 |
Categories |
 |
|
|
|
 |
The What and Why |
|
|
|
Manufacturers |
|
|
|
Information |
|
|
|
| Frequently Asked Questions |
 |
|
|
- What is a PauseLiveTV system?
- I have "fill-in-the-blank" for my TV set, can it work with a PauseLiveTV system?
- Will a PauseLiveTV system replace any components in my Entertainment Center, or will I have yet another appliance?
- Is it possible to watch 1 show while recording another on a PauseLiveTV system?
- How can I integrate this with my satellite or digital cable (cable box) set top box (STB)?
- You have "Hours of Storage" listed as one of the options. Are these estimates based on the lowest recording quality?
- I don't currently have an HDTV capable system but plan on upgrading in the near future. Can your HDTV PauseLiveTV systems also work with regular TV systems?
- I would like to be able to integrate multiple PauseLiveTV sysems all over my house, is this possible?
- I'm a technical person. What are the specs of your PauseLiveTV systems?
- You have a wide selection of choices for systems. How can I figure out which one is for me?
- Do I have to have to have a high speed connection to the internet to use a PauseLiveTV system?
- When I place an order for a system, what is included in the box?
- Do you include the necessary cables to attach a PauseLiveTV system to a TV?
- In your section describing the differences in sections ( What are the different categories ) you talk about HDTV, could you expand on how it is intended to work?
- On your website you discuss how easy it is to integrate one of your systems into an existing PauseLiveTV or MythTV network. What about other operating systems? Do you enable Samba?
- What version and distribution of Linux do you typically use?
- From the time I place my order, how long until my new system arrives?
- What is a PauseLiveTV system?
A PauseLiveTV system is a DVR/PVR (Digital or Personal Video Recorder) or is sometimes referred to as an HTPC (Home Theater PC). It includes far more than what a typical PVR offers in addition to it's main function as a PVR. It's built upon Linux using MythTV as the solid base for the system.
[Back To Top]
- I have "fill-in-the-blank" for my TV set, can it work with a PauseLiveTV system?
We offer a variety of systems and options to connect a PauseLiveTV system with a large variety of TV systems. Generally speaking, PauseLiveTV and similar systems are setup all over the world in a variety of situations and under varying circumstances and arrangements. It is very unlikely that you cannot adapt a PauseLiveTV to your current setup.
[Back To Top]
- Will a PauseLiveTV system replace any components in my Entertainment Center, or will I have yet another appliance?
This is a very open ended question, but to give a few specifics:
Some PauseLiveTV systems are capable of adding on a DVD player both in the build process (we can install one) or once arriving in your home. However, the DVD player capability is somewhat limited due to licensing issues and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), and other legalities. We have constructed a page to describe the process of making the DVD player work with most, if not all, DVD's currently available. PauseLiveTV does not ship their systems with this ability enabled, but allow the end-user to choose if they would like to enable this if/when their laws permit and allow it. You will find this document in our User Guides section (coming soon!).
[Back To Top]
- Is it possible to watch 1 show while recording another on a PauseLiveTV system?
Yes! This requires 2 tuners, or a Dual tuner (2 tuners in 1) at a minimum. Some of our systems are capable of 2 Dual Tuners, which means you can record 3 shows while watching 1, or 4 shows while mowing the lawn!
For those with a cable box or satellite receiver, you are also limited to the number of receivers attached to the PauseLiveTV system. Each receiver can send only 1 channel to the receiver's output (which is connected to the input on the PauseLiveTV system).
[Back To Top]
- How can I integrate this with my satellite or digital cable (cable box) set top box (STB)?
In the accessories section, you will find a usb IR emitter/receiver. This device allows you to change the channel on your satellite receiver or cable box without having to use 2 remotes, or in the case of recording while away, without any user interaction at all! It does require some knowledge of a program in linux called LIRC to get it working with any given STB. A list of supported devices can be found here.
[Back To Top]
- You have "Hours of Storage" listed as one of the options. Are these estimates based on the lowest recording quality?
No. The Hours of Storage option is an estimate of how many hours of SDTV (see Differences in Categories for information on what SDTV and HDTV are) can be recorded. The estimated values in the options (such as the 200 - 250 Hours option) is estimated using a fairly high quality setting. If you capture HDTV programming, you'll use up to 4 times more storage for each hour of programming. Another way of saying this is that 1 hour of HDTV programming takes up approximately the same amount of space as 4 hours of SDTV programming.
[Back To Top]
- I don't currently have an HDTV capable system but plan on upgrading in the near future. Can your HDTV PauseLiveTV systems also work with regular TV systems?
Yes. Although we recommend getting an SDTV Standalone now and in the future possibly getting an additional HDTV Modular system. With the SDTV tuners you can get up to 2 shows per tuner for a maximum of 4 tuners (4 shows at the same time). If you add HDTV to this, you will have to sacrifice one of the "slots" to an HDTV tuner. This will allow you to capture HDTV and SDTV, as well as watch HDTV while capturing SDTV; but not the ability to capture HDTV while watching another HDTV channel (only 1 HDTV tuner will be available). So if you were to get an HDTV capable Standalone now with 2 SDTV tuners, and then when you upgrade your situation to an HDTV arrangement, you can add on a second PauseLiveTV with 2 HDTV tuners. With that capability you will have a total of 2 HDTV tuners, and 4 SDTV tuners for a total of 6 tuners! You could potentially watch 2 channels and still be recording 4 others!
[Back To Top]
- I would like to be able to integrate multiple PauseLiveTV sysems all over my house, is this possible?
