Ok...my entire MC experience has been done with cable (no STBs). I recently moved and will be going with DirectTV. So here's what i have and i'm looking for what i need to do to accomplish what i want.

Room A: TV, STB, XBox 360

Room B: TV, STB, MCE PC

Room C: TV, STB

 

Room A: watch/stream movies/music, pause/record live TV

Room B: watch/stream movies/music

Room C: guest bedroom, can use the STB elsewhere if i need to.

 

NOTES: for the MCE PC in Room B i do not have a remote for it. I simply want to start MC on the TV from the MCE PC.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I've never setup MC using STBs and for some reason i'm finding it confusing since i'm using the computer and an extender.

Thanks,
Cory

 

What you are attempting to do isn't difficult, but you'll have to spend a few dollars to get it spun up.  Let me tell you about my setup.  It is similar to what you need to do.

First, you only need DirectTV STBs in the room with your MCE PC.  With my setup, I have an MCE PC with 2 tuner cards.  Two separate STBs feed into the PC (one to each tuner card).  I use the S-video outputs from the STBs running to the inputs on the tuner cards.

You'll need IR blasters to control the STBs.  These should have been included with your MCE PC or tunner cards if you added these yourself.

Re-run your MCE steup.  If you tell it you have satelite STBs, it will guide you through setting everything up.  It's pretty straightforward.

Rooms A and C will need media center extenders to connect to the media in Room B.  Since you have an Xbox 360 in one room, that can one extender.  In that room, you won't need an STB.  You will get all your TV through the Xbox.

You won't need an STB in Room C either, but you will need to buy an extender.  Right now there is only one player in the game, Linksys.  HP used to make one, but they've apparently bowed out for now.  The Linksys extender is about $250 online.  I've purchase 3 of them in the last couple of weeks.  Most online retailers are having trouble keeping them in stock, so you may be in a backorder situation for a few days.  Go to pricegrabber to see who has them right now, search for "media center extender."  There are a couple of lousy vendors selling them at the moment, so make sure you check the vendor ratings.

Your Xbox and media extender need to be connected to your home network.  I'm working under the assumption that you have one.  If not, that's a separate topic.  It's best to use a wired ethernet connection for video, although some folks report success with wireless.  I'm using Netgear HDXB101 powerline adapters for my ethernet and they work great, although they're a little pricey, about $200 a pair for good ones.  You'll need three for your setup (unfortunately, they're sold in pairs, so you'll end up with an extra).

One more thing.  If you've created your movie collection by backing up DVDs to divx, xvid, Nero mp4 or something similar, the media extenders won't work out of the box.  If this is the case, I can talk you through setting that up as well.  It's not hard, but it's an extra step.

I hope this helps.

tim...first off thanks for the help. i like your ideas, but w/ vista around the corner, i don't want to shell out the money for v1 mcx's.

also i had an additional question...u mentioned you had 2 tuners...are they dual tuners? if they aren't how are you able to run 3 tv signals simultaneously?

also, why are 2 STBs needed to go to 2 tuners? Also what is the need for the IR Blasters if you are using MCX's?

 

Also, as a side note, i am currently using a single WinTV-PVR-500 tuner (dual)

Quick question, since you mentioned the Xbox360 in your first post..  You do know that the Xbox360 will work with Vista?

timnelsonic:

Right now there is only one player in the game, Linksys.  HP used to make one, but they've apparently bowed out for now. 

Linksys has also stopped their V1 extender..

>>>i like your ideas, but w/ vista around the corner, i don't want to shell out the money for v1 mcx's

You're right...the v1 mcx's are throw-aways.  Unfortunate but, in my case, I don't want an xbox in every room.  I figure I'll won't be changing to Vista for a while, so I'm willing to take the $$ hit.

>>>u mentioned you had 2 tuners...are they dual tuners?

No, I can only input two signals in total.

>>>also, why are 2 STBs needed to go to 2 tuners?

I have one STB for each tuner. 

>>>Also what is the need for the IR Blasters if you are using MCX's

The IR blasters change the channels on the STBs.  These are controlled by the MCE PC in all cases.  If I change the channel on an MCX, it tells the PC to change the channel.  The PC uses the IR blaster to control the STB.

i gotcha...thanks!

and dwright, yes i know i can use the 360 w/ vista as it is a v2 (only v2 to my knowledge) extender.

so with all this said...how would i go about setting things up the way i want...?

also, how does recording shows work with a single dual tuner since only one STB can be connected to it. (or would i connect one via coax and one via a/v?)

@Cory -

Check out the Pika 8622L by Sigma Designs..

 

>>>How does recording shows work with a single dual tuner since only one STB can be connected to it. (or would i connect one via coax and one via a/v)?

Good question.  If it's truly a dual tuner card, this should work.  One of my tuner cards is billed as a dual, but it's really not...it can record from A/V or coax, but not both simultaneously.  (I tried but no deal.)  The easiest way to find out is to plug some stuff together and see what happens.  Sorry, that's not terribly helpful advice, but I've found with MCE there's a lot of experimentation involved!  I'm sure you've found the same thing.

the pvr 500's have a breakout bracket that adds an extra set of rca's and svideo ports allowing both stbs to be hooked up simultaneously. the now old nvtv duals have 2 svideo ports on them.

i have the pvr500 but not sure about a "breakout bracket".

nonetheless, i'm a web guy, not much in the way of hardware and electronics (but i'm getting there...slowly). so all this is getting somewhat confusing...lol.

so...back to the original question...any idea for a way for me to set this up w/o using a second extender?

could really use some help on this one...anyone?

If your plans are to have mce with your tv connected to it and extending it out to the other rooms, then your only option for live tv and playback of protected shows will be extenders in the other rooms.   Even the xbox with its pricetag, you can go with the bare min version and usually save a little money vs a computer.

i'm only worried about live tv in the one room. the other rooms i will simply use the STB as i don't need to record/pause/etc.

 

One room w/ Live TV, One room with only Movie/Music streams, one room with basic satellite tv.