Mar 9 SDV experience with Windows Media Center
Chris from Cincinnati, OH wrote us an email to talk about his experience with SDV and Windows Media Center:
HT Guys,
I have been a long time listener and I love the show. This is my first time writing in.
I have been a Windows Media Center enthusiast for several years. I have also been a DirecTV subscriber for more than a decade. Media Center is a fabulous interface for OTA recording, music server, My Movies movie server, streaming to multiple rooms, etc. It is very family friendly and easy to use. However, it has always lacked the ability to receive pay HD programming. So, for years, I have kept the two functionalities separate, switching back and forth between the Media Center and the DirecTV DVR. However, recently, with the lifting of the OEM restriction on cablecards, I decided to take the plunge and try installing a cablecard tuner in the Media Center. I installed an ATI TV Wonder DCT and had Time Warner come out to install the cablecard. It was a fairly painful process that took three visits to complete, but I am very satisfied with the way it turned out. We currently can tune and record both OTA and HD cable on the Media Center and it appears that DirecTV's days may be numbered in our house.
Your recent show about SDV peaked my interest. During the cable card installation process, I came to learn that TW uses SDV. I previously had no idea what SDV was. After we got the cablecard initially installed, I was only able to tune about 1/3 of the channels I should have been receiving. The rest used SDV. So, I had to order an SDV tuning adapter. This was provided free by TW. The tech came and installed the Cisco 1520 TA. It connects in line between the cable and cable card tuner and it also connects via USB to the Media Center. This allows us to receive all of the HD channels that TW provides. So far I am pretty happy with the service. Occasionally, the TA loses sync and I get an SDV error onscreen. Usually, tuning away from the channel and then back fixes the problem. I have not yet missed any scheduled recording due to any problems, though I'm sure that is inevitable. I will be evaluating it over the next couple weeks to see if it is fully up to snuff. If it is, DirecTV (and it's $95 per month cost) is history. With this solution, I have achieved the functionality that I have wanted for years with no cable boxes (unless you count the tuning adapter) at a third of the price of DirecTV.
I wanted to report on my experience in case it may help anyone who is thinking about a similar set up. I would not classify this as a simple set up. It is definitely for the enthusiast who is comfortable building and tinkering with PCs. It also takes quite a bit of patience. However, so far, it seems to be paying off. I would be happy to provide more details about my set up for anyone that is interested.
Regards,
Chris
Cincinnati, OH
Reader Comments (3)
Please provide more details. I've been looking to do something like this for a while now. Thanks
Soon there will be a 4 tuner cable card option for media center which for not much more than a single ATI tuner will get you 4 cable HD tuners. I can't wait for this option and I will finally drop my comcast tuners for all media center option.
http://www.cetoncorp.com/
- Josh
Clair,
Head over to www.thegreenbutton.com
www.thedigitalmediazone.com I currently Guest Blog on The DMZ great place for everything Media Center related and finally
www.thedigitallifestyle.com Ian Dixion who runs this site does a great job for international related Media Center Content but also hosts a ton of podcasts about media center and Custom Integrator content as well. and also check out this article that Ben Drawbaugh of Engadget HD did
How to install a CableCARD tuner in your DIY Media Center