Pausing Live TV...How is it possible?

[Techmastro]

Recently all of us have heard about microsoft
new window media center.It comes with feature
of pausing live tv.
Could any body explain how is it possible.
Is it due to recording the telecast or somrthing else.

[Charley]

Me too really curious..... I just saw the ad in todays TOI .. Someone throw some on light on it ....

[expertno.1]

pausing live telecast ?????????????

how is that possible ?

-----------------------------------------------------------
very easy dude

the broadcasting wil go on and the data will be copied to ur hard disk even u have paused and when u resume the saved data will be shown to u

haha..done

[techno_funky]

well ofcoarse it is possible
through a TUNER CARD
a media center pc has this Card
Windows MCE os as in the pc advertised can record ,pause etc
live telecast
pausing here is actually recording LIVE TELECAST
fro mthe point of time the pause function is initialised
the Software will actually record the live telecast
on your PC until you come back and deactivate the pause function
deactivating the pause function will trigger off the
recorded pasrt and you will see the part you missed.

[Techmastro]

well i was also thinging so.
But if it is so then there is limit on how much we can pause a live telecast

[Charley]

Originally Posted by techno_funky

well ofcoarse it is possible
through a TUNER CARD
a media center pc has this Card
Windows MCE os as in the pc advertised can record ,pause etc
live telecast
pausing here is actually recording LIVE TELECAST
fro mthe point of time the pause function is initialised
the Software will actually record the live telecast
on your PC until you come back and deactivate the pause function
deactivating the pause function will trigger off the
recorded pasrt and you will see the part you missed.

I'd reckon that there arent any addtl components required to run it.

BTW r u using this ??

[expertno.1]

no i think this could be possible with the softwware coz it will record the broadcating dtat on the hard drive and resume the saved data

so i dont think that tv tuner must be enabled for this
any tv tuner can do this
coz the broadcasting saving will continue in the background and u r wathcing from back (yeah the saved video)

[techno_funky]

Originally Posted by achacko@dataone.in

I'd reckon that there arent any addtl components required to run it.

BTW r u using this ??

hmm the Tuner card that iam talking about would already be installed for you in a Media Center PC
if youve seen the LG ad the pc would already have a Tuner card
so if you buy a MC PC you need not have to buy any extra components
and anyways they cost a bomb the LG MC PC iam talking about is costing 90k(source:gxsaurav)
about me using it iam having a tuner card in my Pc so iam quite familiar with this.

Originally Posted by expertno.1

no i think this could be possible with the softwware coz it will record the broadcating dtat on the hard drive and resume the saved data

so i dont think that tv tuner must be enabled for this
any tv tuner can do this
coz the broadcasting saving will continue in the background and u r wathcing from back (yeah the saved video)

you got me wrong here
for such functions you do not have to have a tuner card specifically with such features
pick up any tuner card from the market
and put in your PC getting a cable connection tu your PC
you can turn even your Windows 98 in a media center PC
with certain Softwares
its moreover a Software based feature
remember tuner cards are also recognized as Capture cards
they capture video
and its the Software bundled with this tuner cards work to
give you such features
which i guess any tuner card OEM and other third party softwares give.

[Techmastro]

Well if it is all due to a TV tuner card & few software than what's so special in media center.

[techno_funky]

the Hardware and the Software is
remember they are bundling
the Windows MCE
plus look at the hardware
the monitor i dont know about the processor etc
but the hardware would be what you would find
in some high end Pcs

MC PC's are Coolest. My Uncle Ordered 20 (He is a Shopkeeper)

[q3_abhi]

Well,if we use that operating system on a 20 GB hard drive n pause the video,come back after 1 hr,then what can happen???. The recording of the video takes GB's of space. I don think its good.

Originally Posted by techno_funky

well ofcoarse it is possible
through a TUNER CARD
a media center pc has this Card
Windows MCE os as in the pc advertised can record ,pause etc
live telecast
pausing here is actually recording LIVE TELECAST
fro mthe point of time the pause function is initialised
the Software will actually record the live telecast
on your PC until you come back and deactivate the pause function
deactivating the pause function will trigger off the
recorded pasrt and you will see the part you missed.

Yes same like PVR (Personal Video Recorder)

[Techmastro]

YES q3_abhi has raised a good point.
there is a limit on which one can pause live tv.

[Charley]

Originally Posted by techno_funky

hmm the Tuner card that iam talking about would already be installed for you in a Media Center PC
if youve seen the LG ad the pc would already have a Tuner card
so if you buy a MC PC you need not have to buy any extra components
and anyways they cost a bomb the LG MC PC iam talking about is costing 90k(source:gxsaurav)
about me using it iam having a tuner card in my Pc so iam quite familiar with this.

