From Newsgroup: uk.media.tv.misc

"Richard Evans" <R.P.Evans.NoSpam@Sky.com> wrote in message news:t9head$1bjt$1@gioia.aioe.org...

On 25/06/2022 12:12, Ar wrote:

Rather than sending it to a tip, I turned an old unused computer in to a
PVR, zero problems, record all the steams on the multiplex if you want.
Pick your own cable / terrestrial / or satellite card (or a combi card).
Overkill yes, but it works and you chose what you want depending on
budget.

If you mean MythTV, I pretty much gave up on that because the video
playback was jerky. The reason is simple enough but actually
solving it, seemed to be impossible :|. It would probably be
fine in the USA where the refresh rate is 60Hz. But here were
we use 50Kz, but computers are 60Hz. That was just a frustrating
problem that I gave up on.

Perhaps it depends on what you find acceptable.

For playing back 50 Hz video on my PC, I've set the video card refresh rate
to 50 Hz (or maybe 100 Hz) as opposed to 60/120 Hz. That hopefully means
that there is no 10 Hz beating pattern between the rate at which the screen
is redrawn and the rate at which video frames change. On a CRT monitor where each pixel is lit sequentially, 50 Hz would have been far too low, but on an LED monitor where all the pixels are lit for almost the whole 1/50 second,
it doesn't matter. I use VLC to play videos.

I investigated MythTV as a means of recording, and found it difficult to configure. I quickly abandoned it and chose NextPVR instead. And since that wasn't (at the time) available on Linux, I changed from NextPVR to TVHeadend when I moved from a Windows PC to a lower-powered Raspberry Pi as the recording device.

I now record using TVHeadend on a Pi, but I use a Windows PC to store the recordings, watching a lot of them on that PC, but also running Plex server
on the PC and a Plex client on a Roku that is connected by HDMI to the main TV. I separated out the functionality for several reasons:

- didn't want the workload of playing the video in VLC to affect the
integrity of recordings that were being made at the same time, leading to dropped frames and other glitches

- didn't want to have to keep a couple of multi-TB HDDs spinning all the
time; instead just use a single HDD as the temporary recording storage; at present that disc is a spinning one, but I might be able to save power by using a solid state HDD instead

- although Plex server will run on a Pi4, it makes the CPU usage and temperature shoot up when a video is being served to the Roku Plex client; a lot of that is due to the stupid transcoding that takes place between the
raw MPEG/H264 TS file and whatever bizarre format the client wants to see - why couldn't the client be left to decode the TS file served by simple SMB over the network?

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From Newsgroup: uk.media.tv.misc

On 29/06/2022 13:39, NY wrote:

For playing back 50 Hz video on my PC, I've set the video card refresh
rate to 50 Hz (or maybe 100 Hz) as opposed to 60/120 Hz.

That was one of the 1st things I tried to do, but my computer video
did not have a 50Hz or even a 100 Hz option. I tried to find a
video card that could do 50Hz, so that I could use it in building
a PC for a MythTV front end. As an added complication I was
determined to keep the front end fanless. Trying to find a fanless
video card that can do 50Hz basically just gave me brain fog.

I actually didn't intend to watch it on a computer. I actually
still use analogue TVs, with a modulator connected to my PVR
to drive all my TVs. So my front end would have ultimately been
a PC connected to a modulator.

I now use the PC I intended for the front end to run a back end.
I mostly just use my PVR, but use my Myth back end either as a
backup for when my PVR simply doesn't record something, or when
I want to get an Mpeg file. I use the MythTV web interface to
schedule recordings. To play back, the back end provides a Upnp
service, but I normally prefer to just copy the mpeg file to my
PVRs hard drive.

It's been many years since I tried to find a suitable video card.
Perhaps things may have moved on since then.

I investigated MythTV as a means of recording, and found it difficult to configure.

Yes it is a pain to set up. I mostly just leave it as it is and only
very occasionality go into the setup. I usually need some Googling
to remind me how to do it. Last time was when BBC3 returned to air
so I went in to to a complete rescan. The rescan only took a few
minutes, but I was probably about 1/2 hour reminding myself how to do it.

- didn't want to have to keep a couple of multi-TB HDDs spinning all the time; instead just use a single HDD as the temporary recording storage;
at present that disc is a spinning one, but I might be able to save
power by using a solid state HDD instead

I would tend to steer clear of solid state drives for this. I think
an issue would be that there is a limit to how many times you can
write to an SSD. Although the limit is very high, video files take
a lot of data. So if you are regularly writing a lot of video files
to an SSD, it might not take a very long before you start reaching
the limit.
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.tv.misc

"Richard Evans" <R.P.Evans.NoSpam@Sky.com> wrote in message news:t9j6de$7ae$1@gioia.aioe.org...

