I'm setting up my XP WMCE PC and have a question or two.

First this is the general setup I want to accomplish:

- STB & PC upstairs.
- HDTV and media extender (Xbox 360) downstairs.
- Use the FusionHDTV Gold RT in conjunction with the STB. Straight cable into Coax connection for local HDTV content. S-Video for STB SD content.
- Use Media Center and extender downstairs to provide video for the HDTV.

As I understand it you can use the Media Center remote IR receiver and blaster to control the STB. The functionality of the remote - in terms of controlling the STB - is a little fuzzy. What works, what doesn't? I believe On Demand is an issue. From what I've gathered you can go to channel 1, but then you have to use the STB remote from there. Since this is a remote/extender setup - and a single remote is preferable - what's the best approach? Would a Harmony remote work for this situation - as in - would it work just like the Media Center remote, but also let you control On Demand?

Second, what about serial control of the STB (DTC-2224)? Any benifit from this approach?

I use a Harmony 880 for my v1 extender. Any Harmony remote would work and is easy to set up.
I can't answer any other extender questions because I haven't used a 360 before. I do know that with v1 extenders, you can't get HD or On-Demand content. You won't be able to use serial control for anything with MCE.

Out of the box, you can only get OTA HD in MCE2005 for local channels. You're stuck with an antenna.  There may or may not be a hack for that card to get QAM working for your local HD channels. I know there's one for ATI's tvwonder 650, but haven't tried it just yet. You'll have to check in to the HD-Homerun if the xbox360 can accept QAM/HD channels.

Basically, SageTV will do all this if you're looking for a switch.

From what I've gathered, it appears you can use an Xbox 360 as a Media Center extender Media Center with a IR receiver/blaster to control the STB. The setup I'm after would have the Xbox extender downstairs and the STB and Media Center PC up stairs. So, the Media Center remote controls the Xbox 360 - the Xbox 360 would command the Media Center PC - the Media Center PC would send commands to the IR receiver - and the IR receiver would send to the commands to the STB via the IR blaster/IR emitter.

This all sounds great (wonder how well it all works?). But what about accessing the STB On-Demand service this way. From what I've gathered you can get to channel 1, but after that you need the STB remote. I believe I've read that a Harmony remote can work with the STB's On Demand setup. Would the Harmony remote work in the above setup? Perhaps not. How would the Xbox/Medica Center know what to do with the On Demand commands? It wouldn't simple just pass them through would it?

Plan B: I guess I could get a Next Generation remote extender and attach it's IR emitter to the front of the Microsoft Media Center IR receiver - so that I could control the On Demand featuers from downstairs with the STB remote. Or maybe just attach the Next Generation IR emitter directly to the front of the STB (beside the IR blaster emiiter) itself...

Any thoughts/help here?

You can't use the new extenders on MCE2005.

What? You can't use the Xbox 360 as an extender for XP MCE? That doesn't appear to be correct.

Well, you said new generation extender. I assumed you meant something like the linksys dma100, or whatever it's called. The 360 will be just fine.

Simple answer to your On Demand question is that Media Center has not capability to enable this.  Can you trick Media Center into it, yes, but it is not native to Media Center.

As far as your remote control scenario, the Xbox will receive IR signals for Media Center only.  It does not pass those magically thru to the STB, though.  Media Center intelligently determines what you wan to do and then signals its chosen tuner to tune whatever is necessary (and in your case signals the STB). 

It is not a simple pass-thru as Media Center may already have a tuner tuning the channel you desire or the tuner may be busy recording another program.  Thus it may choose a different tuner based on your available tuners and desired programming.

It cannot pass signals from other remote controls to your STB.

Currently, if the STB is capable of HDTV, MC can only accept an S-Video or composite signal.  This forces a downgraded signal into MC.  If you have an over the air antenna and ATSC card, MC will natively tune the channels. 

If you do not use a STB and plug the cable into a QAM tuner, then you may be able to record/view the Unencrypted QAM channels on your cable system in HD format...but not the Encrypted/scrambled ones.  The HD Homerun and possibly a specific Avermedia tuner with a beta driver will do this for you in MCE 2005.

