Hi,

I might be moving from the US to the UK soon and would like to take my myth box with me. I have a pchdtv and a pvr 250. Before the move I am planing on buying an hd projector. (I am currently using standard ntsc)
I figured this will solve many of my display issues as it seems to support pal modes and have an adjustable power supply. (plus it's time I took the hd plunge)

So I have a few questions and I hope this is the right place to post...

1. Do I need to setup myth to pal, or can I set it to a fixed hd resolution?
2. Do I need to setup modeline even if the projector I have in mind has a pc vga input?
3. Will the database still recognized all the shows in my database?
4. Any recommendations for tv provider?

I appoligize for my ignorance,

Cheers,

-e

1. MythTV doesn't care. You need to set X to the appropriate modeline for your display device.
2. See 1.
3. Why wouldn't it?
4. I don't like in the UK.

Thanks Cecil.

You're welcome. I hope you enjoy the UK!

TV in the UK s either DVB-T (known as Freeview), anologue (shortly to be phased out) cable or satellite. I believe both cable and satellite broadcast the same channels as Freeview unencrypted, while their premium content is encrypted.
The only real way to get HDTV is through the cable satellite route atm, though the BBC have (had?) a HD channel available on DVB-T, though I think they were trialing feasability as I haven't seen any listings on that station recently.

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Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

There are now a number ways to receive tv in the UK

1. Sky who provide a satellite service http://www.sky.com
2. VirginMedia who provide a digital cable service http://www.virginmedia.com
3. Broadband http://www.btvision.bt.com/vision
4. Analog free to air
5. DVB-T Digital free to air
6. Satellite free to air

have a look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/tv/ for a good summary.

The first two are subscription based encrypted services and require a relevant set top box. They will also sell/rent you a PVR solution. Cable also provides some tv on demand and is only available in some areas. There is some HD content, but this is currently limited and costs more.

3. Broadband
This is new and I don't know much about this. Subscription based.

4. Analog free to air
Traditional PAL broadcast.

5. DVB-T Digital free to air
A service provided by the BBC which will replace the analog service over the next few years. There are some subscription channels avialable on this service, however I don't think there are any DVB-T cards available that support these (Hauppauge are promising one next year). At present this does not include any high definition service. It might in the future if the government allow the BBC to use the bandwidth made available when analogue is switched off.

6. Satellite free to air
I believe that there are free to air channels provided on the Sky service (mostly BBC and ITV) that can be received without subscription.
There is also is a new service to be provided by the BBC and ITV which I think it is mostly intended to fill in the gaps where DVB-T cannot reach - usually rural areas behind hills that would be expensive to service with transmitters for over the air digital tv.


One of the first three solutions is required if you want to watch subscription services such as sports. Personally I use VirginMedia cable for general watching and subscription channels and mythtv with a couple DVB-T cards for recording. Apart from subscription sport, just about everything I want to record is available via DVB-T. Any cards you use for recording would require to be PAL. If you are after the latest US programs they tend to appear on Sky before any of the other providers. I stick with Virgin largely because the broadband offering is good.

To see what sort of programming is available have a look at http://www.radiotimes.com.

In conclusion if you are happy with the channels on DVB-T freeview – use that. Otherwise you will need to investigate the subscription offerings and have an analogue card to record from the output of a set top box.

The other thing you should be aware of is that the electricity supply is different in the UK. You may need power transformers for your equipment, although I have noticed that recent PC power supplies look like they might work on either standard. Older ones sometimes had a switch to support one or other as well.

Babblefish

You'll be receiving shows in DVB-T and DVB-S (terrestrial and satellite respectively) standard. Output to a projector will be digital, not PAL.

Mike

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LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
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Thanks for all the great info. I think I am a bit confused now. Sounds like I will need new capture cards. Is this true?
Also, Which database do I subscribe to in order to get my listings?
Is it possible to receive HD content w/o a receiver? I would like to avoid using an IR blaster.

Cheers,

-e

You can use the radio times grabber - which is included, (the same way as you would with SD) or use OTA (EIT). Over here the information is available freely.
As for capture cards... I'm not sure. What have you got? Most Hauppauge cards are for sale here. Here are two different esellers that I use.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=169
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Products.ASP?CatID=53&Category=Multimedia%2FTV&Thumbnails=yes
As for a receiver, you mean a set top box type affair? I believe babblefish answered that one.

_________________
Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

One note on the PVR-250. Mine (Europe) encodes PAL fine. However, if I set it to NTSC, either in mythtv setup or ivtvctl, it still encodes PAL, not NTSC. I suspect that there is a HW difference between the NTSC and PAL versions.

Anyway, as mentioned above, you probably want to go the DVB-T or DVB-S route. These cards can be purchased very cheaply.

_________________
ASUS AT3N7A-I (Atom 330)
TBS 8922 PCI (DVB-S2)

Yes. the UK uses the European Standard DVB-T for digital broadcast. You can use pretty much any card, but I recommend the Technisat Airstar2, which is part of the Australian Knoppmyth reference platform. It's cheap and has an rf pass through.

The dvico cards are good, too, but more expensive (In Aus at least).

Cheers

Mike

_________________
*********************
LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
*********************

I'm now living in London and I figured I should post an update....

I removed my pchdtv 200 card. (figured I have no use for it right now)
I put in a win-tv nova-t 500 card. It was the only digital card I could find. (I didn't look too hard)
After I got the card I read that there are issues with the remote so I decided to leave wintv pvr-250 card in for the remote and analogue rrecording.

Since this was the first upgrade in over 2 years I decided to go with a clean install. For the most part the auto install went smoother then ever.

I had the following problems after installation.

Remote didn't work even with the old card that worked in older versions of knoppmyth.
The Nova-t card would cause the computer to lock-up during shut down. after searching on-line I found that there was an issue with the on-board usb controller. I updated the firmware. This took care of the lock up and activated the remote. While the remote works now it hiccups once in a while and will not take input for a few seconds.

I couldn't find clear documentation for setting ota guide data and setting up a dual tuner. Eventually I got it to run. The only odd thing is that now the system claims to have guide data until 2025.

So that's it. for the most part this has been painless. The remote still acts up a bit but other then that the system has been up for a month now w/o any issue.
I still have some xorg.conf questions. I will post those in a new post.

Please see the R5F27 Hints, Known Issue #5.


This is apparently a common UK glitch which can cause some UI performance issues. See this thread for a fix: http://knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=17338

Im glad to see that the KnoppMyth part of the move was so painless. Now you will have to deal with the more difficult aspects such as losing 40 lbs and not talking so loud.</stereotype>

But he can work out instead of going to the dentist.</stereotype>