- didn't want to have to keep a couple of multi-TB HDDs spinning all the
time; instead just use a single HDD as the temporary recording storage;
at present that disc is a spinning one, but I might be able to save power >> by using a solid state HDD instead

I would tend to steer clear of solid state drives for this. I think
an issue would be that there is a limit to how many times you can
write to an SSD. Although the limit is very high, video files take
a lot of data. So if you are regularly writing a lot of video files
to an SSD, it might not take a very long before you start reaching
the limit.

That's a fair point. I'd always been led to believe that SSDs didn't like frequent deletions and writes, which is why you are advised not to defrag them. But I've recently read than they are fine for large video files,
despite the large amount of data and therefore the large number of writes involved.

Maybe I'll play it safe and stay with a spinning disc...

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From Newsgroup: uk.media.tv.misc

On 26/06/2022 09:34, Martin wrote:

Can a whole family watch it? It's outrageous the way Microsoft has made perfectly good PCs obsolete, without any real advantages to the user.

You can build a "media centre" PC relatively cheaply or re-use an old
computer to do it - it just has to be good enough to be able to play HD
video. Get rid of Windows, use Linux, or as someone already replied, you
can use a Raspberry Pi with a USB device called a "RTL SDR" (software
defined radio). These two options may be a bit more involved compared to getting a dumb box from the high street, but they will record what you
want, and if not using Windows, they should ignore any "do not record"
flags the broadcasters send out.

I have successfully recorded with Windows 7 - if you're using later, ask around for advice.

BTW, the bastards at Freeview deliberately scramble their EPG, so if
you're not using "official" kit with the Freeview logo on it, the text
for the EPG will be scrambled, and you won;'t be able to read it. This
is because the manufacturer refused to pay Freeview money to unscramble
the text. I don't know anyone else in Europe that deliberately scrambles
their EPG.

Freesat is not affected the same way by the wanker tactics of Freeview
on the EPG, but some stations only have "now and next" option, so unless
you know their schedule, you won't be able to programme anything in
advance from an EPG.
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.tv.misc

"Ar" <Ar@127.0.0.1> wrote in message news:t9kjkn$1v62p$1@dont-email.me...

On 26/06/2022 09:34, Martin wrote:

Can a whole family watch it? It's outrageous the way Microsoft has made
perfectly good PCs obsolete, without any real advantages to the user.

You can build a "media centre" PC relatively cheaply or re-use an old computer to do it - it just has to be good enough to be able to play HD video. Get rid of Windows, use Linux, or as someone already replied, you
can use a Raspberry Pi with a USB device called a "RTL SDR" (software defined radio). These two options may be a bit more involved compared to getting a dumb box from the high street, but they will record what you
want, and if not using Windows, they should ignore any "do not record"
flags the broadcasters send out.

I have successfully recorded with Windows 7 - if you're using later, ask around for advice.

BTW, the bastards at Freeview deliberately scramble their EPG, so if
you're not using "official" kit with the Freeview logo on it, the text for the EPG will be scrambled, and you won;'t be able to read it. This is because the manufacturer refused to pay Freeview money to unscramble the text. I don't know anyone else in Europe that deliberately scrambles their EPG.

Freesat is not affected the same way by the wanker tactics of Freeview on the EPG, but some stations only have "now and next" option, so unless you know their schedule, you won't be able to programme anything in advance
from an EPG.

I'm not sure how good the RasPi RTL SDR is in comparison with dedicated
tuners such as the PCTV 292e (terrestrial) and 491e (satellite). I've only used those, and not tried the RTL SDR.

I use TVHeadend software which is a bit geeky and complex to setup (I can
pass on my experience if people need help) but does a good job. It extracts EPGs perfectly: the EPG for SD multiplexes is unencrypted, and it decrypts
the encrypted one for PSB3 (the "HD" mux). It ignores any "do not record" flags that broadcasters may throw at it ;-)

I use a Pi 4 for recording and a Windows PC for editing out commercials/continuity and for acting as a server that the TV or various PCs can access when playing programmes.

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From Newsgroup: uk.media.tv.misc

On 30/06/2022 09:53, NY wrote:

That's a fair point. I'd always been led to believe that SSDs didn't
like frequent deletions and writes, which is why you are advised not to defrag them.

I suspect the advice not to defrag, is more to do with there being no
point. They don't have the time penalty of waiting for heads to move
to the right track, or waiting for the disk platter to rotate to the
right point. So why shorten their life by defragging them.

But I've recently read than they are fine for large video

files, despite the large amount of data and therefore the large number
of writes involved.

Is it still OK to keep writing many such files every day?

Maybe I'll play it safe and stay with a spinning disc...

I'm not certain, but I think I would be trying to calculate it,
and if I wasn't certain, I wouldn't do it.
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.tv.misc

On 04/06/2022 15:38, Ar wrote:

Thanks to EE winning an auction of the frequency for Com7, Freeview will
be losing a lot of channels,

It seems to have gone now :|.

I'd previously repositioned my aerial to get com7 (to reduce
interference from other TXs). I may as well now move it back again
now. To where it got a slightly better signal for the other
multiplexes.
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