Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Big Fra on 17 May 2008, 02:28:09

Title: Sky Plus
Post by: Big Fra on 17 May 2008, 02:28:09
It's freaking awesome.

I wasn't really bothered about it, but when my friend tells me she can get me sky plus for nothing, I say, ok!

Why the hell not?

It is pretty good dontcha know!
Title: Re: Sky Plus
Post by: Gaffers on 17 May 2008, 08:29:43
Ive got myself a sky+ HD box off ebay for 60 quid, waiting for my sky card now!  :y
Title: Re: Sky Plus
Post by: Martin_1962 on 17 May 2008, 09:17:35
Well I got a BT Vision box for free and it is bascially a Freeview PVR which does IPTV as well.

Never understood all the hype over Sky+ when there are som many other PVRs - I also have a Pace Twin retro fitted with 100GB hard drive
Title: Re: Sky Plus
Post by: Gaffers on 17 May 2008, 09:35:21
Quote
Well I got a BT Vision box for free and it is bascially a Freeview PVR which does IPTV as well.

Never understood all the hype over Sky+ when there are som many other PVRs - I also have a Pace Twin retro fitted with 100GB hard drive


I still have a media center PC that I built and we used to use it but found XP MCE so unstable it was a pain.  I am in the process of rebuilding it with Vista Home ready to put a feed into my office for that one  :y
Title: Re: Sky Plus
Post by: korum on 17 May 2008, 10:47:54
must confess i dont know how we managed without sky+.
Title: Re: Sky Plus
Post by: TheBoy on 17 May 2008, 12:03:51
I use a Media Center (complete with American spelling).  currently 5 freeview tuners, 500G HDD, and the ability to watch anywhere in the house via extenders...


To Gaffers. XP MCE works OK given 1G RAM, but really needs weekly reboots. VMC (Vista Media Center) is more stable, but places higher demands on hardware. Mine has 2G and a 3.2G P4, video supplied by Nvidia 8500GT card.  Admittedly, its got 5 tuners, so can be busy sometimes, but sometimes I just get the feeling it could do with a bit more horsepower.

The thing that really kills reliability is installing those dodgy 'codec packs'. Absolutely not required. MPEG2 decoder (for XP MCE, VMC has one) and a single codec such as ffdshow is all you need, and massively increases reliability in my experience.


Anyone using media center, and have a static IP (or dyndns etc configured), check out an excellent add-on (now free I believe) called WebGuide4 by ASCII - use a web browser from anywhere on internet to record that program you forgot, or even watch stuff you've recorded. As music. And photos. Bloody brilliant!  I frequently record programs from my phone...
Title: Re: Sky Plus
Post by: Gaffers on 17 May 2008, 22:54:34
Quote
I use a Media Center (complete with American spelling).  currently 5 freeview tuners, 500G HDD, and the ability to watch anywhere in the house via extenders...


To Gaffers. XP MCE works OK given 1G RAM, but really needs weekly reboots. VMC (Vista Media Center) is more stable, but places higher demands on hardware. Mine has 2G and a 3.2G P4, video supplied by Nvidia 8500GT card.  Admittedly, its got 5 tuners, so can be busy sometimes, but sometimes I just get the feeling it could do with a bit more horsepower.

The thing that really kills reliability is installing those dodgy 'codec packs'. Absolutely not required. MPEG2 decoder (for XP MCE, VMC has one) and a single codec such as ffdshow is all you need, and massively increases reliability in my experience.


Anyone using media center, and have a static IP (or dyndns etc configured), check out an excellent add-on (now free I believe) called WebGuide4 by ASCII - use a web browser from anywhere on internet to record that program you forgot, or even watch stuff you've recorded. As music. And photos. Bloody brilliant!  I frequently record programs from my phone...

Have 1GB of ram in mine and very few codecs at all. I know I have an Nvidea dvd codec and the ffdshow pack but it was slow and crashed very unpredictably...

Vista here we come  :y