Sharing TV across network - possible?

Heartless_King · 19 Oct 2006 at 22:12

Hi guys,

I wanted to know if it is possible to share a TV signal (from a TV card) across a house network??

It's mainly for the laptop allowing me to still watch TV when mobile etc. I heard it can be done with microsoft encoder or something, but would rather someone tell me the low down

Ummm, if it helps I'm using a compro T200 on Win XP Pro

Regards,
King

Kol · 19 Oct 2006 at 23:49

VLC might possibly do it. Haven't used a TV card for sometime, but it might be worth a shot. But not entirely sure if you'd be able to change channel etc.

bigredshark · 20 Oct 2006 at 00:04

the piece of software you need to look at is windows media encoder, it'll do what you want, though it's limited, it'll just encode a video input to an ip stream, if you want to change channels etc, then you're probably better shelling out for a slingbox or sony locationfree box

londonbairn · 20 Oct 2006 at 00:56

Nebula DigiTV does it brilliantly, of course need a Nebula card, it's like the TV card is on the client machine but it's not, works nicely on 54mbps wireless, far better solution than VLC or Windows Media Encoder.

Edit: Assuming of course you havent bought the card yet :-P

Andre · 20 Oct 2006 at 07:10

Check out GBPVR - allows you to do a Client installation, with full control of the Server software (watch live TV/change channel/see TV guide/set up recordings)

'tis the dog's danglies - and best of all, it's free

Davey Dave · 20 Oct 2006 at 09:43

Gman · 20 Oct 2006 at 12:34

rafster said:
Nebula DigiTV does it brilliantly, of course need a Nebula card, it's like the TV card is on the client machine but it's not, works nicely on 54mbps wireless, far better solution than VLC or Windows Media Encoder.

Edit: Assuming of course you havent bought the card yet

i've never had any luck with the Nebula and streaming the signal over the network

managed it once for about 10 secconds then the digitv software just starts eating 100% cpu and the computer crawls to a halt untill I close digitv

Now using windows media center although I don't think you can stream across a network with it

Heartless_King · 21 Oct 2006 at 12:09

Thanks guys Ill take a look into the various solutions

Radiation · 21 Oct 2006 at 20:14

Keep an eye out for MediaPortal's new tv engine server/client release.

Heartless_King · 21 Oct 2006 at 20:26

I'm concerned that this won't work with my Compro T200. I gather it's kinda a cheapy card. I just found out that it doesn't work with media encoder or VLC. You think I should change my TV card??

King

Radiation · 21 Oct 2006 at 20:36

Heartless_King said:
I'm concerned that this won't work with my Compro T200. I gather it's kinda a cheapy card. I just found out that it doesn't work with media encoder or VLC. You think I should change my TV card??

King

Im my experience the t200 is a bit buggy in hardware or software but im not sure, do you get no signal and software freezing when changing channel sometimes?

Mediaportal works with this card and I imagine the new tv engine will but at the moment mediaportal is a standalone media centre, a very nice one too, hopefully the new tv engine will be as good or better, forgot to mention its free!

Heartless_King · 21 Oct 2006 at 20:38

Yes I have the same experience, this is with a very good signal too. Ill take a look into media portal. But I have a feeling that a newer gen card might be the better option?

Radiation · 21 Oct 2006 at 20:45

Heartless_King said:
Yes I have the same experience, this is with a very good signal too. Ill take a look into media portal. But I have a feeling that a newer gen card might be the better option?

Yeah i would get a better one anyway, i have a feeling the issue is in the hardware or possibly drivers which means theres not much that can be done if compro don't sort it somehow, the card itself seems alright but this bug is unacceptable, im not sure what card would be best to replace it but im also interested in finding out.

Heartless_King · 22 Oct 2006 at 11:59

Radiation said:
Yeah i would get a better one anyway, i have a feeling the issue is in the hardware or possibly drivers which means theres not much that can be done if compro don't sort it somehow, the card itself seems alright but this bug is unacceptable, im not sure what card would be best to replace it but im also interested in finding out.

Agreed, problem is there's soo many different types. Wish there was some sort of bench marking

King