Josh Corley Posted July 5, 2011 Posted July 5, 2011 Im looking at building a media server and have been looking everywere and been reading heaps but what i want is to build a media server cable of streaming all Free to air contant to several HTPC. I want to use windows 7 to do so and i also want the server to keep up to an hour of content so i can rewind and watch shows if i miss them. thanks in advance for any info as im stuck
bob.cob Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 Am I reading you right in saying you want to record ALL FTA stations ALL the time and store this content from at least the past hour? Thats a big ask in and of itself. You'll need several tuner cards for starters. Are you willing to compromise and record SOME of the stations? Like 2,7,9,10? Or do you really want them all, the whole enchilada? I'm certainly not aware of any "off the shelf" media center front ends that will do this. AND you also want to stream this to various HTPC's you have around the place. My gut feeling is that you're going to find this one a tough nut to crack. Its certainly a big ask. I don't like your chances. I'll be interested in how you get on. Keep us posted.
protecon Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 Yep pretty much! Set top boxes and PVRs can record TV on a separate channel and just the one you're currently watching (allowing you to review "live" TV), but that's the extent of most models. You'd need dedicated cards/capture devices for each channel in order to record it all separately, not to mention being able to stream it to all the HTPCs in the residence independently.
givendale Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 Hi db-pioneer, have a look at Media Portal http://www.team-mediaportal.com/. You can set up a server that will then stream to clients with the Media Portal client installed. I have one with 4 tuners in it and it works a treat. Sits in a cupboard and can be set to record stuff from any client. It will not record all FTA stations all the time only the ones that you have set up according to the schedule. If power consumption is an issue it can be set to sleep and come on at predetermined times to recodr and then sleep/hibernate again. I have been running a combined tv server\squeeze server on an AMD dual core 2.4 GHz \ 2 Gig Ram quite happily for some time. So long as you are not a habitual fiddler and are happy to spend some time settig up you will find it works really well. I can also rip and play DVDs and downloaded stuff on all of the client machines as well. I would recommend that you run multiple clients over a wired rather than wireless network. Happy to help if you need any more info. Cheers Givendale
arrow224 Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 VLC can also stream out to different computers. Needs 1 tuner per station.
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