[dbatke]

Im looking for info from someone on how to accomplish the following:

Currently I have a subscription with BellExpressvu (Alberta, CA) with several TV's (8) throughout the house that I basically want to be able to watch what I want whenever I want how ever I want at any time, basically a client server type system. I am not in a city where I can get digital TV (Telus Optic TV) and Im wondering if there is a solution that will work for me? I have done extensive messing around with Plex, Kodi, etc and can't seem to find the solution. I have 2 HD PVR's that capture video but of course can only feed the TV they are connected to. It seems there is a legal thing with "over the air" stuff that works just fine however thats a very limited set of channels. Is there a way to take the channels that I am currently subscribed to and store them on a server to be distributed to client TV's throughout my house? I have looked at Mythtv and other programs to get capture cards but I haven't pulled the trigger because Im not sure it will do exactly what I want. I am looking for a solution as I own a small WISP that services rural customers with the same issue and they are looking for a solution as well.

Any help is very appreciated!

[rpcameron]

What format is your cable signal? DVB-C? ATSC-C? Does Canada use CableCARD?

Without knowing what kind of feed you have, it's impossible to know what kind of tuner you'll need. Generally, most PVR backend (the server component) will work with most any tuner type. If it's a proprietary IPTV system, you're probably out of luck. If it's CableCARD, you're very limited, but still have options.

[oldtvwatcher]

dbatke, your problem is that in Canada and the USA, commercial satellite signals such as Bell and Dish are distributed using a specific format called Turbo 8PSK, and at the present time you cannot buy a tuner that interfaces with a computer that will receive Turbo 8PSK. But beyond that, almost all Bell channels are encrypted, and that encryption scheme doesn't utilize the same type of conditional access card that is used in Europe and elsewhere. So the bottom line is that if you lived in Europe (or any of several other places in the Eastern hemisphere) you could do exactly what you want, because tuner cards are available with CA slots that will receive the format they use there, but in North America you really can't.

Now, having said that, if you had a single particular channel you wanted to stream then you could leave your Bell receiver tuned to it 24/7 and maybe use a HDMI capture device (similar to the type used by gamers to capture their game sessions) to stream the received video, but this may or may not work depending on if the channel is protected (DHCP?) and whether the capture device honors that protection. In some countries (not sure about Canada) it would be illegal to circumvent any protection that would keep you from streaming something from a HDMI port, although if you read enough web pages you will see that some people do it anyway. The bigger problem is that many capture devices are sold on underpowered hardware, so you may not get a smooth stream (scenes with a lot of motion may have some jerkiness to them). And remember, this requires that you have an official (power hungry) Bell box tuned to the channel you want, and a companion HDMI capture device to stream the received signal to your network, if that is possible and legal to do in Canada. And it also requires that you have some technical expertise, since getting a device to stream to the network is only part of the problem, you also have to figure out how to receive that stream and put it to use (say for watching or recording it).

What really complicates matters is that as a WISP you might think you could decode channels and stream them to your users, but that is a HUGE no-no from a copyright standpoint. If you did that, you could get sued out of existence. Even if you just picked up free-to-air satellite channels (say from a big C-band satellite dish), it would be fine for you to watch them since they are not encrypted, but you cannot legally steam them to your WISP customers. Even if you put up an antenna and picked up over-the-air signals, I don't think you could legally stream those to your customers (I know you couldn't in the USA, that's why Aereo got shut down, but I have no idea what Canadian law would have to say on the subject) unless you are registered as a cable company and pay all the appropriate fees. Trying to do anything like that with Bell content would probably put you in the crosshairs of some very high-priced attorneys. What you do in your own home is one thing, but when you start reselling a solution you can fall into a legal can of worms pretty quickly.

What you probably should be looking into is cord cutting, which is to say, ditch your Bell service entirely and look for ways to watch the content you want from the Internet. I don't know what options you have for that in Canada (I know that you have Crave TV, but isn't that also owned by Bell?) but certainly cord cutting is becoming the wave of the future, and it is much easier to find specific content that way, plus at least sometimes it's higher quality (no visible compression artifacts). There is a Cord Cutting blog at http://cordcuttersnews.com/ but it is rather US-centric, There is a Canadian forum at http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/217-inte...-apple-tv/ but I don't know if that's the best one on the topic. But that would be the least expensive way, since (I would think) Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV devices should all be readily available and are much easier to install and set up than any of the alternatives. You may need to keep your Bell subscription in order to watch certain channels (since you will need to authenticate with cable or satellite provider credentials to view certain services) but if you keep your eye on the cord cutting forums you may find less expensive ways to get the programs you want. And you aren't dealing with expensive, power hungry satellite equipment that requires some technical expertise it set up and maintain. AND this is a solution that you can replicate at the homes of your WISP users without any worry about legal repercussions.