Hello fellow HTPCers,
I've had an HTPC up and running for several months now and love it. No problems, life is swell, etc. Currently it only has a single DirecTV STB connected to a Standard Definition Hauppage 150MCE tuner card.
Within the next few months our household will be upgrading to HD. I went to the DirecTV website to try and find some answers as to what I exactly need, but it wasn't very informative.
On to the questions:
- I'm under the impression the Haupp 150MCE will only be good for tuning SD stuff, not HD. So do I need a seperate HD tuner to connect to the new HD STB to tune the HD channels, as well as a seperate HD tuner for Over-the-Air (OTA) HD channels? Is there a good one that has two connections for this purpose?
- I'm going to keep the current STB and continue to use it to watch/record shows. As far as I know they'll install another STB that is HD capable. I only NEED one additional box, but should I get 2? or 1 HD and 2 SD? I'm assuming if I only got one HD STB I'd regret not being able to record one HD program while watching another.
- Can MCE handle 2 HD Tuners?
- Which HD tuners are recommended for the above application?
- I currently have one MCE remote with receiver and an IR blaster. The receiver does have a second port for another IR blaster. Where can I get another blaster? I've never seen them for sale individually. How many receivers/blasters am I going to need? Will they all be a complete pain in the ass to set up?
- Am I completely overlooking anything?
Current Setup:
- Athlon64 3800 Venice
- AsRock 939-Dual mobo
- 1GB G-Skill pc3200 RAM
- 800+ GB HD Space
- MSI 7600GT (HDPC capable) vid card
- Sound Blaster Audigy ZS
- Hauppage 150MCE (I have a Hauppage 500MCE that I'm not using, bare card, no remote)
As far as I can tell from research, this setup will be fine for recording/playing HD, right?
I know it's a lot of questions. Sorry about that. I'm just hoping maybe someone with HD DirecTV has gone through this whole upgrade process and can help me out.
I've had an HTPC up and running for several months now and love it. No problems, life is swell, etc. Currently it only has a single DirecTV STB connected to a Standard Definition Hauppage 150MCE tuner card.
Within the next few months our household will be upgrading to HD. I went to the DirecTV website to try and find some answers as to what I exactly need, but it wasn't very informative.
On to the questions:
- I'm under the impression the Haupp 150MCE will only be good for tuning SD stuff, not HD. So do I need a seperate HD tuner to connect to the new HD STB to tune the HD channels, as well as a seperate HD tuner for Over-the-Air (OTA) HD channels? Is there a good one that has two connections for this purpose?
- I'm going to keep the current STB and continue to use it to watch/record shows. As far as I know they'll install another STB that is HD capable. I only NEED one additional box, but should I get 2? or 1 HD and 2 SD? I'm assuming if I only got one HD STB I'd regret not being able to record one HD program while watching another.
- Can MCE handle 2 HD Tuners?
- Which HD tuners are recommended for the above application?
- I currently have one MCE remote with receiver and an IR blaster. The receiver does have a second port for another IR blaster. Where can I get another blaster? I've never seen them for sale individually. How many receivers/blasters am I going to need? Will they all be a complete pain in the ass to set up?
- Am I completely overlooking anything?
Current Setup:
- Athlon64 3800 Venice
- AsRock 939-Dual mobo
- 1GB G-Skill pc3200 RAM
- 800+ GB HD Space
- MSI 7600GT (HDPC capable) vid card
- Sound Blaster Audigy ZS
- Hauppage 150MCE (I have a Hauppage 500MCE that I'm not using, bare card, no remote)
As far as I can tell from research, this setup will be fine for recording/playing HD, right?
I know it's a lot of questions. Sorry about that. I'm just hoping maybe someone with HD DirecTV has gone through this whole upgrade process and can help me out.