Smart Home Blog

PlatformaHD, one of the bigger Russian satellite TV provider, has announced together with Samsung Electronics and General Satellite the first 3D channel in Russia and Eastern Europe! Subscribers will be able to use modified satellite receiver HD-9300 from General Satellite and 3D TV Samsung – PS42B450B1W, PS42B451B2W, PS50B450B1W, PS50B451B2W, produced and available in Russia, or active 3D-glasses SSG2000.

Currently there is no any information about the date of starting 3D broadcasting and the price for subscription. Hope it’ll be available this Summer at the latest. Also it’d be interesting to see what another big player on the Russian satellite TV market NTV+ will do.

Next developer version of popular Linux-based software to organize PVR was released recently for testing. There is mostly bug fixing in the changelog. Just a few new languages were added to the user interface.

I’d like to remind you that main purpose of the 1.7.x branch is adding support of HDTV and DVB-S2. So, if you’re planing to watch satellite or terrestrial HD channels the VDR 1.7.x should suit you. Regardless of instable a lot of people use that version on their HTPC. Sure you should be ready to solve some problems by yourself or with VDR community.

iPhone App provided by DishPointer might be useful for satellite TV professional and enthusiasts. It helps to find available satellites with iPhone 3G(S) very easy. See the video below demonstrated the App in action.

CaptiveWorks launched High Definition Linux Media Center CW-4000HD. It based on AMD 5000+ X2 Processor and includes 512 MB DDRII RAM (can be expandable to 8GB), 1GB Fast System Flash, Nvidia GeForce 7050, Satellite Tuner Genpix Skywalker-CW3K, DVDRW. Optionally HDD and ATSC Tuner can be added. The CW-4000HD provides HDMI/SVGA/Component/S-Video video and Analog/SPDIF Dolby Digital audio outputs as well as gigabit Ethernet and six USB ports.

The CW-4000HD can really replace satellite receiver, DVD and network players. It provides PVR functionality – pause, record, schedule etc, for Satellite/Digital TV, supports IPTV, P2P TV and web video services, allows to playback video and music from the HDD, network shares and USB storage and shows pictures. Additionally it gives possibility to listen Internet radio, read RSS, browse web sites, play arcade games (MAME emulator), convert recorded TV shows in the desire format and burn them to CDs or DVDs.

Most of features listed above are implemented using amazing open source software Video Disk Recorder (VDR) and its plug-ins. However the version of VDR included into the CW-4000HD is too old to support DVB-S2 (it’s just 1.5.8). So, you won’t watch the real HD channels on that box. But except that the CW-4000HD looks very attractive in my mind. I like the idea to use open source software in the commercial systems. It definitely should give a renewed impetus to the progress and popularity of VDR.

The CaptiveWorks CW-4000HD is available on the GOsatellite.com at the price $449.99.

Mini PCs such ASUS Eee Desktop or Acer Aspire are good to use them as HTPC. They are compact, quiet and good looking. But they have a big disadvantage. It isn’t possible to install DVB-S card there to watch satellite TV. DVBWorld HD Box can solve that problem. Connected via USB port it supports DVB-S and modern DVB-S2. So, you’ll able to watch HD satellite channels. Additionally the box includes a PVR software which allows to schedule recording, record and play recorded TV shows as well as broadcast MPEG video to home network.

DVBWorld HD Box has drivers for MS Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.