Well tks. I'd also like to know where I cud get the Win media center edition frm, is it available for free in the Net ?

[Nemesis]

Windows Media Center Edition is available with branded PCs. You cannot purchase in the market nor can you download it from MS. It definitely isn't free!!

@q3_abhi: MCE PCs come with certain minimum specs so don't worry about a 20GB HDD on such a system

MS has some basic specs without which it will not let manufacturers bundle MCE on their systems. And you can always burn DVDs of the recorded videos

[godsownman]

What if ,

Suppose we pause the television . So when we pause it automatically starts recording but when we resume it it shows us the recorded part of the program that we missed .

But does it still continue recording because now we are watching what we missed.

For eg .

I started the television at 23:00pm and watched till 23:10 pm , then I got disturbed and paused the TV.
It started recording automatically. At 23:20 I came back and resumed the television .Now I am watching what I missed for the past 10 minutes right .

So from what I understand is that once you pause it starts recording till you switch off the television

Please correct me if my logic is wrong.

[Techmastro]

Yes your logic is absolutely fine.
That is why i have put up such que in forum.
We have not recieved a person who is currently running MCE & clear our doubts.

[q3_abhi]

But this feature will require a lots of space.

[khandu]

today i saw a demo of the PC..

they are giving a config for 43000 ( exchange scheme also )..

A special hardware is req for pausing live TV.. so basically any1 who has a simple with TV tuner card.. it will not work ( according to them )..

the config is pretty old ( P4 2.4 GHz, 865GBF and 80 Gb etc.. )..

not worth it.. use a VCR instead

[Techmastro]

A SPECIAL HARDWARE???????

WHAT IT COULD BE....

[khandu]

Dont know.. maybe a special TV tuner card comes with a windows remote ( as shown in ad )...

[paraman]

Originally Posted by godsownman

What if ,

Suppose we pause the television . So when we pause it automatically starts recording but when we resume it it shows us the recorded part of the program that we missed .

But does it still continue recording because now we are watching what we missed.

For eg .

I started the television at 23:00pm and watched till 23:10 pm , then I got disturbed and paused the TV.
It started recording automatically. At 23:20 I came back and resumed the television .Now I am watching what I missed for the past 10 minutes right .

So from what I understand is that once you pause it starts recording till you switch off the television

Please correct me if my logic is wrong.

I myself use this feature of pausing live tv. I don't have a media centre pc. My config is : P4 2.4 processor, 2x256mb 400Mhz RAM, 160gb HDD and Pinnacle PCTV Pro TV Tuner card. This config is enough to pause live tv.

The procedure works as you have described above. Once you pause live tv for any amount of time, the recording continues in the background till you switch off the tv tuner application. How long you can pause is limited only by the free hard disk space that you have. I have paused live tv even for 1-2 hours. You can specify what resolution you want to record/pause tv. Higher resolution will obviously require more space on your hdd. Paused tv plays back in the same resolution that you specify for recording.

When you start viewing the paused telecast you can fast forward the ads or any uninteresting bits in the tv programme. When you press the stop button, background recording is stopped and you are back to live tv.

If you have a stable system then this feature can prove to be extremely useful.

Now Pinnacle has introduced a Media Centre package (software + remote control) which obviously works with tv tuner cards of their own brand. If you already have a decently powerful system you can buy this package + tv tuner card and have a PVR system of your own without buying a special Windows Media Centre PC.

[Charley]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

Windows Media Center Edition is available with branded PCs. You cannot purchase in the market nor can you download it from MS. It definitely isn't free!!

Checked on it , the dudes here say its not free.

[Nemesis]

Isn't that what I said?
Let me repeat:

It is ONLY available with branded PCs and NOT available for purchase separately.

[rohanbee]

yup its not available seperately at the moment. I checked it out too. Its quite the rage abroad. Saw a lot of ads all over during my recent trip to south-east asia.

[Techmastro]

hey paraman thanks a lot for ur reply.

could u tell me price of Pinnacle PCTV Pro TV Tuner card

[paraman]

You are welcome. I bought mine a few years back so I am not aware of the current price though it must be less than Rs. 3000 (just the tv tuner card). You could ask with a few dealers for the latest price.

[sreevirus]

on my TV card software, this feature is achieved by time delay. when activated, it creates a temporary buffer file and what is displayed is actually 5 to 8 seconds older. and further on if u pause, then the recording continues in real time and when u start playing again, the video continues from where it was paused.
hope this clears things up a bit, but i'm not sure if the process mechanism is same on MC PCs.

[tuxfan]

So once you pause a live show, what you keep getting is a "deferred" live show? Is that what happens. Nice thing to have once in a while