TV Update

More of the TV Saga

Today is really the point of no return for me in this venture of leaving the dish behind. I recieved my shipping boxes for the LNB and two recievers that I had from the dish provider and I am taking them to the UPS Store today. Now I can not just call and say turn it all back on. So far I have been fairly pleased with the switch and I would still recommend it to anyone at this time.

Thus far I have found the using the computer with Vista Media Center and two external USB Tuners as a DVR is a great solution. Along with the ad on that I found to let me manage my recordings from the web and the DynDns setup I think it is very functional and useful. I have had some problems with the commercial removal tools that MCEBuddy uses and I have disabled that feature for now. That is OK though since I am streaming the files with PlayOn via my PS3 I can skip a minute or two in the file with now issue at all. Really my last thing was that I decided I wanted to get all of my DVD collection on to my computer so that I would be able to watch anything without having to get up to get the disk. Lazy I know, but my DVD collection is all upstairs. To accomidate this I am ripping the DVD to and ISO file using DVD Shrink. I only condone the use of this product to backup movies that you actually own. Do not steal the movies!! I Rip the DVD and remove all the audio tracks and subtititle tracks that I do not want. I then use the PS3 Media Server to open the ISO and stream it to my TV. It works great. Between having all of my DVR shows, and DVD’s available to me anytime I also have all of the internet stuff that PlayOn brings to the table. With the Plugins and what they provide out of the box I do not think I will ever pay for TV again.

Thanks to the guys at Media Mall for all the great work they have done with PlayOn and the new Wii support is great. They did a great job with the interface and well I just can not say enough good things about them. Well worth the $40 and definatly worth the free 14 day trail that you get. Check it out at http://www.themediamall.com/

Thanks again and let me know if oyou have any questions or comments.

More on the Free TV Move

Things are still going pretty good and I even found a nice little add on that should allow me to manage all my recordings, let me watch my video, and listen to my music from the web. It is called webguide. This is something that ties into Vista Media Center and allows you to do all this. (so they say) I have gotten it working on my LAN to connect and allow me to change my recordings and see what I have recorded but have not been able to do any streaming at this time. My plan is to get a url with dyndns.com and be able to control my recordings from anywhere. Just another feature that so many DVR’s flaunt and now I can do it for free. Check it out and let me know what you think about it. More to come.

TV Conversion Update

So I have been working on this for a few days and everything is going pretty well. I have two WINTV-HVR 950Q External USB 2.0 HD Tuners connected to my PC. These things are great. Highty recommend them if you are looking for a good easy Tuner for under $100 dollars. I got mine on sale for $70.00. The software provided is OK at best but it is functional. I am using the Vista Media Center with mine for things like recording.  The major downside to this, for me anyway, is that when the Media Center records it is in an .dvr-ms file format. PS3 does not like that format. Because of this I have another step after recording before I can stream the video to the PS3. I have to do a file conversion. I have found a tool that will scan input folders and as soon as it sees the dvr-ms file in the folder it goes to work. This is a great program. It works with the DVRMSToolbox as well. This means that as it does the file conversion it will also automatically remove comercials for you. it also has a wide variety of output file types that you can convert to. The program is MCEBuddy. Pretty lightweight except when doing the conversion, It will eat up some cycles. I think that I will have mine do all the conversions over night when I am asleep. I will always be a day behind on my DVR shows but that is OK by me. Alo with the two USB Video Tuners and the Vista Media Center I am able to record two shows at a time. Love that. The only down side is that the dvr-ms files are HUGE. You will need a big disk and I highly recommend having MCEBuddy remove the originals when done converting to conserve disk space.

Also another good media player for the PS3 is the PS3MediaServer. Very lightweight and will play some filetypes that PlayOn will not at this time. Like a DVD ISO. I am still not really happy with the ISO playing as it just selects the first audio track and the first sub track. No choices here. I am still playing with ISO files and hope to come up with or find another solution as I would love to have all my DVD library accesable at the touch of a button.

I will continue to play with this and let you know what I find and what My recommendations are to you. I think that this is going to be a great Entertainment Solution for me and it will save me money in no time at all since I am no longer shelling out $100.00 a month for service.