Current setup is dish 722k to xbox one to av receiver to tv, htpc to av receiver on another input to tv. My want is to integrate it all, and would prefer to keep it all hdmi. I'm fine with using the guide and DVR built into the 722k so recording capability isn't necessary on the htpc. What I would like is to feed the 722k to the htpc, htpc then to xbox one, then to av receiver then tv. This way I could just use one input and have everything available in one nice interface. I understand I could use the hauppage colossus but then I'd be limited to component in for the dish receiver. Is there any hardware out there where I can simply display the output of the dish receiver in xbmc via hdmi (recording not necessary) or is component the closest I'm gonna get?
Essentially you would be decoding then reencoding. Quality will be lost.
(2014-03-15, 23:29)nickr Wrote: [ -> ]Essentially you would be decoding then reencoding. Quality will be lost.
With hdmi or component? Xbox one does hdmi passthrough and I don't see any noticeable difference in quality. Basically all I'm looking for is to push the video thru the htpc first so I can have xbmc pop up when I tell the xbox to watch tv, and then if I choose live tv within xbmc I get my dish interface. If xbox can do it, why can't it be done via pc?
Because Xbox has the hardware for it, as well as software to support it.
Get a Google TV device that can run Android 4.something that allows sideloading of apps. All of the Google TV devices support HDMI passthrough, and some of them run XBMC pretty well. They also typically come with really nice remotes.
(2014-03-16, 02:48)thesuffering Wrote: [ -> ]If xbox can do it, why can't it be done via pc?
Few reasons.
There isn't seen to be a huge PC-market for the functionality of HDMI passthrough. Most users have multiple HDMI inputs and/or AV amps that provide switching functionality which achieve similar (though not identical results). In the UK a couple of PVR manufacturers have started putting HDMI inputs on their PVRs to cope with the situation where people don't have enough HDMI inputs.
Another issue is that to implement what you want you'd have to support HDCP removal and re-insertion of the HDMI signal, and in an open environment like XBMC that could be tricky. HDCP removal is a tricky subject - and probably very difficult to do legally in Open Source in many regions. (HDCP is the copy protection used on HDMI for outputs from DVD/Blu-ray players and most set top boxes, as well as some, but not all, games consoles)
There are also frame-rate issues that mean what you are suggesting may not be great. If you have an XBMC box that automatically switches between 24p, 50p and 60p output (as many/most of us in Europe do), all the devices downstream of the XBMC box would need to also dynamically switch frame rate based on their input, or you end up with the situation Microsoft had with the Xbox One in Europe (where 50Hz set-top box outputs were converted to 60Hz with terrible 10Hz judder that rendered pass-through unusable)
(2014-03-16, 05:27)Ned Scott Wrote: [ -> ]Get a Google TV device that can run Android 4.something that allows sideloading of apps. All of the Google TV devices support HDMI passthrough, and some of them run XBMC pretty well. They also typically come with really nice remotes.
This would work, but wouldn't be as elegant as live tv integrated into xbmc, and probably less wife/family friendly. I'll have to investigate. If I got the colossus, and used component out and lived with 720p/1080i max it'd theoretically work as I described, right? I'm not totally opposed as long as I can tie it in and it isn't totally horrible looking.
You will need a pvr backend of course.
720p/1080i is all you well get from a TV broadcaster anyway.
(2014-03-19, 01:53)thesuffering Wrote: [ -> ] (2014-03-16, 05:27)Ned Scott Wrote: [ -> ]Get a Google TV device that can run Android 4.something that allows sideloading of apps. All of the Google TV devices support HDMI passthrough, and some of them run XBMC pretty well. They also typically come with really nice remotes.
This would work, but wouldn't be as elegant as live tv integrated into xbmc, and probably less wife/family friendly. I'll have to investigate. If I got the colossus, and used component out and lived with 720p/1080i max it'd theoretically work as I described, right? I'm not totally opposed as long as I can tie it in and it isn't totally horrible looking.
If you want it to be actual passthrough then I'd think it would be preferable to using HDMI input + IR blaster of some kind + PVR backend, which is what it would require for XBMC to use it as "normal" live TV. On a Google TV box you just switch between the passthrough app and XBMC, really slick. Launch it from XBMC and when you quit it, you go back to XBMC.