Until the upgrade my Media Center had been running on a dedicated HP box with some obscure Hauppauge video capture card (HVR-1200 oem by HP). Because the Hauppauge card wasn't supported by Linux it pretty much forced me to use Vista Media Center, and that has always annoyed me a bit, but I sort of did learn to live with it and it's regular crashes, regularly checking for upgrades to the Linux drivers. The B.yond box does however not sport a s-video output, so this upgrade pretty much forced me to investigate alternative solutions.
The B.yond box comes with 3 connections:
1. Composite
2. Component
3. HDMI
Unfortunately - while it is certainly possible to run HD over component (at least 1080i), Astro have chosen only to output SD on the composite and component connectors. In other words - HD is only available through the HDMI connection. This leads to two problems. First of all - capturing live HDMI and encoding it in real time is currently only possible with extremely expensive professional equipment. Second - HDMI is encrypted and will only display on HDMI enabled TV's. That means - technically it is not possible to record.
Fortunately both these problems can be solved and one solution exists. The encryption can be handled by HDFury2. This device will take a HDMI input signal, strip off the encryption and finally convert to component video in the same resolution as the input. Nice! The result of this also changes the second problem mentioned since all that is needed now is to capture analog HD component signal. Contrary to the HDMI this is indeed possible with consumer grade hardware and again - only one solution exists: Hauppauge HD-DVR.
In other words - full HD Media Center is possible with Astro B.yond doing:
HDMI Component
Astro Box ----> HDFury2 ---------> HD-DVR
Currently this is just about the only solution that will achieve the goal of having a full HD enabled Media Center. Unfortunately neither the HDFury2 nor the HD-DVR device are readily available in Malaysia, so while this is the solution I am pursuing, currently I will have to settle for a temporary hack that only enabled SD on the Media Center.
Basic System and Operating System
To be added
IR Reciver & Blaster
The HP Media Center came with a MCE IR Reciver w. built-in IR Blaster.
lircd.conf for Astro B.yond Box
----------------------------------------------------
begin remote
name astro
bits 8
flags RC6|CONST_LENGTH
eps 30
aeps 100
header 2685 861
one 443 444
zero 443 444
pre_data_bits 29
pre_data 0x37FA958
gap 106835
min_repeat 1
toggle_bit_mask 0x8000
rc6_mask 0x100000000
begin codes
Myte 0xF2
Byond 0x7C
TV 0x33
Radio 0x0D
Home 0xAB
VolumeUp 0xEF
VlumeDown 0xEE
ChannelUp 0xDF
ChannelDown 0xDE
Up 0xA7
Down 0xA6
Left 0xA5
Right 0xA4
OK 0xA3
Back 0x56
Red 0x92
Green 0x91
KEY_YELLOW 0x90
KEY_BLUE 0x8F
KEY_BOOKMARKS 0x7B
KEY_INFO 0xF0
KEY_FORWARD 0xD7
KEY_REWIND 0xD6
KEY_RECORD 0xC8
KEY_PAUSE 0xCF
KEY_PLAY 0xD3
KEY_STOP 0xCE
1 0xFE
2 0xFD
3 0xFC
4 0xFB
5 0xFA
6 0xF9
7 0xF8
8 0xF7
9 0xF6
0 0xFF
end codes
end remote
More
El-cheapo Temporary SD-only Hack
Just to get things started while I acquired the necessary hardware to go full HD, I decided to play around with a temporary SD-only hack. Browsing around the local hardware pushers I found a cheap KWorld DVD Maker 2 USB capture device. While this device is actually not supported by Vista Media Center (it bitches about no tuner) it is supported out of the box in Linux. Quality is absolutely rubbish and it has only got composite input.
Stage 2 - SD-only Using HD-DVR and Component
Just ordered the HD-DVR directly from Hauppauge for US$ 199.
They ship from Singapore - total credit card charge US$ 229.
This device include IR receiver and IR blaster - both of which should be supported by Linux although some patching of lirc might be required.
Will write more when it arrives - hopefully in a few days.
State 3 - Full HD with HDFury2
I finally pulled myself together to order the HDFury2 from http://www.curtpalme.com:
I ordered it directly from the above mentioned web-site and it arrived in 2 days with no customs hassle (that was a bit of a surprise really).
Comparing MythTV with Vista Media Center
MythTV is definitely not an easy beast to get going. I have got around 18 years of UNIX experience and I found it quite challenging at times. However, Vista Media Center was not easy to get going too. Problems are different. Getting MythTV going is mostly a matter of getting drivers for the bits and pieces of hardware done right. Once that is done everything is just playing. Vista Media Center had most of the driver support more or less out of the box (or at least delivered by HP with the box) but getting it running well with proper codec support was a completely different matter.
| MCE | MythTV | |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Installation | 3 | 2 |
| GUI | 5 | 7 |
| Codec Support | 2 | 9 |
