on the forefont of getting external stream sources into Media Center and fortunately their fantastic DVBLink product has an SDK which allows developers to add any media stream they fancy. Even more fortunately a couple of very talented programmers who can be found over at 1Geek1Tool.com have come up with an HD-PVR plug in for DVBLink.

This basically makes Media Center see the HD-PVR as a Satellite tuner - this is great news if you already have 4 DVB-T tuners as I do because you can also have up to 4 satellite tuners as well in Windows 7.

I should make the point that at the moment the HD-PVR plugin for DVBLink only supports a single HD-PVR. The guys are working on multi tuner support but as at the moment I only have one V+ box its not too much of an issue for me.

The plugin is really flexible in how you can control your cable box. You can use the HD-PVR's in built IR Blaster, an MCE IR blaster (recommended) and even firewire. Unfortunately my V+ box doesn't have firewire so I have had to go the IR blaster route. Now for cabling reasons it was a lot easier to use the HD-PVR built in blaster. Setting this up was a nightmare.

You have to use Hauppauges own IR Blaster configuration program prior to setting up the DVBLink software. This at face value looks easy. It gives you a list of satellite and cable tuner boxes you choose the box and it configures the blaster. Umm no! My V+ box is actually a Scientific Atlantic box so obviously I thought I chose this from the list. Nothing worked. I trawled the web, googled, binged even yahooed but to no avail. Finally I reversed engineered the IR codes my V+ controller was sending and worked out it was actually emulating a Pace Satellite box set of codes (don't ask - I said don't ask I have no idea why). Once I set up the HD config to send Pace Satellite signals it worked brilliantly - except for IR sender keeping falling off the V+ box but good old velcro stopped that.

So next thing is to set up DVBLink and I'm going to say this only once, Run don't walk over to http://1Geek1Tool.com and read their install instructions really, really carefully before installing.

One thing I hate about DVBLink is they say you have to Disable UAC and make sure you’re logged-in as an administrator. I have to say I didn't do this. I use the compatability feature of 7 to set all the components to run as administrator and whilst configuring I even ran Media Center as administrator and it worked brilliantly.

I'm not going to go through the full install process as the http://1Geek1Tool.com site does a better job than I could ever do but there is real gotcha for Virgin Media user which I want to cover.

When I first set up the service I was nable to see any of the normal terestrial channels over cable as they were not being switched correctly. Basically on Virgin these cables are number 101 to 105 but the DVBLInk set up process cause these to be seen as 1 to 5 (which is what they are on terrestrial) which would be fine if the PVR was switched correctly but the IR Blaster is told by the DVBLink HDPVR plug in to send 1 not 105. Fortunately not hard to fix.

After the "Close DVBLink Server Configuration tool and allow it to restart the service "step in 1Geek1Tool's instructions go to the C:\Program Files\DVBLogic\DVBLink\Sources\HDPVR and open the config.xml file within that find the SetTopBoxChannelNumber entry for the terrestrial channels and change them to the correct values for the virgin box. So BBC1 goes from "1" to "101".

So after all that I now have Virgin channels showing up in my program guide. Selecting one the screen blanks for a few seconds the baster slowly sends the channel number to the V+ box and after a few more seconds, even for the SD channels, a pretty fantastic picture shows up. One of the reason this is good is we have a double layer of signal processing going on. Normally this would not be a good thing but the upscaling in the V+ box and the Media center seem to compliment each other well - for sd channels this is better than directly from the V+ box to the tv through component (should note that I have applied the colourspace registry patch from over at Hack7MC.com which makes a difference to the black levels on my tv)

HD looks just as good as directly from the V+ box which is simply superb and way better than anything I have seen from a Sky source but not quite as good as Blu-Ray.

Ok so all is good right. Well not exactly. Unfortunatley the HD-PVR box is really unstable. About 1 in ten times I go to change channel it will not stream the content. Easilly fixed by powering on/off the HD-PVR box but not exactly reliable for recordings. I don't think this is a DVBLink problem and seems much more likely to be an HD-PVR driver issue.

Now for me this not a major issue as I am still scheduling my recordings through the V+ box - one tuner is a bit restrictive in media center for recordings anyway but it may be show stopper for you.

So not exactly a perfect solution but it will do for me at the moment until Virgin sees sense and legally allows DVB-C boxes (BTW did you know the HD-Homerun sold in the UK has both DVB-T and DVB-C tuners (unencrypted only))

Oh an one final point whilst Xbox extenders are fine, Linksys Extenders are unfortuanately not able to play any of the channels captured through the HD-PVR.

Quick Headsup - DVBLINK for HDPVR RC is up in DVBLogic Forums

2009-06-09T12:26:00Z

Just a quick headsup that over at the DVBLogic forums (http://dvblogic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1521) FredX21 has announced the availability of the DVBLInk for Hauppauge HD-PVR Release Candidate.

This brilliant application allows you to use your HD-PVR as a source for Media Center and is the way I currently get Virgin Media Cable TV (including BBC HD) into my Media Center.

To quote Fred :

Here are the news features introduced by this version:
- Added support for idle mode when Media Center is not using the HDPVR
- Added support for Windows standby
- Added Media Center messages for important information about acquisition lost/resume
- Improved compatibility for MCE IR receiver/blaster
- Removed any dependencies to mc2xml (replaced by the GuideTool addin)
- Updated README file with more detailed step-by-step installation instructions.
- All the goodies introduced by the DVBLink framework.

The mc2xml change is one I was waiting for as in the original beta I wasn't able to get all the channels I can see on my V+ cable box to show in Media Center and I'm told the new version should fix this.

Hopefully sometime over the next few days i will get a chance to try this out.

If anyone hasn't played with DVBLogic's products they do a whole lot of interfaces to other TV sources which integrate into MediaCenter and all their DVBLink products have been recently updated to Beta 2.

One really cool thing is they emulate Satellite tuners so I can still have my four DVB-T freeview tuners and have the HD-PVR additionally.

Finally a quick tip for anyone trying to get the Hauppauge IR Blaster to work with an older V+ box (i.e. not one of the new Samsung ones) - although these are made by Scientific Altlantic the Scientific atlantic codes don't work - choose european satellite and a Pace box then the code beginning 7 should work.