Sky Tv and VDR?

[gazlang]

Has anyone got a (UK) sky digibox running through LMCE?

I found this thread stating the ability for VDR to control a digibox:

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=2097.0

But not too sure if it works in LMCE.
Also I thought VDR only liked DVB cards, but assume that you need a PVR type card to connect to any external sky box.

I have just ordered an RS232 ir emmitter so I can give it a try, but before I commit to VDR over Myth, has anyone got this working???

[totallymaxed]

Has anyone got a (UK) sky digibox running through LMCE?

I found this thread stating the ability for VDR to control a digibox:

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=2097.0

But not too sure if it works in LMCE.
Also I thought VDR only liked DVB cards, but assume that you need a PVR type card to connect to any external sky box.

I have just ordered an RS232 ir emmitter so I can give it a try, but before I commit to VDR over Myth, has anyone got this working???

Hi Gazlang,

This is something we definitely intend to incorporate into lmcevdr. The Sky plugin enables you to integrate an analog source captured by say a PVR150 into VDR. We'd like to make this more generalised eventually so that the external box could be a Sky, Virgin Media or some other STB.

It would be good to get a group of people to work on this with us here in the forum. Would you be interested in getting involved? Anyone else interested in this? If yes post here in this thread and let me know ;-)

Andrew

[fibres]

I am very interested in getting both sky and virgin media into linuxmce. I am more in favour of finding a way of getting this directly integrated via dvb rsther than an analogue input from a sky/virgin STB.

There is at present ways of getting both directly into a pc via DVB cards and CI/CAM setups though this is a grey area.
Has anyone thought of trying to age either company in supporting a legitimate way of incorporating this directly. Surely if there is enough support for this then one company will provide it and the other will have to follow.

Personally I think that going after virgin media as the second in the pecking order would be a first step if they can release pport for this which I think they are more likely to do this could be good leverage to get sky to follow suite.

Any one interested or any ideas please lets hear them.

Andrew do you have any interest in this? Have you made any effort in this?

Regards

[gazlang]

Well I will set it up when I get my parts and see what I can do.
Will post my problems/results here

[totallymaxed]

I am very interested in getting both sky and virgin media into linuxmce. I am more in favour of finding a way of getting this directly integrated via dvb rsther than an analogue input from a sky/virgin STB.

There is at present ways of getting both directly into a pc via DVB cards and CI/CAM setups though this is a grey area.
Has anyone thought of trying to age either company in supporting a legitimate way of incorporating this directly. Surely if there is enough support for this then one company will provide it and the other will have to follow.

Personally I think that going after virgin media as the second in the pecking order would be a first step if they can release pport for this which I think they are more likely to do this could be good leverage to get sky to follow suite.

Any one interested or any ideas please lets hear them.

Andrew do you have any interest in this? Have you made any effort in this?

Regards

Hi Fibres,

I 100% agree the idea way to do this would be to integrate a DVB-S or DVB-C card with CI/CAM. But currently neither Sky or Virgin Media are willing to consider this... we have had preliminary conversations with Virgin and they are probably more receptive to this as a future possibility but are still not close to going down that road yet. Sky are not at all interested in this at all.. they want to own the hardware/software interfaces to their services.

So the only way forward at present is to bring these services in via an analog capture card and demonstrate how LinusMCE can add enormous value to both Sky & Virgin customers. Then we may get some further interest as I am sure in time directly interfacing using DVB is the way to go.

We are very interested in this and will help and support any effort here to make the analog capture work as smoothly and as fully as possible inside lmcevdr.

Andrew

[jayzee]

Hi,

I too am interested in getting sky/virgin integrated and working well, after all there are quite a lot of channels on sky/virgin that aren;t available on normal digital tv.

on 0704 I had mythtv working with my nova t-500 card and a pvr150 connected to the s-video output on my sky+ box, my experience here was that i could get it to work and on all MD's aswell but changing channel was painfully slow compared to sky and for some reason changing from a dvb channel to the sky coming in on the pvr150 would take 5 mins!

I have also setup 0710 beta 3 with vdr and I have managed to get this going on the Hybryd machine but when I try to view tv on an MD I get No Signal. I have read posts that suggest this is still being worked on, It will be great when this is sorted, any ETA Andrew on this?

For me this is the missing function that is holding me back from making full use of linuxmce. vdr's ability to make use of 3 nova t-500 to cover the 6 multiplexes and offer great recording capability along with the input of at least 1 sky box will be what I am after and give me a valid sky+ alternative.

[gazlang]

Jayzee, when you say you have 'managed to get this going [on 0710b3 and vdr]' do you mean you have sky tv successfully playing through vdr (via your pvr card) on your hybrid?

[totallymaxed]

I have also setup 0710 beta 3 with vdr and I have managed to get this going on the Hybryd machine but when I try to view tv on an MD I get No Signal. I have read posts that suggest this is still being worked on, It will be great when this is sorted, any ETA Andrew on this?

Hi Jayzee,

VDR is working 100% now its the UI integration and issues behind that is taking the time. Your problem with 'No signal' is either down to a bad signal or low quality signal or is possibly because you have no successfully generated a good channels.conf file for your local terrestrial transmitter... see other thread here for the procesure to generate a channels.conf file.

Andrew

[jayzee]

I have only had the input from the sky box working in 0704 in mythtv, I have not yet tried this on vdr on 0710, i am not sure how to go around it as mythtv seemed to have the options to do this, I will have to have a look at vdr in a bit mroe detail.

rearding no signal, you suggest all this should now be working. Was this an issue? and will it depend which beta version I am using or should it update itself automatically from whatever version I have?

I managed to create the channels conf file and see tv on the hybryd so should I need to do any more with the file to make all the mds see the picture

thanks

Jayzee

[nite_man]

I'm going to setup LinuxMCE to watch paid TV with legal subscription. So, I found following hardware:
- DVB-S card - http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-CI_PCI
- Common interface - http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php/info/p354_Technotrend-Budget-PCI-CI--f-r-Budget-Nova-Serie---V-1-0A.html
- Common Interface Module - http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php/info/p98_Viaccess-I-II-CAM--V484-.html

I'm not sure that VDR works find with Red Viaccess. Does somebody manage to test it?

[bdex]

No Joy with VDR under 710 Beta 4 with a PVR 150 however I can get it working via Mythtv with some major issues.

1. No programing guide.
2. Major lag in channel changing live TV 5+ seconds.
3. Mythtv locks up often playing TV this doesn't happen on Radio.
4. Flicker with Black and White (solved via choosing Pal in Mythtv)

Anyone got more progress or better results?

=============
Asus P5E-VM DO
Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz
2GB DD2 Memory
WD 250GB Hard Drive
Nvidia 7900 256MB
Haunpage PVR 150
Antec Minuet 350 Case

UK Sky+ Box Svideo Connection to PVR 150 Linuxmce 7.10 beta 4 i386