Absolutely! All PauseLiveTV systems have an Ethernet port as well as USB ports. Because we build and design these systems by hand, we can tailor it to your needs. In the comments section displayed upon checkout, tell us any special network settings you need configured, and we will do our best to accomodate them. By default, a Standalone PauseLiveTV system will be configured to use DHCP, but if you order multiple systems at once, the standalone will be configured at a Private IP of 192.168.1.10 and each additional Standalone will have an increasing IP, such as 192.168.1.11, 192.168.1.12 and so on. The outlet modules are all configured with DHCP to ease the integration of such devices.
[Back To Top]
- I'm a technical person. What are the specs of your PauseLiveTV systems?
Because we tailor each system to the needs of the customer, the specs of each different group of systems are varying. However, a standard difference between the Modular systems and all others is that a Modular system does not have any tuners or integrated storage for recording (the onboard hard drive is for the application and OS only). The Modular systems rely on other Standalone or Server systems to have the tuners for the Modular systems to display. All hardware has been tested and found to work well with Linux and MythTV, any limitations imposed are discussed in the items description.
The Standard Specs are the Tuners, which are:
HDTV: We have chosen The HDHomeRun tuners.
SDTV: We have chosen to use hardware compression for the SDTV signal, and the WinTV PVR tuners are our choice. For Dual Tuners we use the PVR-500. The bulk of the motherboards we use are Asus, Via, or Intel based. We use 64bit processors, but run the OS in 32bit mode. The video cards are typically NVidia cards, with a few exceptions where other cards prove a better alternative (some of our Via systems for example). We use high quality products, not just the minimum to get by.
[Back To Top]
- You have a wide selection of choices for systems. How can I figure out which one is for me?
We try to include information about each system at the bottom of every description page. This information includes the ways that particular system can connect to a TV or display. The categories are designed to seperate the HDTV capable systems from the non-HDTV systems. If you are ever confused about which system to purchase, feel free to Contact Us and include information about your existing setup and what you plan to achieve from your purchase.
The main difference of each system in a given category is the case design, and the peripherals that are integratable with each case.
[Back To Top]
- Do I have to have to have a high speed connection to the internet to use a PauseLiveTV system?
No, but it would make life much easier. With an always on connection (which are generally the type of connections broadband, DSL and fiber are) it makes grabbing the program guide information much easier and faster. If you do not have a high speed connection, you will need to contact our Support Team for more information on how to arrange this type of network with a PauseLiveTV system.
[Back To Top]
- When I place an order for a system, what is included in the box?
Typically in the box is the PauseLiveTV system (assembled and configured with any addons you have chosen), a power cable, a remote control and any accessories you have chosen that may include an IR transmitter to control an external set-top-box.
[Back To Top]
- Do you include the necessary cables to attach a PauseLiveTV system to a TV?
We offer basic cables to connect to most televisions. This includes composite cable for video and analog mini-stereo to RCA cables for audio.
[Back To Top]
- In your section describing the differences in sections ( What are the different categories ) you talk about HDTV, could you expand on how it is intended to work?
Certainly!
HDTV is a newer TV standard. It is intended for the newer TV sets capable of using a higher resolution to bring a clearer more detailed picture to your home (such as a DLP, LCD or Plasma television). A special type of digital tuner is required to receive channels broadcast in HDTV, this tuner is appropriately called an HDTV tuner. There are several types of transport systems currently used to bring the content to your home; the 2 most typical are called 8VSB and QAM. 8VSB is also typically known as OTA. OTA stands for Over-The-Air meaning it's broadcast similar to how regular TV is now, and is received the same way, with an antenna. QAM is transported over a cable typically provided by your cable TV provider in your area. Because QAM and OTA differ from zipcode to zipcode, it is very difficult to know what one provider may do with any given set of channels. OTA is, at this time, the most 'stable' transport. It varies slightly from region to region, but has a couple of standard similarities. This makes it much easier to universally offer OTA options with an HDTV tuner, a 'scan' from your antenna input reveals the channels available in your area and are easily added to your program guide database. Therefore, as noted in the above mentioned section of the site, we design and configure the HDTV tuners in our systems to be used as OTA HDTV tuners; and as such, this implies some sort of antenna is necessary to receive the channels these cards are configured to work with. See AntennaWeb.org for more information.
[Back To Top]
- On your website you discuss how easy it is to integrate one of your systems into an existing PauseLiveTV or MythTV network. What about other operating systems? Do you enable Samba?
By default, PauseLiveTV systems do have Samba installed. However, no users are created. Some basic information is necessary to get Samba working, one of which is the name of your Workgroup as defined in Microsoft Windows. This varies based on which version of Windows is installed, and because of this, no standard can be made. Shares are defined for the images, music, and video directories, but are not necessarily accessible until the basic information is provided (create a user and define the correct WorkGroup in your /etc/samba/smb.conf file). To create a user, the smbpasswd command is available.
[Back To Top]
- What version and distribution of Linux do you typically use?
The distribution will be based upon Gentoo, and as of this writing, the 2.6.24 kernel is used. The kernel version will likely only change with major releases, at which time the kernel version, IVTV version, Intel/Nvidia drivers, and of course the MythTV version will 'upgrade' (and other various drivers and packages necessary to enable a system to work as desired). At this time, we do not offer any means of upgrading either via support or through an update CD/DVD. We are considering this as a future option, but have no defined date on when or even if it will be implemented.
MythTV version 0.21 is the newest release. We use the -fixes branch (currently pulled from Feb 2008) and is the default installed version of MythTV on our systems.
[Back To Top]
- From the time I place my order, how long until my new system arrives?
This depends on how many addons you choose, and if you want or need any customizations to your system(s). We try to maintain stock on hand for the most often placed orders and accessories. The average time is 7-10 business days after the order is complete for a basic system. You are notifed with progress as your system build is completed and when it ships you will receive a tracking number.
[Back To Top]
|
|
|
|
| 0 items |
|
|
|
|
|
|