 

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1: Dimension 9200 - Vista Ult, 2.4GHz Q6600 Core2Quad, 4GB RAM, 160GB, 750GB, 500GB USB, Nvidia 8300GS, PVR-150, HDTV Wonder, Vbox 3560, X360, DMA2100

2: HP m376n - MCE 2005, 2.6 P4 w/HT, 1GB RAM, 250GB, 400GB USB HD, Nvidia 6200, Emuzed MAUI, X360

DanH_HP_m376n:

Simple answer to your On Demand question is that Media Center has not capability to enable this.  Can you trick Media Center into it, yes, but it is not native to Media Center.

Interesting. How is the trick done?

DanH_HP_m376n:

As far as your remote control scenario, the Xbox will receive IR signals for Media Center only.  It does not pass those magically thru to the STB, though.  Media Center intelligently determines what you wan to do and then signals its chosen tuner to tune whatever is necessary (and in your case signals the STB). 

It is not a simple pass-thru as Media Center may already have a tuner tuning the channel you desire or the tuner may be busy recording another program.  Thus it may choose a different tuner based on your available tuners and desired programming.

It cannot pass signals from other remote controls to your STB.

After I thought about it for a moment - it dawned on me that for the chain to work - from the remote through the Xbox to Media Center and out to the STB - the Xbox and Media Center would have to be able to understand and support the On-Demand commands from the remote. That didn't seem likely and your post confirms it.

So I guess I'll have to go with Plan B that I mentioned above.

DanH_HP_m376n:

Currently, if the STB is capable of HDTV, MC can only accept an S-Video or composite signal.  This forces a downgraded signal into MC.  If you have an over the air antenna and ATSC card, MC will natively tune the channels. 

If you do not use a STB and plug the cable into a QAM tuner, then you may be able to record/view the Unencrypted QAM channels on your cable system in HD format...but not the Encrypted/scrambled ones.  The HD Homerun and possibly a specific Avermedia tuner with a beta driver will do this for you in MCE 2005.

My STB is SD, not HD. So it will be the S-Video that will be used.

Apparently MCE requires you to have an analog tuner installed before it will allow access to a digital/HDTV tuner. However, the "Kram" drivers at http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/freesoftware.html are supposed to solve this problem. The "Kram" drivers are supposed to work with the Fusion RT7 Gold tuner that I bought.

 

I think you are confused about a few things...

1.  You need an analog (NTSC) tuner, not a digital tuner to connect via S-Video.  You should not need KRAM drivers.

2.  I do not undertand what you mean in Plan B.  But essentially, you will need some sort of external IR extender to send the IR signal for your STB remote from 1 room to the other.  You can find an example at: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103599&cp=&sr=1&kw=ir+extender&origkw=ir+extender&parentPage=search

 You trick MCE by tuning MCE to the appropriate channel.  Then use your STB remote to control the On Demand features.  The only caveats that I can thinkof are: If in On Demand mode and MCE needs to record, will entering a channel # change to the correct channel? If not, you may not get a recording that you expect.

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1: Dimension 9200 - Vista Ult, 2.4GHz Q6600 Core2Quad, 4GB RAM, 160GB, 750GB, 500GB USB, Nvidia 8300GS, PVR-150, HDTV Wonder, Vbox 3560, X360, DMA2100

2: HP m376n - MCE 2005, 2.6 P4 w/HT, 1GB RAM, 250GB, 400GB USB HD, Nvidia 6200, Emuzed MAUI, X360

There are digital tuner for SDTV with S-video output such as the Channel Master DTV box. NTSC will be phased out by 2/19/2009. It is eligible for the $40 government coupon.
For IR remote RF extender, there is a good one for $31 plus shipping. You can place the RF receiver in front of the out of sight equipment.

• If you are going to use Digital TV or HDTV over-the-air, then you should get a DTV tuner (ATSC)
• If you are going to record from a STB, then you need an analog tuner (NTSC)

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1: Dimension 9200 - Vista Ult, 2.4GHz Q6600 Core2Quad, 4GB RAM, 160GB, 750GB, 500GB USB, Nvidia 8300GS, PVR-150, HDTV Wonder, Vbox 3560, X360, DMA2100

2: HP m376n - MCE 2005, 2.6 P4 w/HT, 1GB RAM, 250GB, 400GB USB HD, Nvidia 6200, Emuzed MAUI, X360