Need suggestions - record TV for playback on WM5 device using TCPMP

[galt]

I'm looking for tips here - I'd really like to find a good solution for recording/streaming TV for playback on my HTC Universal. I'm totally in over my head regarding the options on the DVR market. My current PC is old needs to be replaced, so I'm leaning towards buying a new PC (with a Core2 Duo processor hopefully) and using either Windows MCE or a 3rd party DVR solution to record TV.

I'm sure some folks here already have this set up figured out so I'm looking forward towards hearing about your set ups, but I also have some general questions:

I know I'd need a TV tuner with built in encoding to avoid having the recording process slow my PC, the desktops for sale @ Dell & HP tell me nothing about the specs of the TV tuner cards they sell - are they any good? Any TV tuner cards to recommend? After reading some reviews I'm leaning towards the NVIDIA DualTV MCE tuner.

Is Windows MCE recording going to be a hassle for mobile playback? I'd like to encode the videos in MPEG or Divx as those files seem to playback much better on TCPMP, does MCE allow you to pick the encoding method or am I locked into a WMV file? Is there any good options for recording a higher quality file and also auto-converting and saving a copy for mobile playback?

The Beyond TV DVR software looks pretty good, is there anything I should know about it? Reading through their forums it looks like there are/were some issues with streaming live TV to PPCs and with out-of-sync playback on files converted for mobile viewing.


Any info would be appreciated.

[Guest979]

I like the Neuros Recorder 2+ (www.neurosaudio.com).

[galt]

I like the Neuros Recorder 2+ (www.neurosaudio.com).That looks pretty interesting, but I'd prefer a solution that has more DVR type functionality (show scheduling, dual tuner recording, live TV streaming, etc.).

[Sven Johannsen]

Just a couple of quick notes. MCE records in a 'proprietary' format called dvr-ms. You don't get a choice on that, but you do get a choice on quality. If you are actually wanting to stream the files, MCE isn't designed to do that, but it is designed, in concert with Media Player to automatically downconvert to PPC or smartphone or Pocket Media Center files when syncing the media. The translation is to wmv and that cannot be changed. That is not to say you can't find other things that change it, just the package is, MCE does dvr-ms, and it is automatically transcoded to wmv, for play in Pocket Media Player

It has some nice usability features. You can select to automatically sync automatic playlists, such as 'TV not yet watched'. It is very easy to setup and use. If you are picky however, it does not allow a lot of tweaking. It is intended to work for the average consumer, and it does that.

Snapstream also has an automatic transcode feature. You can have it automatically transcode the mpeg it records, into smaller mpeg more suitable for the portable device. You can arrange for that to happen at 2AM if you like, and you could have the resultant file be created on a CF or SD card you have in a reader on the PC and take with you for use in the PPC.

Snapstream seems like a very nice product. My version is a couple years old so i see they have improved some, but unless you get their bigger package you get TV functionality only. With MCE you get an integrated media package covering TV, Radio, ripped CDs, movies, intenet, etc, all designed for a consumer 10ft interface.

You won't have much issue with current PCs as far as performance and the TV cards are all pretty decent. Remember 800x600 is better resolution than standard NTSC TV. If you like tinkering and fighting drivers and such build your own MCE machine. If you like tinkering but don't like messing with problems, I'd go the Snapstream package route. If you just want it to work out of the box, get a nice HP or Gateway, Dell, MCE machine. Do make sure it comes with a tuner. Surprisingly some don't. If you aren't in a hurry, the Vista MCE capabilities are very nice. You'd be looking around Jan/Feb though to get an OEM box built on it i would guess.

[galt]

Good info, thanks for taking the time to post, Sven.

I'm not afraid of having to do a bit of work to get a third party solution working, especially if that gets me around the proprietary file type used by MCE. I'm not up to building my own system from scratch, but I'm still very hesitant to let Dell or HP sell me a tuner card that they won't show me the specs on. So I guess it looks like I will pick up a new MCE PC and add my own tuner card and DVR software.

So far the Snapstream's Beyond TV is looking very good. The automatic transcoding sounds about perfect - that way I could set it up so a mobile friendly copy of some shows is made ready for playback on TCPMP while keeping the rest of the files in full resolution for playback on the PC or TV. Have you done any live TV streaming to your PPC with it?

I'm not that excited about Vista, but I'm shopping my PC purchase pretty heavily to make sure I get as much horsepower as I can afford in case a Vista upgrade seems like a good thing down the road.

[Sven Johannsen]

If you are leaning towards buying your own tuner and Snapstream, why are you considering an MCE box? Really MCE is a great package, IMHO, but if you are going to use your own software and don't trust the tuner, get a decent regular box and add those. MCE doesn't do much for you except the integrated interface. In fact I think you would cause more problem getting an HP MCE box, swapping out the tuner, and adding Snapstream.

No I haven't played with Snapstream's streaming. I have two MCE boxes and an extender, TV in most every room, and a slingbox, on top of running Vista Beta (MCE included). Just haven't needed to stream, and if I did, I'd probably do it off the Slingbox.

Haven't even had Snapstream on a box for some time, though I was impressed with it when I did. You won't have any problems getting it running. They have pretty good support. The problems come when trying to build-it-yourself MCE. It isn't designed for a home builder, and so the support is somewhat lacking, for that option.

[galt]

If you are leaning towards buying your own tuner and Snapstream, why are you considering an MCE box?Hmmm... I guess because MCE is frequently the default option on the mid-high level desktops offered. Also, I imagine that MCE has some other nice media handling functionality, if nothing else just a nice interface for viewing my media collection?

[Sven Johannsen]

Hmmm... I guess because MCE is frequently the default option on the mid-high level desktops offered. Also, I imagine that MCE has some other nice media handling functionality, if nothing else just a nice interface for viewing my media collection?

There might be some nice interface capability there, but if you look at Snapstream's media solutions instead of just the TV, I think you get as much. The reason I believe the OEMs are loading MCE is cost. It's actually cheaper than XP Pro, which it essentialy is, with MCE extensions. If you go that route, either get it without the tuner and build around Snapstream, expecting MCE working with your chosen tuner being a bonus, but not a requirement...or...get it with the typical dual tuner and just use MCE for a while. I think you will be impressed with it, even if they didn't provide the specs up front. The average consumer wouldn't understand most of them anyway.

[galt]

Thanks, you've been very helpful.