PVR Solutions for Canada?

[Juke]

Hi Everyone

I did a search on the forum before I posted this so sorry for another Canada question which probably gets asked all the time and thanks in advance.

Basically I sit there all the time manually recording shows on my PC without great results. I have found out Rogers, my cable company has 2 PVR solutions, Digital Terminals that do regular and HD recording.
I was hoping to find a way to hack them so I can transfer the goods to my pc but as they are new, we don’t have enough geek power harnessed here for someone to hack it and if they have, I don’t see it on the net.
I read somewhere about Snapstream and it looks good.
I was wondering what’s the latest and best solutions for us Canuks that desire PVR.
-Is Spanstream the answer?
-I am presuming I can forget about getting listings... right?
-Will it require a regular Rogers digital box to access digital channels?
- Will it be able to at least change channels on the digital?
- Any other solutions?

Juke

[bradpvr]

Hey,

Snapstream is the right place to be for a PVR.

I've been running my PVR off snapstream for about a year and a half now.

You can still get all your listings, built in! No need to use XMLTV.

You will still need your Rogers cable box as it does the decoding of the encrypted channels and you will be able to change the channels (by an IR device, such as the USB-UIRT).

When building your PVR's hardware, ensuring you get a PVR-150 or PVR-250 as the quality is amazing compared to other encoders.

Let us know how it goes

Thanks!
Brad

[Juke]

Thanks brad


so if I understand you correctly a USB device will send IR signals to my digital box to change stations?

how can I find out if my box is compatible?

finaly how would I put in the listing for shows?


I use forums a lot so I know its a pain and a half when people ask the same things but I cant find any information. if you direct me where I can learn that would be great.

[magic]

I'm another happy Canada snapstream user. I've had problems in the past- choppy video, retrieval of program listing data, etc.etc, but I've solved all the gremlins by either hardware, software or forum assistance. Basically, if I want to record a program, I just look at the program guide and click 'record this show' or 'record all episodes' or 'record all new episodes.' It's just that simple. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend- just make sure you have a decent video card (search this forum), enough horsepower under the hood, and a good remote. I prefer snapstream firefly because it is a radio frequency transmitter, meaning the signal can travel through walls, etc. Good luck

[bradpvr]

Originally Posted by Juke

Thanks brad


so if I understand you correctly a USB device will send IR signals to my digital box to change stations?

how can I find out if my box is compatible?

finaly how would I put in the listing for shows?


I use forums a lot so I know its a pain and a half when people ask the same things but I cant find any information. if you direct me where I can learn that would be great.

Hey,

From what I understand all boxes are compatible with the USB-UIRT because IR is IR ...doesn't differ between cable boxes/satelite.

The listing of the shows is automatic. You select what service you have and it'll download the guide.

Thanks,
Brad

[Juke]

so you guys are telling me I can rig up a system, slap on the software and I can tell it what I want to watch, it will record it, file it and i can watch again on my tv in canada?!

[bradpvr]

Originally Posted by Juke

so you guys are telling me I can rig up a system, slap on the software and I can tell it what I want to watch, it will record it, file it and i can watch again on my tv in canada?!

And then some! I find most often I'll be at someone's house, they'll tell me something is playing tonight, and I'll go on their computer and set my PVR to record that show!

Too cool.

[Juke]

brad they should be giving you comission for helping me out.
I'm getting ready to get started.

I have a leadtek wintv card which I dont see on the compatible list.
do you have any advice on a good card?

also are you happy with the quality of recording? are you able to burn or store them in a good file format?

and are you able to kill commercials ?

[splootch]

As bradpvr points out above, you should get yourself a Hauppauge PVR-150 or 250 to use as your capture card. I've been using the PVR -350 (overkill - should have gone with the 250) on a dedicated machine that I use solely as a PVR (see my specs in my sig below) with my Expressvu system. As stated above, Canadian listings are built in. I've been running my system for about a year and a half and I can't imagine going back to a vcr.

Quality of recordings is good - you can customize and tweak to get the best results (and you WILL tweak, my friend). Just be prepared to do a little searching on this forum, there's a wealth of info here. If you have BTV record in mpg format, you can save or burn them just like any other file.

There is a commrecial advance feature built in called smartskip, but I haven't found it to be too reliable, so I've disabled it. While watching a recording you can jump ahead 20 or 30 secs at a time (you can set your own custom amount of jump ahead or back time), so whipping through commercials is a breeze.

Good luck, let us know how it works out for you.

[bradpvr]

It's true, go with the PVR-150/PVR-250.

The quality of the recordings is great, but as splootch suggest, it does take some tweaks that are found in the forum to get it to where you want.

I haven't really copied anything over to DVD yet, so I can't comment on that, but a lot of people have had success.

Commercial skipping is sort of a black art, and can be hit and miss. I haven't found it that bad when I've used it. But normally I just fast forward through them.

[Cal]

I'm a happy Canadian user. Built in support for Canadian data was one of the reasons I went with BTV. I've used XMLTV but wanted native support. This has it.

I find smartskip to be very good on my system. If a show is good then its all good. If a show is bad then its always bad. I'd say about 90% of my shows have no issues with smartskip.

I'd say go with the pvr250 cards, they are great. I have 2. I see others reporting that the 150s are good as well. You need something with good tv out as well. The fx5200 cards are popular for this and are cheap. Burning DVD's is not built into BTV but is not hard to do. I've made a few.

I don't think there are any cards yet that can record the HD broadcast however. It will come. And since this is not a closed system but a computer, you can add stuff as needed.

The USB-UIRT is a good choice. I love mine. You could search and see if your cable box can be controlled via serial port but dont be concerned about using an IR based changer. Ive never missed any channel changes because of IR.

I love the fact that its just a networked computer. Taking it over from work via ultravnc is great. I was on vacation over christmass and went online and told it to record several things I wanted for later via the website. Works great.

[Juke]

thanks for your advice guys.

as luck would have it, futureshop has the card you guys are suggesting for 150$ until midnight tonight so I will go ahead and order 1.


I guess my only remaining concern was the quality output on a 50" tv and type of recording but Ill dig into forums to find it but if there is anything i should know please tell me to cancel the order

www.futureshop.ca

[waz67]

regarding the quality of recordings on a 50" tv... I wouldn't worry about it. I use my system (running off ExpressVU and a PVR-250) on a projector with about a 100" screen, and I'm constantly amazed how good it looks.

[RiffRaff.s]

Do not get the PR Rogers is selling/renting, you can't even search for the shows you want to record/ The only way to set up recordings is from the program guide

[Juke]

Thanks. I was worried the resolution would be poor on the TV.
I am awaiting the PVR card to arrive to begin

I said no to PVR from Rogers but they did give me an HDTV digital box for a year with my purchase of a tv from futureshop and though the HDTV is good, i dont like the box.
with every channel change there is a full grey screen between channels and on non HD channels, i cant get full screen unless i do it manualy or leave it on which will then ruin HD channels and have to unstretch.

I cant stretch it using my Tv's aspect ratio with the new HD digital box because its component input which wont allow the change of aspect ratio within the TV.

I thought I should write this for Googololing sake casue i doubt anyone here will find it informative