Dvb-c pc mce

[greekfire]

Thanks in advance for your help and patience on this, I know newbies like me are a pain in the backside. I've read through 7 pages of threads on this site and more on other sites, but I want to get some clear answers before I start off down the road...

To frame what I want to achieve: My HTPC is in my office as the wife won't let me have it in the front room. I use media center on vista home premium, and have a Linksys DMA-2100 extender in the front room connected to the TV. Due to this setup, media center compatibility is to #1 priority on my list of things to do... The HTPC is a brute for processor, memory and disk and the network is currently 802.11n, but I could wire it if needed. The goal is to get the cable tv working through MC instead of the DM7025+ that I have at the moment.

So, given that MC is a must, I'm a little unsure of what to do on 2 fronts initially:

1. Which DVB-C card? I had bought a C-1501 but on investigation I'm unsure as to whether this will integrate into MC... I've read that FloppyDTV does do this, so what is the real story here?

2. CAMS. Initially I want to get the thing working with just the 1 DVB-C card. My understanding is that I could use DVBsbridge and VPlug as softcam and this would work in MC - but only for 1 tuner - is this correct? Given that I will want to increase to 2 tuners eventually, should I be looking to go for a CAM/card?

I have more questions, but they can wait for the moment. Thanks again for any help!

[k.jacko]

Do you HAVE to use vmce? I have a C-1501 and its runs fine with Mediaportal and vplug autoupdates the key roll issues. The gui is nice (imho). I also have it pointing to my nas drive for my dvd, music and picture library.
dvb-c cards don't work with vmce off the bat.

[greekfire]

Sadly I think that it does have to be VMCE. Because my TV is nowhere near the HTPC, I use an extender to connect to the HTPC and TV.

[k.jacko]

aah....ok. Well there is a reg hack that will allow vmce to 'see' your c-1501 but it tricks into thinking its a dvb-t card and thus will only offer the fta channels.

[greekfire]

Right - is this because the c-1501 doesn't have the correct drivers? If I were to go for a FloppyDTV would VMCE play nicely with it?

[k.jacko]

Can't answer that one i'm afraid as i don't use floppydtv. There are plenty on here that do though and i'm sure one will come along and help you further

[Cafe.Rcaer]

You'll only get fta channels with tt because it has no CI Slot, and VMC does not support softcams.

I have two FireDTVs (same thing, but external) and a few others on here use FloppyDTVs with MCE, VMC and with the TV Pack.

You will need FloppyDTV, CAM and Card. Pick of the bunch on CAMs is anything flashed to Joker 0.79 firmware (usually blue zetacam), for Cards you can use Fun4 or Fun5s and can flash to autoupdate. You can use a subscription card, but it's actually easier not to...

You'll also need a transponder list for your area.

The Digital Everywhere drivers "trick" VMC into thinking the F-DTV is a DVB-T card. With MCE and VMC you could hack the registry to put the correct "headend" in to get the guide OR just use the Sky guide (as it was presented in the list of choices). With the TV Pack, the most successful way is to put an analogue card in and tell VMC you're connected via a STB, as that let you select the VM guide.

The main things the TV pack gets you is multiple tuner types and selectable audio channels, but as the F-DTV's pretend to be DVB-T multiple tuner types doesn't really make a difference. I don't know if anyone's run a F-DTV and a DVB-T card together. But you could also stick DVB-S tuner(s) in there...

[Confused Stu]

Hi guys.

I initially started with a TT-C1501, and I couldn't get it playing nicely with the add-on CI slot or VMC very well. With any DVB-C card you will need to use "fake" DVB-T drivers for it so VMC can use it fully. That way, VMC will tell the card to tune to a particular DVB-T frequency and the card will then convert that the a DVB-C frequency and use that instead - that way card's happy and VMC is happy.

With the TT, I needed to manually insert each DVB-T/DVB-C frequency into their tool, then try to configure a couple of other programs to run at the same time (like I said, I never got my head around it properly).

With the Firedtv/Floppydtv, it's simply a case of selecting the Media Centre drivers, importing an easy to understand registry entry list (showing DVB-T to DVB-C frequency mappings) and that was it - VMC happily worked from there.

Given that you'd need to buy the add-on CI card slot for the TT to use it in VMC, the price difference between the two cards isn't as much as you first think. I'm sure with time, knowledge and practice, you can get the C-1501 set up to work in VMC as well as the Firedtv/floppydtv, but the latter is MUCH easier to get up and running (IMHO) and I ended up willing to pay the extra for that.

Short version - both do the same thing and work in the same way, but the more expensive one is so much easier to set up.

EDIT: spent too long typing and Cafe Racer beat me to it!

[greekfire]

Ok, so I'm hearing that I need to do a few things (correct me if I'm wrong here):

1. Ditch the TT on eBay
2. Get myself a FloppyDTV or FireDTV
3. Get myself the TV Pack from some torrent site - would my install of VMC not have this already?

A few more questions (sorry)

1. Are the digital everywhere drivers the ones that come with the FloppyDTV and FireDTV products?
2. I see that from somewhere like Hisat I can get the blue zetacam with Joker 0.79 firmware - is this good to go from the supplier?
3. With regards to the cards: where would I get a card? Do I need to programme them myself or are there places that do it for you?

[Confused Stu]

Originally Posted by greekfire

Ok, so I'm hearing that I need to do a few things (correct me if I'm wrong here):

1. Ditch the TT on eBay
2. Get myself a FloppyDTV or FireDTV
3. Get myself the TV Pack from some torrent site - would my install of VMC not have this already?

A few more questions (sorry)

1. Are the digital everywhere drivers the ones that come with the FloppyDTV and FireDTV products?
2. I see that from somewhere like Hisat I can get the blue zetacam with Joker 0.79 firmware - is this good to go from the supplier?
3. With regards to the cards: where would I get a card? Do I need to programme them myself or are there places that do it for you?

1. If you don't ditch the TT, you can keep it and use it to help with setting up the EPG if you haven't got an analogue card lying about. See here for more details: h**p://www.techwatch.co.uk/forums/43977-any-more-epg-news.html

2. Good idea (IMHO)

3. TV Pack won't come as standard as 99.999% of PCs aren't supplied with it. PM me your email address, and if you want 32 bit or 64 bit and I'll mail it to you.

As for your questions:

1. Digital-Everywhere.com has the latest drivers in their download section. TV Pack drivers are in the Beta section, but the latest seems pretty reliable to me.

2. Yup - get one from Hisat and you're good to go (it'll have the standard Joker 0.79 BoxKey on it).

3. You can buy Funcards on ebay (and probably other shops too) but you will need to program them yourself. To do this you're going to need an Infinity USB programmer, or a Duolabs CAS3+. The CAS3+ can also flash firmware's onto CAMs, but the Infinity is a little cheaper if you're happy buying the CAMs pre-flashed. Other programmers are available, but I know nothing about them.