Frustrations with Windows Media Center

Up until the later part of 2008 I'd been running Windows Media Center under Windows vista. I used a pci express tuner - a Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT which worked pretty well. Since this was on a PC sat in our study it was only ever a backup/overflow recorder, with SKy+ remaining our main way of recording TV ahead of time, and of course iPlayer (or similar) the main way of catching up for anything that wasn't recorded.

Earlier this year I installed Windows 7. First the beta, then the RC, and now final. Despite being a linux advocate in the day job, Windows 7 works very well, and at home is a more practical choice for the family.

Sadly my experiences with Media Center have been totally disappointing.

I've been singularly unable to get the Terratec card to work on both tuners -- I only once managed to pick up channels in media center on one tuner. Terratec's own sw fared slightly better, but isn't the most usable option.

Eventually I decided not to waste any more time and headed out & picked up a Kworld 399u from maplin a few weeks ago. This if anything has been even worse
* The proprietary TV software (TiVme) consistently crashes on startup
* Media center never finds any cnannels, and most of the time only sees the tuner as a single tuner (despite it being twin)

Updated drivers, applications & installation of all W7 fixes currently distributed through windows update have not helped. Nor has running "mcupdate -MediaCenterRecoveryTask"

And I guess this is where my linux background kicks in -- often things don't work first time, but often there's a way to try alternatives, to debug & try to fix. unfortunately Media Center isn't open like that. So I could give up and run mythTV under linux, but I depend on many other apps for photo/video that aren't up to snuff on linux (Adobe Lightroom for example), so for now it looks like no live TV.

A very very frustrating experience. I'm convinced Windows 7 has some serious issues in this area....

Page layout redesign

Like many people I know my blog has languished a little due to my current attention to twitter.

However what I have done is just update the layout here a little to make it easy to jump to some key places:
* twitter (quick chat)
* facebook (longer term "friend" content)
* lastfm (music)
* delicious (bookmarks)
* linked in (professional ie job offers ;-) )

I've also promised to myself to start posting here again.

Next stop, facebook page redesign!

Recommend me a home network topology

I have quite a number of network devices at home
- Sony PS2 (eth)
- Xbox 360 (eth)
- WII (wifi)
- old PC (wifi/eth)
- new PC (wifi/eth)
- 2 x laptops (wifi)
- internet radio (pure flow, wifi)
- 3 x phones (wifi)
- SPA 3102 voip gateway (2 th - in and out)
- thomson 585v7 adsl router (4 port, wifi, adsl)
- 2 x FON routers (wifi+eth one for outside access, one for inside)
- A NAS storage device (buffalo linkstation) with external USB
- 2 spare fon routers (all fon routers can run ddwrt or openwrt firmware) (unused)
- spare DG834Gt adsl modem running dgteam firmware (unused) 4 ports eth, 1 wifi
- a 4 port 100/10 hub
- an old Prestige zyxel adsl router (unused)
- A speedtouch 780WL adsl/4 port router (unused)

Currently all wired components are in the same room as the router, but this leaves me with slow performance to the main house PC. I need faster access via ethernet (start with 100, may go above later) rather than the 10-25 wifi can manage.

I want to achieve
* faster access via ethernet (start with 100, may go above later) to the NAS rather than the 10-25 wifi can manage.
* All PCs can access NAS
* Voip continues to function
* Ability to add asterisk on linkstation to service voip
* Xbox360 streaming from media center on new pc (it seems this means on same subnet)
* pure flow streaming from twonkymedia on linkstation (as above)
* No hole drilling (although an ethernet cable is best option)
* No purchase of extra kit (am broke)
* WPA2 security used
* PCs are powered off when not in use
* minimize other devices left on.

The key no doubt lies in the correct application of multiple subnets vs bridging using some of the semi-configurable routing kit available.

Thoughts
* I just move linkstation upstairs, and use wireless bridge running on ddwrt to connect back to base adsl router. Unfortunately a) ddwrt does WDS, but this doesn't work with WPA2 b) ddwrt does client bridge, but this doesn't work with multiple devices on ethernet side
* I just setup a regular routed network between adsl router location and desktop PC, but this introduces multiple subnets which will cause complications with upnp streaming to pureflow internet radio and/or xbox