PS3 PVR SMART TV Thing... bit lost.... Help :-)

[deaf cat]

Hi, getting a bit lost as to the options available, wondered if you may help in clearing things up a bit, please

Ok, we have an LCD tv, a few years old, Virgin +box that we are thinking of getting shot of, and going freeview, trying to work out options.

From what I understand new expensive tv's can act as: tv's, link to the web with access to bbc iplayer etc, and plug in a usb stick or hdd and they become a pvr.
One can only guess with internet access and network stuff in the tv, that they could stream music and videos from a pc, to it's own screen.

Not really thinking of a new tv, can one get a smart pvr tuner box thing?


What we are thinking it would be nice to have:

2 tuners so we can record two things at the same time (not critical though)
pause and record live tv,
series link
bbc iplayer and the such like,
possibility of downloading/renting films on line,
streaming our ripped dvd collection to the tv from pc,
maybe even play dvd's and burn dvd's,
or even record tv to the pc's hdd?
reliability in operation, as in, push the button on the remote and it works instantly

From what I understand all these options are possible somehow, but the how is where I fall down

One thing that may come close is a PS3 with the tv add on, as far as I can work out :
2 tuners but can only record one thing at a time,
pause and record live tv, but no series link,
bbc iplayer and the such like can be got from the internet,
I guess films can be rented/downloaded?
streaming from pc - I guess it can be done, but how easy is it?
play dvd's, but can't burn a dvd of a recorded film,
I understand one can get a remote.
can the hdd be added to with an external hdd or using a nas?

PS3 seems to be the closest thing I can come up with, any other thoughts much appreciated!!

Cheers
DC

 

[next010]

To stream media to the PS3 you need a PC running a transcoding (converts in real time) DLNA server like Serviio due to the limited media formats the PS3 supports. I dont think you can augment the internal storage of the PS3 without replacing the internal HDD with a larger one.

Something that covers most of want you want all in one unit is the LG HR600/650
* Freeview HD tuner with PVR and HDD
* BBC iPlayer, Youtube and a few others
* Blu-ray/DVD player
* Network media player MPG/AVI/WMV/MP4/MKV media supported
* Samba support so you don't have to use a DLNA server and can read shared network folders

What the LG HR600 wont do is provide you with
* A means to store recordings on other storage devices
* The ability to play DVD's with menus intact from network storage, use MakeMKV or VOB2MPG to rip the DVD main movie to a standalone MKV/MPG file which will play on the LG.

There are no media players on the market with Freeview HD support, in fact I don't think there are any with standard definition Freeview and BBC iPlayer support either. The only one which might come close in the future is the Boxee Box which meets almost all your requirements bar the TV PVR option which it is getting that in the future but it probably wont be until next year when the TV adapter launches in the UK.

 

[deaf cat]

Cheers for the info, sure is a lot of stuff out there that I did not know of.

Thinking about it, if we were into games then we would probably go the the PS3 with some of the wish list of requirements falling short, seeing that we are not at all fussed about gaming, another route may be best.

The HR600 looks pretty impressive, but I must say I do like the look (tech spec, not the actual thing)of the Boxee Box, may well hang fire a bit, just to see if the TV adaptor appears and what exactly it does.

May thanks for clearing up the field a bit!
cheers
DC