Media streaming

[neil_g]

exacterly. horses for courses.

personally ive got no qualms about popping the senns on (i love my senns, hd-25ii for those that care) and using a small screen like the ipad. especially if the other half is still asleep if im up early on call etc.

i still need to sort out my HTPC though, still just browsing to a share and launching VLC player. might put XMBC live on it this weekend.

 

[arad85]

can you elaborate?

I watch youtube on my 50 inch HD tv through AppleTV in 720p

Actually, you're right. More properly, we don't look for stuff on YouTube to watch on the TV. Most stuff watched off YT is either product research for my next gadget, links that people have sent (so naturally on a PC) or music vids. Haven't found anything worth watching on YT on a large HDTV yet.

If I did stream to the TV, I'd probably use Boxee on the PCs instead of xbmc.

Also bbc iplayer through my freesat box streamed in high quality is as good as standard definition tv channels

Yes. Exactly (but if you have a dodgy connection which we sometimes have you can get problems with bandwidth which makes quality worse again).

It's why I have an HD card in one of the PCs to timeshift the things we watch. The recording capabilities of MythTV are quite good and pick up all the series. If we don't watch it there and then, it has been recorded and will get watched later through xbmc (I'll typically recode so I can put it in our library, but that isn't necessary). We don't use iplayer even though it exists on the Freesat+ box we have. Anything worth watching that we've missed will be repeated soon enough.

Perhaps we just don't watch the content others do.... :shrug:

 

[joescrivens]

Actually, you're right. More properly, we don't look for stuff on YouTube to watch on the TV. Most stuff watched off YT is either product research for my next gadget, links that people have sent (so naturally on a PC) or music vids. Haven't found anything worth watching on YT on a large HDTV yet.

If I did stream to the TV, I'd probably use Boxee on the PCs instead of xbmc.

Yes. Exactly (but if you have a dodgy connection which we sometimes have you can get problems with bandwidth which makes quality worse again).

It's why I have an HD card in one of the PCs to timeshift the things we watch. The recording capabilities of MythTV are quite good and pick up all the series. If we don't watch it there and then, it has been recorded and will get watched later through xbmc (I'll typically recode so I can put it in our library, but that isn't necessary). We don't use iplayer even though it exists on the Freesat+ box we have. Anything worth watching that we've missed will be repeated soon enough.

Perhaps we just don't watch the content others do.... :shrug:

it sounds like you watch a hell of a lot of TV though!!!!

where do you find the time?

 

[arad85]

it sounds like you watch a hell of a lot of TV though!!!!

Hang on, who was the person who said they watched stuff through iplayer and YouTube!

Don't watch that much. In fact the series record list on the MythTV box is:

Later... with Jools Holland
Doctor Who
Not Going Out
The Big C
The Sky at Night
Grand Designs
Mrs Brown's Boys
Downton Abbey
Fresh Meat
Merlin

Clearly some of these are not being shown at the moment, so perhaps 5 shows a week. I also record some of the music programmes on BBC4 on Friday nights. But that's it.

where do you find the time?

I don't spend all my time on here you know

 

[joescrivens]

Hang on, who was the person who said they watched stuff through iplayer and YouTube!

Yeah thats cos I have 2 children under 3 and a lot of chores to do!!! so by the time I sit down at night it's like 9pm and I don't know whats on the telly anymore, i think the only thing series linked in our house is bloody eastenders which i hate with a passion.

so I'm often found realising stuff has been shown that i wanted to watch, except i didn't know it existed

 

[arad85]

Yeah thats cos I have 2 children under 3 and a lot of chores to do!!!

Well... you know who to blame there then

so I'm often found realising stuff has been shown that i wanted to watch, except i didn't know it existed

That's what's nice with MythTV - browse the EPG up to 14 days in advance and setup recordings from whatever you're using to browse the net....

 

[TopBanana]

That's what's nice with MythTV - browse the EPG up to 14 days in advance and setup recordings from whatever you're using to browse the net....

So am I right that with your set-up you can setup recordings remotely via an internet connection, then watch the recorded content on either or the 2 TVs linked to an XMBC PC? Can you timeshift on both of those TVs? Are the PCs on permanently? Do both PCs have TV tuner cards?
You set-up sounds like something I would like at home if I could work out how to do it and in a cheap way!

 

[arad85]

So am I right that with your set-up you can setup recordings remotely via an internet connection, then watch the recorded content on either or the 2 TVs linked to an XMBC PC?

Yes (although I can't do it from an external connection as I haven't plumbed the correct connection from my router to the MythTV box). I also tend to recode and make available through the library as the interface to MythTV is a little clunky via xbmc. When recoded (in fact, you can play them directly, but an hour of HD programming is ~7GBytes so can churn through disk space if you tend to keep programs (as I do)) you get a complete xbmc like experience (excellent trick modes and complete integration into the xbmc library if you so wish)

Can you timeshift on both of those TVs?

I think so (not tried it TBH). We only really use this as a record server as we don't watch TV through the box as you'd have to stream the TV signal across the network.

Are the PCs on permanently?

Yes, but you can use Wake On Lan to wake up the MythTV box (the only one that needs to be on when recording).

Do both PCs have TV tuner cards?

No. Only one does. It saves the files to disk and they are read from there. You can have multiple cards (I have two here - one DVB-S2 that records HD channels, one DVB-T which records SD channels) in a single PC to give multiple tuners and you can define multiple recorders per tuner. This allows you to get access to a second (or third) channel if it is on the same mux as something already being recorded.

You set-up sounds like something I would like at home if I could work out how to do it and in a cheap way!

Define cheap.... ~ £200 for a PC with xbmc, my MythTV box (and second xbmc) is an old E8400 desktop so "free". Satellite card was ~£100 a couple of years ago.