Replace TiVo with Media Center for HD?

Iâ??m looking for a replacement for my old TiVo and am thinking of building a
Media Center box for that purpose but am not sure if Media Center will fit
all my needs:

1. input/record antenna HD
2. input/record satellite Standard + HD
3. Have DirecTV guides to set up recordings.

Can a properly build Media Center PC satisfy these requirements?

Youâ??d think it would be easy to find this information but Iâ??m getting
conflicting answers.

Doug
Sun Apr 27 12:30:51 PDT 2008

No. There is currently no way for Media Center to record HD from any source
other than over the air and via Digital Cable Tuner. Microsoft has been in
talks with DirecTV to come out with a Media Center compatible solution that
will let you view and record HD content, but no firm release date has been
set for it, as of yet. You can find some articles on this topic with a
Google search.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart
Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Barry" <Barry@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B39EE310-319E-4FCE-A74E-5AE190136A5A@microsoft.com...
> Iâ??m looking for a replacement for my old TiVo and am thinking of building
> a
> Media Center box for that purpose but am not sure if Media Center will fit
> all my needs:
>
> 1. input/record antenna HD
> 2. input/record satellite Standard + HD
> 3. Have DirecTV guides to set up recordings.
>
> Can a properly build Media Center PC satisfy these requirements?
>
> Youâ??d think it would be easy to find this information but Iâ??m getting
> conflicting answers.
>

Barry
Sun Apr 27 15:27:00 PDT 2008

Thanks for the quick reply.

Anyone know why this is? It seems to me that a tuner card should be able to
record any input it gets. Is it that Satellite providers have a propitiatory
transmission method for HD? Would that be decrypted by the receiver anyway?

From a Google search result, Microsoft and DirecTV have been â??talkingâ?? for
over two years nowâ?¦

Curious
Sun Apr 27 15:47:52 PDT 2008

All satellite TV transmissions(SD and HD) are encrypted and therefore can
only be received with their own tuner equipment.
You can use an HD Home Run box to receive Clear QAM Cable HD programs with
MC since MC sees its driver as an ATSC tuner.
"Barry" <Barry@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EE16F34B-CE50-4ABB-A9B4-3BFA62936F46@microsoft.com...
> Thanks for the quick reply.
>
> Anyone know why this is? It seems to me that a tuner card should be able
> to
> record any input it gets. Is it that Satellite providers have a
> propitiatory
> transmission method for HD? Would that be decrypted by the receiver
> anyway?
>
> From a Google search result, Microsoft and DirecTV have been â??talkingâ?? for
> over two years nowâ?¦
>

Doug
Sun Apr 27 18:54:37 PDT 2008

The tuners that are currently available for Media Center don't have the
funcitonality to accept, process and display component, DVI or HDMI inputs,
which is what would be required for HDTV. So even your set top box does HD,
there's no way to get it from the STB to the MCE tuner.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart
Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Barry" <Barry@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EE16F34B-CE50-4ABB-A9B4-3BFA62936F46@microsoft.com...
> Thanks for the quick reply.
>
> Anyone know why this is? It seems to me that a tuner card should be able
> to
> record any input it gets. Is it that Satellite providers have a
> propitiatory
> transmission method for HD? Would that be decrypted by the receiver
> anyway?
>
> From a Google search result, Microsoft and DirecTV have been â??talkingâ?? for
> over two years nowâ?¦
>

BTDT
Tue May 27 14:31:01 PDT 2008

Check out http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=115136 for information on
the HDPC-20, which is the USB dual DirecTV tuner that is currently being beta
tested for the next version of Media Center. Release date and info is not
clear. Also check out http://www.thegreenbutton.com for available speculation
on this release.


"Barry" wrote:

> Thanks for the quick reply.
>
> Anyone know why this is? It seems to me that a tuner card should be able to
> record any input it gets. Is it that Satellite providers have a propitiatory
> transmission method for HD? Would that be decrypted by the receiver anyway?
>
> From a Google search result, Microsoft and DirecTV have been â??talkingâ?? for
> over two years nowâ?¦
>