Joining the New Zealand Freeview masses

This evening I completed my setup of Freeview at home. I now have complete terrestrial digital freeview reception.

When I bought my slimline HP media computer recently I took note of the TV Tuner capabilities. I picked a PC that was capable of picking up terrestrial digital. However, despite the fact that Windows Media Center has support for terrestrial digital, Microsoft does not have an update a present to support the the variant used in New Zealand.

The Internet is full of rumours stating that Microsoft will release an update to support terrestrial digital in New Zealand. I believe the Microsoft will eventually release an update in the future.

In the mean time, how did I receive terrestrial digital television on my PC? Mix the following and bake for 1 hour to get sorted:

- Mediaportal
- MediaPortal TV Server
- MediaPortal SVN
- H.246 Codec
- LATM AAC Audio Codec

Mediaportal is simply an open source alternative to Windows Media Center. I used the 'bleeding edge' nightly builds of the Mediaportal SVN to achieve Freeview playback.

To decode the Freeview video I installed the CoreAVC h.264 codec. An alternative is to use the h.264 codec which Cyberlink bundles with its PowerDVD software to enable Blu-Ray playback.

Audio New Zealand also has a funky audio format which can be decoded with the LATM AACCodec. The good thing is that a codec (a.k.a Monogram ACC Decoder) is included with the Mediaportal SVN builds which can decode audio.

If I get a chance I will do my own write-up on the setup of Freeview for New Zealand conditions. There are however a number of guides explaining the process on the web.

With my present setup, I find the Video and audio quality excellent and the changing of channels to be swift. My next project is to associate channel Icons with each channel and to implement and EPG. By leveraging my existing media PC setup I have avoided having to fork out $NZ400+ for a set top decoder box.

I have also written a quick guide for computer savvy people on how to setup MediaPortal to work with Freeview in New Zealand. It is available at:

Configuring MediaPortal for Freeview NZ [Quick Guide]
http://tech.nztechie.com/2008/04/configuring-mediaportal-for-freeview-nz.html

MediaPortal
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

CoreAVC
http://www.coreavc.com/

Additional Information: Freeview|HD is broadcast on a digital terrestrial network and received via a UHF aerial. It will be available in the Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier, Hastings, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. That’s 75% of New Zealand homes.