Watching live TV through media center

[Steve202]

I've got a customer who wants to watch live TV through Windows Media Center and the xboxes around his house. Anyone got any recommendations for tuner cards and best way to do this?

I'm thinking Virgin Media box -> Windows Media Center -> xboxes.

Second question, would each xbox be able to watch different channels?

 

[Frick]

It depends on who their tv provider is. For most cable providers the ceton cable card units (pcie or usb) work great. For ota I have had success with avermedia cards.

I am not familiar with the Virgin media box so cannot comment there.

Xbox media extenders can watch different channels but each one uses a tuner on the host, so be sure you have enough tuners to handle everything.

 

[sorcerer]

BlackGold make some superb tuners

 

[drpcfix]

Every time I've tried this, or seen a demo setup in a store, it's been bad.

Fuzzy pictures, slow/buggy channel changers, unstable recording, etc

I gave up a couple years ago - would be interested in what the setup is if someone says "they have a great picture and reliable guide/recording/etc"

 

[Steve202]

Xbox media extenders can watch different channels but each one uses a tuner on the host, so be sure you have enough tuners to handle everything.

Would this mean he would need a separate tuner for each xbox and the media center, in this case 4 tuners?

 

[Frick]

Most tuner devices (internal pcie, external usb) have more then one tuner built into them. The newest ceton external device has 6 tuners. If an Xbox media extender was in use, it would use one tuner, leaving 5 free.

 

[Steve202]

Excellent

........

 

[layoric]

I've been running hdhomerun prime for several months. It's network based and has 3 tuners to 1 cable card on twc. Have had several problems with the setup, but narrowed them down to a video card setting and unshielded cat 5e cables. Now it's rock solid.
Only have the one tv viewed but each set or recording takes a tuner. Combined with my roku/Netflix, have never run out of tuners.

I was close to giving up for a while though. If I had, I would have gone with the Directv setup with "free" iPad.