The UMPC PVR project. Part 1.

If you read my article about the Archos 605 Wifi PVR success on Carrypad a while back you’ll know how my wife, Claudia’s request for a bedroom TV has led me through a rather gadget-loaded path. My first test with the Archos 650 Wifi was very successful. So successful in fact, that I pulled out my (very) old Mini-ITX / MythTV-basd PVR and gave the 605 Wifi the prime position in the lounge. I haven’t looked back since but unfortunately I’m still left with the original problem of getting a TV into the bedroom. [Article continues below]

Of course I could just buy a DVB-T (known as Freeview in the UK) enabled LCD TV and be done with it but its no fun and it’s not IP-enabled! If I can’t watch my Cranky Geeks or access my Last.fm streams and A/V shares I’d be missing some of my most important sources so I decided to look into using a UMPC. At first I though about Vista and Windows Media Center but the processing requirements for that are huge and I’ll just get frustrated and end up buying a DVB-T-enabled TV in the end so at the moment I’m thinking about SageTV as the front-end. For the TV reception I’ll use a Terratec USB2.0-based diversity (dual-tuner) solution. I know it works well because of the test I did with the incredibly small Terratec Pirrahna and the Everun last year.

As for the UMPC, there’s only a couple of possibilities that I have ‘in-house’ and that’s due to my requirements for a docking station. Without a docking station the whole set-up gets very messy and that’s something I can do without in my bedroom. The two options I’m going to look at in this project are the Wibrain B1H, a 1.2Ghz VIA-based ultra mobile PC and the Tablet Kiosk i7210, a 1Ghz Intel-based ultra mobile PC which isn’t available any more (the i7209 is almost exactly the same.) Both have docking stations (the Wibrain docking station won’t be out until the end of March so i’ll have to wait for that one) but neither are perfect. The i7210 docking station is missing the audio-out ports (easily solved with a 10-euro USB dongle) and the Wibrain doesn’t have analogue video out so it’s only possible to attach a monitor with VGA input. The Wibrain has the advantage of a DVD-ROM slot though which could be quite useful.

The other ultra mobile PC which would be worth testing is the R2H with the portbar. Again, the R2H is end-of-life but there is still old stock around for good prices. Any of the Sony UX series and the OQO 02 are also worth looking into as they too have docking stations.

ultra mobile PC PVR Kit list

• ultra mobile PC with docking station
• Terratec Cynergy DT USB Diversity
• Powered Speakers.
• Option: A2DP receiver for headphones
• Option: USB Hard drive for additional storage (if needed)
• LCD monitor (testing with a 19″, final purchase will be 26″+)
• SageTV PVR front-end

One of the things I need to point out straight away with this project is that it’s not cheap and its not going to be easy. Nothing Windows-based ever is when you compare it to dedicated hardware. I’ll say up front that if you want an easy path to an ip-enabled PVR solution, the Archos 605 / 705 wifi gets a big thumbs-up from me. What i’m doing here is really more of a project based on components I already have. If you already have a ultra mobile PC or are considering a UMPC, this project might be something you can add to the list of possibilities.

What I want from the solution.

I need a number of features from this system. At the top of the list is reliability. I was thinking of putting simplicity at the top of the list but simplicity is something that can come with time. Once you’ve learned a system or process, it can become fairly simple however, if a process changes, it becomes very disruptive. What I don’t want is the problem of unstable systems and software.

As for technical capabilities, here’s what I’m aiming for:

1. Digital TV – DVB-T, DVB-C and the possibility of adding DVB-S (T-Terrestrial, C-Cable, S-Satellite)
2. Digital Radio (either over the air or over Internet)
3. Podcatching (audio and video) in an automated way for later viewing.
4. Internet videos (Stage6, Youtube etc)
5. Live TV streams over Internet (mainly free-to-watch streams)
6. TV on demand over Internet (my wife uses a pay-service through a browser)
7. TV recording (instant, programmed and remote programmed)
8. TV schedules
9. Pause Live TV
10. Internet browsing
11. Email
12. RSS feeds
13. 2.0 audio (no AC3 or other multichannel decoding)
14. DVD playback
15. Audio streams
16. Access to uPnP shared library (also available via SMB)
17. Photo gallery access
18. Tidy setup (minimum of cables.)
19. Live TV quality: Good PAL quality (not HD)
20. Server storage of TV recordings (shared folder from server)

Did I miss something? Am I being over enthusiastic? Will this end up with me buying another Archos 605 Wifi?

Coming up in Part 2: ‘DVB or cable?’ and proof of concept results. In Part 3 I’ll go through SageTV in more detail (if it works!) and in Part 4 give a round-up of the project along with some guidelines for those considering a similar project.

The Terratec Cynergy DT USB DVB-T receiver used in this projects has been kindly provided by Terratec. DVB-T broadcasts are currently available in most European countries. In the UK the service is known as Freeview.