What I think I want

avrallen

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As the title says I think I have a better idea now what I am looking for. Could you please advise me.

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Required:

It needs to be a satellite receiver with ability to display 7 day EPG and ability to pause live feed, and to record on a timer, even series.

It needs to be able to record on its own HDD or on an external USB device, or on external ethernet based device (eg a network drive).

If it has its own HDD, it must be able to export and import content from and to the HDD through the USB and/or the ethernet ports. It must not encrypt or downgrade HD material.

It must have an ethernet port and be able to receive internet streaming such as: Netflix, Lovefilm, Adobe Flash, Silverlight, youtube, freeeps and so on.

It also needs to be able to record all material regardless the source (eg ethernet, satellite feed, external USB connection).

It needs to have a HDMI output and to be able to send both video and sound through it.

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Optional (in order of importance):

A HDMI input so I can plug in my blue-ray or DVD/HDD or Camcoder and be able to record the material.

Ability to stream to its ethernet port, ie act as a file server, or with some other prorocol, so I can watch from other parts of the house through the ethernet, on my PCs or laptops or another one of the same receiver.

Card slot(s) and ability to receive decrypt information through the ethernet port (supposing I have two of these in the house and only one card).

Ability to operate motorised dish and to store channel information per transponder.


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You should be looking at Linux receivers & I'd say start at the VU+Solo 2 - just as a starting point to see how many of the options it can cover- most of those I think plus others you've not listed but there are so many receivers.

HDMI in is one you may be stuck on -
 
It must have an ethernet port and be able to receive internet streaming such as: Netflix, Lovefilm, Adobe Flash, Silverlight, youtube, freeeps and so on.

It also needs to be able to record all material regardless the source (eg ethernet, satellite feed, external USB connection).

There are no satellite receivers that give you all those online services... if they really are musts your looking at a HTPC. A linux based sat receiver can give Youtube, iplayer and some others. Freesat will give iplayer and itv the Humax Freetime supports a few more and is probably the best chance of those services being officially supported but don't hold your breath.
Satellite receivers generally cannot record the online content. With a HTPC it's possible but generally non trivial due to DRM.

A linux receiver will do everything else mentioned, if you didn't want multi sat a Humax Foxsat makes a good choice also. FYI sharing cards cannot be discussed here.
 
A HDMI input so I can plug in my blue-ray or DVD/HDD or Camcoder and be able to record the material.

This is also not going to happen with a sat PVR. Most are designed to record from their internal tuners only. Some can record from SD video sources. HDMI is generally not offered due to DHCP issues.
 
Thanks for the comments! What is "HTPC" and "DRM" ?

I have read the review of the VU+ Solo 2 which costs £309 ! With the VU+ Solo 2 I would also need to buy a HDD, £37 for 2.5" 500GB, so a total of £350 approximately.

Would it not be better to buy a cheap laptop with a HDMI port (eg my wife's old laptop) and an external USB satellite receiver ? Would those two hardware components give me all I want ? I believe the laptop has double or quadruple processing power and RAM, and is much more versatile. All it's missing is the satellite receiver.

Has anyone done something like that?

PS: For remote control, my son uses his Samsung tablet to remote control his PC/Laptop ! I think you could use the same remote control application from your smartphone as it is an android app.
 
Home Theatre Personal Computer.
Digital Rights Management.
A computer with a satellite tuner card should cover most of your requirements.
The "rights" put restrictions on what can be received and recorded.
 
Agree to do all that you would need a media PC. How old is your wife's laptop? As it may not be powerful enough to run all those things at once
 
Well my wife will not let me have her laptop. Damn. My son's laptop is an old Dell, and only has a DVI output, not HDMI. So it needs two connections to the TV for video and audio. But it could be used as a base for me to experiment with. Windows to start with and then we see if we need Linux for some reason.
 
I am going to use a Virtual Machine on my (quite powerful) laptop. I have assigned to it 2 CPUs, 64MB Video RAM, 4GB main RAM and an 80GB hard disk. I am installing Windows 7 64bit. One thing the Media Portal setup guide does not make clear is if there is any advantage in installing 32 bit vs 64bit.
 
I am going to use a Virtual Machine on my (quite powerful) laptop. I have assigned to it 2 CPUs, 64MB Video RAM, 4GB main RAM and an 80GB hard disk. I am installing Windows 7 64bit. One thing the Media Portal setup guide does not make clear is if there is any advantage in installing 32 bit vs 64bit.

Probably no difference.

Are you sure any USB tuner will work on a VM?
 
No I am not sure that it will work yet :) But this is just so I can experiment with, without polluting my laptop with unnecessary software. I am planning to try to set it up, as far as I can take it, and initially with internet content (eg Lovefilm, netflix, youtube, freeeps etc). I want to experiment with the server and the client side, see how it works over the ethernet at home, how I can record something live or pause it, how I can watch something in another room, how I can copy out programmes on SD or over the ethernet again, on to another PC in the house and then play locally etc

I am not ready to order a USB Satellite Receiver just yet, as I do not really know what specs I am looking for.
 

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