Thanks so much for your post uafan4life. Tons of good information there. I actually just got Dish because I hate Charter Cable. I live at the very end of their service area and the signal to the property is not stable. A contracted technician has come out a couple of times and he says there is a break in their line somewhere and the company won't spend money to fix it for so few customers. I am keeping it until I see how Dish Network works. I was afraid that it would lose signal all the time. Charter's signal is just tiled off and on, but never completely goes out. I'm guessing the cable card issues may make me change my plans down the road. Anyway, to answer your questions:
1.) I will plan on utilizing both until the above plays out.
2.) All my computers run Windows. I will have to upgrade the ones used for this project to Win7 though.
3.) I have an Android phone (T-bolt on Verizon Network), I have no coverage at this property though.
Would it be possible to just have this thing here in Atlanta and have cable and then be able to stream to the property in Alabama in HD? I have AT&T U-verse here in ATL.
Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I missed your reply and the post had fallen down the page when I got on the NS board today.
What you do, and what you can do, depends on which part(s) of the distribution line you are going to and/or are willing to replace. Basically, the distribution line for television service goes like this (at least with digital service):
Service Provider -> Transmission Line -> Signal Receiver -> Signal Decoder -> Signal Converter -> Display
Your typical distribution line, when it comes to equipment, using Cable, Satellite, or other Digital Television provider typically goes like this:
Service Provider -> Transmission Line -> Purchased or rented unit containing Signal Receiver, Decoder, and Converter (Cable box, Satellite box, etc.) -> TV
My setup only really works if you are willing and able to replace one or all of the Signal Receiver, Decoder, and Converter units. If you are forced to use a unit from your service provider that combines all three functions, e.g. a cable box, then you are not going to be replacing any units in the typical distribution line, but instead you are adding more units to it. This changes the dynamic. While it is possible, it is not ideal, and becomes much more expensive. With Satellite service you are forced to use their combination units. I believe Uverse, and similar products, are the same. In my setup, for example, the CableCards provided by Comcast are both the signal receiver and signal decoder, but they are not the signal converter. The network enabled tuner is the signal converter. This allows me to store, manipulate, and distribute the signal how I see fit. The media center PCs, and by proxy the media center extenders, can control the signal converter, which allows a seamless integration between all of the components of the TV system in my home.
Using Satellite, Uverse, or another provider where you are forced to use a provided converter changes this setup. You still have to have your own converter, in order to control your own signal storage and distribution. What this means is that you would still have to have tuners of some type that receive the TV signal that you can control. In your case, your setup would likely end up looking like this:
Service Providers (Charter and Dish)
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Incoming Lines
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Cable boxes (single or dual) totaling the number of cable streams you wish to have
Satellite boxes (single or dual) totaling the number of satellite streams you wish to have
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Tuners which can receive the decoded signal from the Cable boxes (1 tuner per stream) that can control the cable boxes or in addition to hardware which can remotely control the cable boxes
Tuners which can receive the decoded signal from the Satellite boxes (1 tuner per stream) that can control the cable boxes or in addition to hardware which can remotely control the Satellite boxes
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Hardware to accept, control, and store the streams from the tuners you control, such as a Media Center PC with hard drive storage for the live/recorded streams
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Hardware to distribute that signal to your displays (Network Cables, Wireless networking, Media Centers or Extenders connected to each TV, etc.)
This would allow you to use both services while having all recorded content from both sources available on all displays. However, there are some caveats. Your tuners will most likely have to be HDCP enabled in order to receive or record the HD output from the cable/satellite boxes. You will also have to have more hardware to set up this system. Both of these things mean more money. Finally, adding the extra tuners and control hardware between the boxes and the distribution hardware, e.g. the media center pc, adds a huge point of failure which is likely to cause more than a headache or two. It will also add serious delay to the process. For example, let's say you have the system set up to buffer whatever live TV you're watching so that you can pause, rewind, and fast forward - standard DVR/PVR behavior. You're watching one channel, then use the guide to select another channel (or hit the channel up/down button). This sends a signal to the distribution hardware (the media center pc) to change the channel on the active tuner, which sends a signal to the tuner to change the channel. This signal is either intercepted by the hardware used for controlling the appropriate tuner source or transmitted from the tuner itself to the tuner source, e.g. the cable box or satellite box, instructing the tuner source to change the channel. This adds extra delay to the time it takes to change the channel. You know the delay you get when you change the channel on your cable or satellite DVR? In this scenario, using a non-dvr provider box, you can double or triple that time. If the provider box itself is a dvr, then you can triple or quadruple that delay. I've used this type of setup before, and it can be quite frustrating, especially when it gets out of sync. You'll be using the guide from the distribution hardware, e.g. the media center pc, but it will not have direct control over the tuner source. What this means is that you could hit the channel up button, the media center pc sees this and changes the active channel on the display/guide, but the channel on the tuner source (the cable box or satellite box) doesn't change for some reason. This causes the media center pc to think that the channel you're watching is different from what you're actually watching. This can result, at best, with an annoying couple minutes manually typing in a different channel and then going back to the channel you want to get the media center pc to send the channel change request again, causing the tuner source to sync back up. At worst this can lead to either several minutes trying to figure out why the channel change signal has stopped reaching the tuner source (when watching live) or having the wrong channel recorded for an automatically recorded program. This can make you want to throw pieces of hardware out the window. Unfortunately, this is exactly what many diy tv people - myself included - had to put up with for several years.
The other option is to not use your own distribution hardware and, rather, to use the provided DVRs and distribute the output from those boxes to the different TV's and/or computers in your house. This, however, requires the boxes to all be placed in a central location and to have audio and video cables setup to distribute that signal to the different displays throughout your home as well as signal relay cables and hardware to receive remote control signals at the displays and relay those signals to the boxes. This will likely require a universal remote at each display location capable of controlling the TV, audio system is separate from the TV, as well as all of the television sources - the cable and satellite boxes. This type of setup, while it often performs better than the previous option, is often either extremely difficult or virtually impossible from a logistical perspective. It can, surprisingly, also be more expensive than the previous option, as more (and more expensive) hardware is usually required to distribute the audio and video output throughout the home.
Now, there may be ways to use Dish Network and/or UVerse without the use of their provided converter boxes, but I am unaware of any. I have, though, been using a cable provider for several years and haven't had the need to explore those options even if they do exist. Perhaps someone else can shed some light there.
