HTPC advice - replace Tivo with Plex?

[Tattysnuc]

Hi

I've been wondering about getting rid of our Cable TV subscription and replacing the functionality via Plex - and I've come to a bit of a dead end.

Many questions come to mind and if I'm honest, I'm not really sure where to start. I've already got a plex server and HTPC set up, however, ideally, I'd like to do away with the Virgin cable Tivo box as well and integrate the functionality into the HTPC.

Is it possible to watch live TV ONLY via an internet connection? Can you get a card for the pc that replaces (effectively) tivo?

I've been looking at DVB cards - I get that I'd need one to transcode a TV signal, but am nervousa of spending £200 on a PCI-express card that may oir may not do what I need. Do these have to plug into an aerial or are there cable tv variants available?

Very lost at the moment... so many forums I don't know where to really start! Any pointers gratefully received....

Many thanks

Tatty

 

[Domi]

It is possible yes.

But why ?

What exactly do you need , do you have lots of TVs all with Ethernet rather than aerials/satellite ?

A good quality Freeview/freesat box is going to be better than almost any PC solution.

What exactly do you hope to achieve ?

 

[Tattysnuc]

Ideally I'd like to cut my ties with Virgin but retain Tivo type functionality, and consolidating the amount of kit beneath my tv. I'd like a single point for media to be played on the TV.

I have the house cat 5e'd up and a plex media server - To watch content I have to download it and then stream it - switching from Cable to pc input then booting up plex.
Often I see my wife is watching somthing and I'll then download it for her - Ideally I'd like to have a single repository for our media accessible through and interface for the TV (Plex preferred) and remove the amount of duplicated media having all content through a single place.

 

[Domi]

The basic problem with what you want to do is nothing is easy.

It can all be done, yes you can put a TV card in to a PC/server anywhere on the network connected to an aerial/cable/satellite and yes you can get software that will give you an EPG and you can record.

However will it be easy for your wife to use ? will the EPG be a 100% will it record exactly what you want not chopping the start or finish off programs, it can be done but it is a faff.

Then we come to the elephant in the room.

Is what you want to watch all legal ?

TV cards for PC will be freeview / freesat so you lose all pay channels. Frankly if you only want freeview is most stuff not on catchup these days.

If your downloading stuff in the way I suspect.

All you want is freview/freesat either tv or a box and something to run a plex client (amazon fire, NOW TV or similar).

Plex server elsewhere on the network holds all your downloaded media.

Nice and simple.