what would you recomend if i have these demands:

mpeg2 and mpeg4
compatible with both mce2005 and mce vista
able to watch channels that i have to pay for and of course the free ones

/bo

Cable/satellite or terrestrial?

I use one Twinhan 2033 for encrypted digital cable (Only windows drivers worked for me, no mythtv)
No idea about mpeg4 support, i think it's only mpeg2. It says "Supports HDTV 1080i" on the box, but never got the one free hd channel working.
https://www.satshop.nl/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=217

Tried a preused technotrend one before that one, but that had some reception problems.

And a dual tuner Hauppauge pvr500 for analog cable. Image quality is allright for me, but some people (including a mr.MLord) had some problems with the newer ones.
And they won't work if you have more then 3gb with vista x64.
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_pvr500mc.html

No idea how the cable encryption works in Denmark, in my region of the Netherlands they use Irdeto. So i needed to get the only irdeto supporting cam, the mascom alphacrypt classic to use my smartcard in the twinhan.
http://www.alphacrypt.de/AlphaCrypt-Classic.39.0.html

hi and thanks...

The pvr500 is a no go since it's analog... and the 2033 is a no go since it does not support DVB-T...
:-(

Other Suggestions?

For encrypted Dtv i'm not sure if there's any solution, other then taking the analog out of your set top box, and feed that in your pc through an analog tv card. And use an ir-blaster for changing channels to record (included with the cheap microsoft mce-remote)

For unencrypted i think this one must be good (coming soon, they say) :
http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun_dvbt

Edit: Found this thing, not sure if it's any good though, usb so i think hd is going to be re-encoded: http://www.anysee.com/eng/product/anyseeE30ComboPlus.php

If you want to use DVB-C and encrypted channels with MCE, then about the only solution there is available is the FloppyDTV. This solution abuses the fact that MCE cannot work with DVB-C, so it pretends to be a DVB-T tuner instead (which MCE does support). I hear it works well, but have no first-hand experience with it.

That looks incredibly cool! I will keep my eye on this one! Thanks for the link!

>If you want to use DVB-C and

I want DVB-T

>http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun_dvbt

Sounds like an option.. just have to reed if it can all the features needed

>http://www.anysee.com/eng/product/anyseeE30ComboPlus.php

Also sounds like an option.... but no online manual

>the only solution there is available is the FloppyDTV

this one is clearly a no go:

H.264 / MPEG4 channels don't work in Windows Media Center

Teletext doesn't work in Windows Media Center with digital TV cards

Subtitles are not available in Windows Media Center

Maybe this page is useful to you: http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgathering.tweakers.net%2Fforum%2Flist_messages%2F1139174&sl=nl&tl=en
(Didn't think you would understand dutch, so linked to the page translated by google)

it's ok.. i found this one myself....

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_hvr900hd.html

and along with this:

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_ci.html

i should be able to get what i want...

In my experience, Hauppauge hardware works well, but their Windows software is appalling. It's as if the Windows Interface Guidelines had never happened. But if you're going to be using it with MCE, hopefully you won't have to deal with Hauppauge's own software.

Peter

never used their software anyway... their EPG never shows what is on the air... not a single time i got what i set it to record... so i have only used their software for 1 day

Hopefully that HVR-900 has the same XCeive-5000 tuner DSP that their HVR-950Q has -- that thing is phenomenal! *Way* better reception than the HDHomerun unit. It's not even close!

Cheers

in cant see it on the uk site... have a link for it?

EDIT: found it...

Note that the HVR-950Q is for North American broadcast television (terrestrial and cable), not for DVB-*.

But it is an incredbibly good digital tuner, because of the XCeive-5000 chip inside, which replaces that normally huge metal analog tuner can thingie.

So if they have the same chip in the DVB-* products, then *Great*. But it may take some digging to figure that out.

Cheers

Mmm.. apparently the DVB version of the HVR-900 has the XCeive-3028 chip on it, one generation older than the XCeive-5000. Probably still very good, though.

-ml

With those two you still need one of these for the encrption they use for dvb-t in denmark:


Compatible CAM's:

* AlphaCrypt.
* Conax.
* Irdeto.
* Mediaguard.
* AstonCrypt.
* CrptoWorks.
* Viaccess.

edit: Can usb handle the throughput needed for the streaming of hd mpeg4/mpeg2? or does it do some kind of re-encoding?

[quote=SchidoWith those two you still need one of these for the encrption they use for dvb-t in denmark: [/quote]

of course.... i have looked at the via access.. fair price...

what is the data rate for HD?

Sure, without even coming close to any bandwidth limits.

OTA HD television peaks at just under 20mbits/sec. USB can do 480mbits/sec (and usually per host port).

Cheers

hehe.. so one can even put a few of these in the pc without problems..... thanks for all the help guys... now there is only the problem of getting the money for the stuff