Well work wasn't interested at this moment.  Then again we are getting ready for E3 so almost everyone is swamped.  I did grab enough tuners to play with more stbs this weekend.  Its going to be rather tricky since its not an array style registry entry for IR remote codes.  So you might be limited to 2 different mnodel stbs but if I can get more irblasters going, then it will be no issue for more stbs.

Nice find btw.

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP

I would be worried about the actual PCI bus.

The standard 32-bit 33MHz PCI bus has a maximum bandwidth of 133MB/sec. That's shared for all devices connected to the PCI bus, including a SCSI PCI card and any other installed PCI cards. Server/Workstation boards come with multiple and higher-bandwidth PCI buses.

PCI32 33MHz = 133MB/s
PCI32 66MHz = 266MB/s
PCI64 33MHz = 266MB/s
PCI64 66MHz = 533MB/s
PCI-X 133MHz = 1066MB/s

Im still looking for the MB/s for the tuner, but Im thinking around 33

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\{A799A800-A46D-11D0-A18C-00A02401DCD4}\{04CBCD6F-0EFE-4E52-9209-43B6AC9D4217}\UserSettings]
"UseSTB"=dword:ffffffff
"WatchOrder"=dword:00000001
"RecordOrder"=dword:00000001
"WatchPrefered"=dword:ffffffff
"RecordPrefered"=dword:ffffffff
"EnabledForMCE"=dword:ffffffff
"STBCode"="<stb> <codeseturl>\\microsoft\\C1376</codeseturl> <keyinterval>100</keyinterval> <keyduration>xxx</keyduration> <channelpause>yyy</channelpause> <useenter>False</useenter> <numdigits>3</numdigits> <target>\\\\?\\usb#vid_045e&amp;pid_006d#ms1b3lh4#{7951772d-cd50-49b7-b103-2baac494fc57}\\irport0</target> </stb>"
"UserDefName"="Cable box"

The interesting part of this export is :

<target>\\\\?\\usb#vid_045e&amp;pid_006d#ms1b3lh4#{7951772d-cd50-49b7-b103-2baac494fc57}\\irport0</target>

Pink USB reciever

Red Looks like a device number

Blue 2 ports on each USB reciever in this case port 0, or if you were reading the reciever port 1

Just a guess.

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Any ideas on how to control multiple stb's?

Accident, I see you are going to give this a shot tonight? Good luck.

Based on the registry, the highest quality encoding is 600K video and I don't remember the audio so lets say 700K total.  Thats 21Mbits/sec for 30 tuners.  1080i is what 19.2Mbits/sec at max?  So for about the bitrate of 1 atsc tuner, you can fit 28 sd tuners at max quality.  I don't see why that wouldn't work if you can keep irqs under control.  Thats barely scratching sata data speeds assuming it can handle the workload.  with 2 sd and 2 hd tuners, I rarely break 30Mbits/sec of drive dataflow.  This could work. 

Would be great for entertainment/news/reporting/talk shows.  While the average home doesn't need that many, I can see its applications.  I'm sure a group of people in dorm would love it.

fyi: I never tried it but you can probably increase the max sd bitrate for both video and audio if you wanted. 

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP

Yeah I was looking at that also.  Theres another spot under that also deals with IR.  I don't remember the full reg but its like ../video/tuner/???/RECORDER0 and RECORDER1. 

It wont be tonight, my coworker is bringing back in my second ir reciever tommorrow.  Anyone know of another card that works in mce for irblasters?  serial port versions maybe? 

 

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP

Hey scuffs, do you have an atsc tuner in that thing?  can you try putting in the stb setting on an atsc tuner and see if it tries to change the channel.  That would open a world of other options if it works.

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP

Nope, Im working on getting a Fusion card, but since I just spent $550 for 2 400GB drives that will have to wait,  The only reason I figured this out was because someone said it couldnt be done, and I wanted to know why.

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The 3-tuner ATSC testing is not going as well. I have a HDTV Wonder, Avermedia, and Fusion HDTV 3 Gold (NON Q/T). I can get any 2 of those tuners to work together great, but once I do the registry change to add the 3rd into the mix, it basically freezes up Media Center when I try to go into MyTV. I have tinkered with the record order, watch order, etc, but none of that seems to make any difference. I'm not sure if this is ever going to work. I've tried swapping physical PCI slots, too, and that doesn't seem to change anything.

Any ideas on what else I could try?

I would recommend the a180 over the fusion at the moment, the fusion drivers still aren't there yet. But I almost have a way to convert a non-firewire hd stb to an atsc channel now Some interesting distribution products on the market to get custom hd programming to closed circuit standard atsc tuners.

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Bryan Socha
Media Center MVP

I disabled the Fusion for now. I'm running the HDTV Wonder and Avermedia in 2 tuner mode now without any issues. I agree that the Fusion is the weakest link in all of this.

Have any links for those distro products you're talking about? It would be sweet to be able to pipe HD around on channel 3 or something.

The a180 is also much cheaper, roughly half the cost.

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Guys,

I have Cable TV (through COAX, no STB) and Satellite TV.  If I use > 1 tuner (and/or dual tuners) in my system can both the COAX cable and S-Video Satellite be added to my system and see both providers channels in my guide?

No,

MCE only supports one channel guide. The satellite and cable service would have to share the same channel lineup for that to work.

Also, you should not be posting this question here. This topic is for multiple tuners!

Has anyone tried this with 3 DVB cards like the DVICO Fusion Plus DVB card? I realise the topic says analog but I had a look at the registry settings and they all seem to be there for my 2 DVICO cards. If someone wants to lend me another card I would love to give it a try.

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