HD PVR support for Windows Media Center: Development is alive and well

[Anonymous]

Anyone playing with this new driver yet ?

Going to be at least a week before I get to try it out.. is it exactly the same as what you’ve been running Mikinho ?

I wonder if there’s a way to guarantee the bitstream audio is error free, pass it into a PC, then output it again ?

Would certainly be interesting to see if the errors are generated from the set-top box, or caused by a optical bad cable, or bad signal reception. (Not too sure if the last would be more likely to lead to drop out than errors)

The changelog says weak signals could occur at channel change (which would cause audio/video disruption) .. and during audio/video drop outs..  I’d suspect from the rest of the text there’s a strong possibility that it could happen during an advert break, where the ads use a different audio encoding than the main programme.

[mikinho]

The public release was the same revision I got a chance to use ahead of time.

My suggestion if you do try it out, set your STB to a fixed resolution rather than letting it match the source content resolution.  Most of the users having issues seem to not have that set.

I’ve got the weak signal a few more times but it is is very usable for a beta.  I did lower the threshold for the weak signal message but really haven’t tested enough to say without a doubt that it helped.

[Anonymous]

Finally got round to putting on the new (well.. newer than the last one I tried back when).. driver onto the main htpc last weekend..

Also bit the bullet & added BigScreenEPG to give shinier guide data..

But anyways.. results..

Overall optimistic..
– Still have to kill off the IR systray app, otherwise I get double presses from the MCE remote.
  (remove it from program files/startup to prevent it reloading)
– Still have to run mikinho’s handy hdpvrbetafix app, a few times, to clear up where hdpvr had magically become a multi tuner…
– Still have to disable background (periodic) scanning with the reg key, else the tuner kept getting locked out.

Other than that.. there’s still the brief interruptions to viewing in the middle of shows etc, recovery seems fast though, and it’s not powercycling like dvblink used to (via IP Power switch).

Given Im always using SPDIF audio, and the breakups aren’t aligned on format changes etc, I’ll have a play at running a better cable to the hdpvr from the set top box over the w/e.

Not bad so far..

[Anonymous]

Oh one last query.. how to add channels present on the set top box that aren’t in the MS lineup yet 😉 ..

At the mo I repurpose an old channel, and have my channel change batch file issue a different number to the one it was called with.. (And BSEPG provides the epg data).

Not sure if there’s a proper path for adding a new numbered channel via the Hauppauge drivers like dvblink had?

[Meester.Rip]

I just went to Big Screen Global and other than the channel logos, which I believe that program is free and available on the web somewhere I couldn’t tell a difference between their EPG and the MS EPG.

Logo software is here.http://lifehacker.com/5472914/my-channel-logos-adds-network-logos-to-windows-7-media-center

[Anonymous]

BS EPG is just an easy way to get xml epg data into microsoft.. why? In my case I got fed up with half the sky channels being without data, meaning some channels weren’t even getting used anymore. Plus got tired of episodes being recorded with generic show descriptions.

As for how it’s different? now while browsing the guide, each program has it own little picture bottom left, and it seems a bit smarter re which programs are in HD, and about knowing that a series on a +1 channel is the same series.

The data quality depends on where you pull it from, digiguide is a very nice source, but more than slightly tricky to setup the 1st time round.

Is it worth all the hassle/cost ? not sure =) although it does claim it can aggregate multiple feeds of epg data which could be interesting for the other lnb’s channels, which are pretty poorly covered by ms data.

I’m not using the logo bit =)

[Author]

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