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***elootos*** · 03-12-2010, 04:23 PM

OK, it seems a fair few people have Sky installed and some even prefer it to Freeview/Freesat in a Media Center environment ( Loco

), but for those that have it, how are you watching it and is it integrated at all with your Media Center? What's your opinion on it? (I kinda assume that the sports packages are the biggest draw)

The biggest downer for me is picture quality; for the systems I've seen it's no way near a high-birate Freeview signal through a Media Center PC, and the friends who do have Sky always comment how good my 'TV signal' is!

(not allowing for SkyHD of course!). However I do think it's the set-top boxes themselves that let it down and not the actual broadcast signal.

(Although it's not as diabolical as the few early Virgin Media cable systems I've seen. Shockers!)

cliffwright · (This post was last modified: 06-13-2010 11:03 PM by cliffwright.)

(03-12-2010 04:23 PM)elootos Wrote: OK, it seems a fair few people have Sky installed and some even prefer it to Freeview/Freesat in a Media Center environment (), but for those that have it, how are you watching it and is it integrated at all with your Media Center? What's your opinion on it? (I kinda assume that the sports packages are the biggest draw)

The biggest downer for me is picture quality; for the systems I've seen it's no way near a high-birate Freeview signal through a Media Center PC, and the friends who do have Sky always comment how good my 'TV signal' is! (not allowing for SkyHD of course!). However I do think it's the set-top boxes themselves that let it down and not the actual broadcast signal.

(Although it's not as diabolical as the few early Virgin Media cable systems I've seen. Shockers!)

Sorry for the late reply - been a tad busy lately so not been perusing the board!

Hope this is still relevant.

I have Sky (and Virgin Media) integrated into my Media Centers.

Both are setup in the same way - an Hauppauge PVR150 analogue card connected to the Sky/Virgin STB via RCA's and controlled via the IR blasters off the IR receiver(s).

Now the lounge media Center is running on a 32" widescreen and the picture quality 'isn't bad'. Having said that, In this box I run both the Sky signal and a DVB-S card and you can definitely tell the difference in pic quality. On top of this, the DVB-S signal requires a Zoom setting of 1 and the Sky STB requires a setting of 3. Slightly annoying when you switch sources because they don't natively change for you - so you have to manually change Sad

For me I couldn't get away without having a Sky signal at the minute because the wife watches channels that aren't available on FTA (like Sky sports 4 for the Netball and some random channels for every country's got a next top model Blink

) so without Sky, the WAF = 0.

In the cinema, I run the Virgin box in the same manner but this is used very little for TV viewing and I tend to purely use it to record TV that I want to set remotely via Webguide (I'm still hanging on to Vista purely for this atm) and they get played back Via the lounge Media Center on the 32" screen. Watching this type of TV on a 110" PJ screen is shocking and can even make your eyes hurt!!

This box is soon to have an overhaul to upgrade to Win 7 (I think the time has come to let go of Webguide) and I'll install a couple of DVB-S cards along with the Virgin box.

The only other pain I can think of in my scenario of having the mixed TV sources like this is that the initial guide setup can be a pain in the ass given you end up with multiple channels all over the shop which you have to manually combine in the guide. Annoying and tedius and trying to find the east midlands news has escaped me on Channels 1 and 3.

So good and bad. I'd do it another way if there was a viable way of recieving all the channels I need in another way.

Shout if you want any more info on my setup.

Cliff

***elootos*** · 06-14-2010, 10:46 AM

Blimey, that's a setup and half! And congrats on keeping any kind of WAF on top of all that

Interesting that you've 2 lots of STB going on. I guess that the fact these STBs are free from the providers gives an indication on the kind of quality you'll be getting out of them.

But I see from a thread Dunks made about the latest Hauupauge drivers that it's now possible to have a more streamlined Media Center interface for recording an HD STB, do you think this is something you may upgrade to?

cliffwright · 06-14-2010, 06:10 PM

(06-14-2010 10:46 AM)elootos Wrote: Blimey, that's a setup and half! And congrats on keeping any kind of WAF on top of all that

Interesting that you've 2 lots of STB going on. I guess that the fact these STBs are free from the providers gives an indication on the kind of quality you'll be getting out of them.

But I see from a thread Dunks made about the latest Hauupauge drivers that it's now possible to have a more streamlined Media Center interface for recording an HD STB, do you think this is something you may upgrade to?

OOooo . . . blimey . . . I'd not noticed that. Been so busy with other stuff that I've not been keeping up with things.

Both of my STB's are standard def ones (as you say, the Virgin box is only really in place because it was £1 extra a month with my Broadband) but I'm outlaying something like £70 a month on TV / Broadband so it's been in my mind for a while to take stock a little. Maybe this is the push I need ;0)

Cheers for that!

Cliff