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TV in the home

Posted on 13 Jan 2009 at 12:12

For most of us, the living room remains the main place where we watch TV; what's new is the way we watch it. Apeing the success of TiVo in the US, Sky+ has introduced us to a world where you no longer organise your life around the TV schedules, but select and record what you want to watch then do so at your leisure. A host of Freeview rivals have now followed.

The personal video recorder (PVR) certainly has its advantages. It's significantly cheaper than, say, a media-centre PC, and is usually smaller and quieter. What's more, these are machines built for anyone to use. Using the Media Center features built into Vista isn't exactly brain surgery, but Sky+ and its more competent competitors make recording and viewing programmes virtually moron-proof.

However, there are good reasons to opt for a PC-based setup. The biggest is that, once you've recorded something on a Sky+ box it's pretty much trapped there; Sky's proprietary storage and encryption systems mean that, even were you to remove the hard disk and try to mount it on your PC, you wouldn't be able to drag off your programmes. The only way to move your content from a Sky+ box on to your PC is to copy it to a conventional DVD recorder, PC or standalone video-capture device. This involves a digital to analogue to digital conversion, and subsequent loss of quality, not to mention a long wait while your programmes copy across in real-time.

Sky isn't alone in slapping on the handcuffs. With the exception of the Topfield TF5800 and TF5810 and the Humax 9200, which allow a direct transfer of MPEG2 video files over USB, most Freeview PVRs have no means of copying or archiving recordings.

This isn't a problem if you only want to watch recorded shows and films on your PVR, but it is if you want to archive them, store them on a central server, or watch them on another device in or outside the home. If that's the case a PC-based approach is the answer. You can use it as a gateway for all your digital content, which you then stream to wherever it's needed.

The perfect PC TV setup

First of all, you'll need a PC. You can buy a specific media-centre PC - either an all-in-one model that replaces the TV in smaller living rooms, such as Sony's VGC-LT1S or HP's TouchSmart IQ500, or a compact, low-noise unit that works alongside a regular HDTV. A media-centre PC is a perfectly good choice, but often expensive. The cheaper alternative is to repurpose an existing PC or buy/build a new one as a media gateway. You can then sequester it somewhere out of the way where you still have an aerial socket or satellite cable, plus a network connection.

You'll need the former to take the incoming TV signal, and the latter to grab internet-based content and then stream your video where it's needed. Your PC will also need a TV tuner card (either DVB-T or DVB-S, depending on whether you want to hook up to a DVB-T Freeview signal or a DVB-S satellite one) and a version of Windows Vista that includes Media Center: Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. Alternatively, you could use Orb MyTV (which we'll discuss later).

The connection is a vital part of the picture. For home networking, most of us still rely on an 802.11 draft-n network. Theoretically, this supports the 8 to 10Mbits/sec of steady bandwidth you need to stream HD video, but in practice a busy 802.11g network struggles with even standard-definition pictures. The newer 802.11 draft-n standard is much better. With a possible bandwidth of 74 to 300Mbits/sec, it should have plenty of overhead for multiple HD streams. In practice, however, there's still a chance that it might struggle. The more PCs or other devices you have connected, the greater distance covered or the more walls you have between your source PC, your router, and playback devices, the less smooth your TV experience will be.