DVBLink for HDPVR allows watching prime HDTV in Windows Media Center with a regular set-top-box’s.

The Hauppauge HD PVR box allows you to get your set-top-box HD output and bring it into a computer, thus allowing you to build a PC-based Personal Video Recorder. While there are a few software packages compatible with the HD PVR box out there, up until now there was no way to bring that HD feed into Windows Media Center.

DVBLink for HDPVR does just that! It is a product based on the dvblink framework that acts as a bridge between the HD PVR box and Windows Media Center. It gives you SD/HD video playback with AC3 5.1 surround sound. Here is a list of features supported by DVBLink for HDPVR:

• High-Definition H.264 Video with AC3 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound
• Native set-top-box control using:
  • HD PVR’s integrated IR Blaster
  • Any MCE-compatible IR blaster
  • Firestb (x86 only) I will be using this method as the rest are unreliable and slow.
• Full Media Center TV Guide support
• UPNP Server to stream live TV to UPNP-enabled clients
• Supports Windows Media Center Extenders that support H.264 inside of a WTV file.  Xbox 360′s Only Linksys and Dlink Extenders Need not apply!
• All the goods that Windows Media Center has to offer… DRM free!

System Requirements

• Windows 7 x86 for this guide.
  
• For SDTV (480i) capture, H.264 decoding using a software-only codec might be enough, depending of your CPU
• For HDTV (1080i/720p) capture, H.264 decoding might requires hardware accelerated codec, since your processor might not be able to cope with the decoding of the stream. As a result, Media Center’s rendering might starts lagging frames.
• 1 Automatic Lamp Timer…. Yes like for a real lamp.

Hauppauge HD-PVR Setup

1. Open your lamp timer and configure it to turn off the outlet at lets say 4:00am and then back on at 4:05am
2. Plug the HD-PVR power cord in to the lamp timer, then plug the lamp timer in to a power source.
3. Connect the video & audio cables of your choosing up to both the output source (Cable Box) to the input on the HD-PVR.
4. Connect the USB cable from the HD-PVR to a USB port on your computer.
5. Install the drivers from the CD provided with the HD PVR
6. Reboot if required.
7. Install the latest HD PVR drivers from Hauppauge website.
8. Reboot if required.

At this point you may be tempted to use the included IR blaster that came with the HD-PVR,

IR BLASTER INSTALLTION:

DON’T DO IT, it is utter crap.

I have actually switched to an x86 install of Windows 7 Just for this feature.

FIREWIRE Channel Changing.  It is stable, there is no additional hardware, and it is faster. Follow the link below for more detailed configuration options.

Remember this is x86 only, sorry 64bit users.

You will need Tim Moore’s FireSTB package which can be found here.

It might take a few minutes to become familiar with the setup but once you have it working it is rock solid.

Installing the DVBLINK for HD-PVR software

1. Disable UAC and make sure you’re logged-in as an administrator, reboot if required (important)
2. Close Windows Media Center (ehshell.exe)
3. Install DVBLinkServer.msi, reboot if required (important)
4. Close Windows Media Center (if you rebooted and it has automatically restarted)
5. Install HDPVRBridgeSetup.exe

Configure TV Signals in Media Center

1. Open Media Center
2. Go to settings and begin the Setup Tv Signal process
3. Deep into the setup, it begins Examining TV Signals, which is a very long operation, just cancel the scanning
4. Choose Let me configure my Digital Satellite (DVB-S) without signal detection
5. If you have other tuners, select Add DVB-S tuners and select no if it asks you if you’re using a Set-top box
6. Select only DVBLink Tuner #1
7. Pick any satellite from the next list (your choice does not matter) and choose the Universal LNB option
8. Repeat operation no 6 for each DVBLink tuner
9. Complete the TV Signals setup

Configure “DVBLink for HDPVR”

1. Start the DVBLink Server Configuration tool
2. Create a source by selecting the HDPVR template and using the green arrow (you can pick any name for your source)
3. IMPORTANT: If upgrading, copy your backed-up Config.xml file to “%Program Files%\DvbLogic\Dvblink\Sources\”
4. Open the HDPVR Properties by selecting your HDPVR source and by clicking the Properties button
5. Follow the Wizard and choose your line-up
6. From the HDPVR Inputs tab, configure the settings according to your current HDPVR configuration
7. From the Blaster Configuration tab, choose the way DVBLink for HD-PVR will use to change channels and configure the parameters
   
8. Optionally, you can directly configure DVBLink for HD-PVR through the XML configuration file located in: C:\Program Files\DVBLogic\DVBLink\Sources\Config.xml
9. Optionally, there are some Advanced settings that you have to edit manually in the Config.xml file
10. Note: Any changes of the configuration file require a restart of DVBLink server to take into effect
11. Close HDPVR Properties window
12. Close DVBLink Server Configuration tool and allow it to restart the service

Configure your line-up

1. Open Media Center
2. Go to the Programs (Vista) / Extras (Win7) menu
3. Open the DVBLink addin
4. Select Synchronize and follow instructions
   
5. Use Media Center to tidy-up your channel list (rename or hide)

Enjoy!

1. Re-size the Media Center Window to appear in full screen
2. Start watching TV!
3. Optionally, go to Settings/Guide/Get Latest Guide Listings to force Media Center to download the latest guide information (allow a good 10 minutes), otherwise Media Center will do it accordingly to its own update schedule

© 2009, Technoramblings of the digitally insane. All rights reserved.