Pay TV channels via extender? Client app?

[herrakonna]

Hi,

I'm about to pull the trigger and put together an HTPC solution based on Windows Media Center (with new PC) and Xbox360, but have a question that I've not been able to find an answer to.

My planned setup is the following:

A home PC with a dual channel DVB-T tuner with CI slot with decoder card (Finland PlusTV), which will be taking care of all TV functions and where all my movies, music, photos, etc. are stored.

An XBox360 connected to the TV, used as a WMC extender and general DVD player, as well as for games (obviously).

My question is: can the XBox360 display live TV channels which require the Pay-TV decoder card, and can I view recorded TV programs on the XBox360 which were recorded from a pay channel? I know it will work for freeview TV channels. The question is about the pay channels.

My understanding is that the XBox360 is merely streaming content from the host machine running WMC (???), so presumably WMC would utilize the decoder card present on the host machine, decode the channel/recording, and pass it on to the extender, so no worries, right?

Amazingly (and frustratingly) after a week of research and asking around, nobody at the local shops, the Pay TV provider, or even via email to Hauppage (the brand of the tuner and card reader), etc. can confirm that I will be able to view pay channels/recordings on the extender.

I'm also wondering whether one can view pay channels/recordings remotely via an Android client app.

Hopefully someone here has direct experience doing this and can provide an answer.

Thanks.

[mark1234]

The Xbox, as with any extender, will basically play any video file that the PC can. If you can get 7MC on the PC to play live TV from the pay channels, then the Xbox will be able to as well. The bit you need to be sure about is getting 7MC to access the pay channels in the first place. Media Centre does not natively support pay channels outside the US & CableCard. Presumably you'll be using DVBLogic TVSource to handle the pay channels?

[herrakonna]

The tuner and card reader combination works with the DVB-T service here in Finland, that at least I was able to confirm. It was the ability to watch pay channels/recordings on the extender that was unclear. Sounds like it will work, then.

[mark1234]

The thing you really need to be confident of is that your pay channels will work at all. Like I said, 7MC doesn't natively support this outside of the US, so you must have some software layer that takes care of this on behalf of 7MC. Hauppauge may have been saying that it will work with their TV software, which isn't the same thing as saying it'll work with 7MC.

Now it may be absolutely fine, their drivers may handle it, but you need to double check.