What PVR/blue-ray recorder/media streaming solution?
Discussion
Ok, I'm completely bewildered by the vast range of such things as Boxees, Apple TVs and HTPCs. Due to a lack of time to research, 2 years later and I've not made any progress! By the time I decided I needed a Panny twin-Freesat HDD thingy with built in blu-ray recorder, they stopped making the thing.
So here's what I want to achieve - what do I need?
1) Record TV, pause live TV to hard drive. I was set on this being Freesat (better quality than Freeview), but perhaps Freeview HD is ok and has the benefit of not needing a new dish, LNB and cabling.
2) Ability to archive recorded TV content to Blu-Ray
3) Network media streaming - foremost I want to be able to stream music from my wireless NAS, which is an Apple time capsule that lives in an outbuilding. It doesn't have any media client thingy built in so I need a gizmo that will search for music on the network. Basically I don't want to have to switch on computers and launch iTunes in order to play music. Currently there is no hifi in the lounge so that's a blank canvass as well, so something with Airplay is an option possibly, if I knew what it was (still needs a computer with iTunes running I think?). I have an iPhone 4S but I don't want to use that as the source for various reasons.
I have a micro hifi boxed up in the stable somewhere which I could use to play old-fashioned CDs but I was hoping to achive them all up in the loft! There are so many of them that there are racks, cupboards and drawers full of the things. Also our 11-month old enjoys distributing them all over the floor.
4) Pay per view films would be a bonus, but the main media requirement is (3)
5) as few boxes and remotes as possible
6) I don't want Sky or BT Vision. Virgin isn't an option in my area.
TV is a 42" panasonic plasma with DLNA, and I hacked an old wireless router to act as a wireless bridge so I can already watch video over the network (as long as it's in MPEG format). This does require turning on a PC running TwonkyMedia server, but the need to do this is so rare I don't mind.
Items (1) and (2) can be achieved in one box with a Panny freeview+ HD recorder with blu-ray (DMR-BWT720). Additional benefit that since TV is a Panny, I can use one remote for both because of the viera-link whatsit.
So that leaves the question of what streaming gizmo. Or, is there a possibility of buying/building a HTPC that achieves all of the above in one box, and that can be used with a remote rather than a PC keyboard? Running windows media centre or this XBMC thingy? A mac mini doesn't have a blu-ray burner.
Hopefully someone can make sense of all that and suggest something
So here's what I want to achieve - what do I need?
1) Record TV, pause live TV to hard drive. I was set on this being Freesat (better quality than Freeview), but perhaps Freeview HD is ok and has the benefit of not needing a new dish, LNB and cabling.
2) Ability to archive recorded TV content to Blu-Ray
3) Network media streaming - foremost I want to be able to stream music from my wireless NAS, which is an Apple time capsule that lives in an outbuilding. It doesn't have any media client thingy built in so I need a gizmo that will search for music on the network. Basically I don't want to have to switch on computers and launch iTunes in order to play music. Currently there is no hifi in the lounge so that's a blank canvass as well, so something with Airplay is an option possibly, if I knew what it was (still needs a computer with iTunes running I think?). I have an iPhone 4S but I don't want to use that as the source for various reasons.
I have a micro hifi boxed up in the stable somewhere which I could use to play old-fashioned CDs but I was hoping to achive them all up in the loft! There are so many of them that there are racks, cupboards and drawers full of the things. Also our 11-month old enjoys distributing them all over the floor.
4) Pay per view films would be a bonus, but the main media requirement is (3)
5) as few boxes and remotes as possible
6) I don't want Sky or BT Vision. Virgin isn't an option in my area.
TV is a 42" panasonic plasma with DLNA, and I hacked an old wireless router to act as a wireless bridge so I can already watch video over the network (as long as it's in MPEG format). This does require turning on a PC running TwonkyMedia server, but the need to do this is so rare I don't mind.
Items (1) and (2) can be achieved in one box with a Panny freeview+ HD recorder with blu-ray (DMR-BWT720). Additional benefit that since TV is a Panny, I can use one remote for both because of the viera-link whatsit.
So that leaves the question of what streaming gizmo. Or, is there a possibility of buying/building a HTPC that achieves all of the above in one box, and that can be used with a remote rather than a PC keyboard? Running windows media centre or this XBMC thingy? A mac mini doesn't have a blu-ray burner.
Hopefully someone can make sense of all that and suggest something
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