DVB Dream And Windows MCE 2005

[djkidy123]

Is there any way to get picture from DVB Dream on Media Center Windows???

Thanx aggain!

[GnatGoSplat]

If you want it to run within MCE itself, that would require a completely new app. MCE doesn't support anything but BDA drivers, and it doesn't support controlling a switch even through a BDA driver.

I don't know if it's even possible, but I've fantasized about an app that perhaps runs as a service. It installs a virtual BDA drivers that MCE can access. This driver looks to MCE like a standard TV tuner card, but it's really just a service or background application. This service would support multidec plugins, and would control the sat card directly or with its native non-BDA drivers. MCE would control this program by sending standard TV card calls to the virtual driver. The program would decrypt incoming DVB-S data via plugins and feed the unencrypted signal to MCE via virtual driver. The program setup would be a menu option within MCE which allows you to setup transponders, switches, scan for channels, etc. I would gladly pay big money for such a program!

[holyspidoo]

I think that fundamentally, the reason people like MCE is the interface. It would probably be simpler to provide a smooth looking GUI over DVBdream rather than interface it with MCE.

In fact, the quality of DVBdream has gotten so high, that all it lacks for HTPC is good remote support (i know there are workarounds, but it's dirty), and a smooth GUI (especially OSD navigation which is the way most people surf channels since channel changes are slower than say, with a regular tv tuner).

And I don't mean to sound presumptuous when I say "most people". I merely share my views since I set up a lot of HTPCs and DVB solutions and that's the feedback I'm getting.

[GnatGoSplat]

MCE does have a nice interface. I've never really tried DVBdream's PVR interface because remote support is "dirty" as you've said, but the PVR functionality in MCE is excellent.

True, it would probably be simpler to provide a smoother GUI rather than interfacing with MCE, but I also feel like a seamless integration with MCE would have more of a refined feel and consistency. It can perform name-based recording as well, which I don't believe is a feature of any standard DVB-S app. It also supports perfect S3 suspend/resume support, and will flawlessly wake the PC from S3 suspend to record a program. It has a true "sit back on the couch and operate it entirely by remote" type of GUI and although TiVo trumps it in many categories, MCE is actually quite good. All the other DVB apps feel like the conventional desktop apps that they are.

I know making fake virtual drivers should be possible. Twinhan has something that fools MCE into seeing the DVB-S card as a standard TV tuner. Since MCE doesn't support transponders, Diseqc switches, or any satellite-specific settings, Twinhan's program handles that transparently. I've never tried this since it doesn't support decryption at all, but I've heard it works.

[holyspidoo]

Good point indeed. The only downside being the EPG. MCE's EPG (for bell expressvu at least) disapoints in that in won't load a lot of the channels. The EPG solutions for DVB get that info.

Also, I seem to recall an app (DVBportal) that did integrate into MCE, but then the channel changing was an issue. Can't recall the exact details.

But obviously, if the EPG and Channel changing issues proved not a big challenge, the MCE interface provides quite an interesting interface for Couch-operated HTPC.

[GnatGoSplat]

The EPG issue could, in theory, be remedied also. For example, MCE's implementation of ATSC channels in the Guide is a bit of a hack - it maps digital channels to their analog equivalents. For this reason, digital subchannels have no Guide data at all. To remedy this, some people are using 3 programs that are executed automatically (via Scheduler I believe): XMLTV downloads the Guide data from Zap2It, QuickGuide processes it, and BladeRunner converts the QuickGuide processed files into data that MCE can read. I'm not absolutely sure those apps behave the way I described, but that's how I understand it. Since those processes are executed by the Scheduler, it all happens transparently and the info ends up in the Guide.

Similar apps could be written for MCE to grab Guide data, process it, and dump it into the appropriate folder where MCE can get to it.

[travisbell]

FireDTV (http://www.digital-everywhere.com/cms/en/index.php) has some plugins to get DVB S into MCE, but that is exactly the problem. The integration you guys are talking about has to happen at the device level first... and like you guys said, MCE has very little support for anything but DVB T.

I have yet to try my FireDTV card in MCE but I might just try it one of these days.

Cheers,