Passing an HDMI source through HTPC, can it be done?

nsafreak

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 2001
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Well I'm just waiting for the case to arrive for my HTPC (hopefully it is delivered tomorrow as UPS currently shows) and then I'll be ready to put it together. I may be ordering one more part for it though I just wanted to see if this was possible since I'm not even sure what software/hardware (will probably be a combination) to look for.

I have a Dish Network 722k HD DVR receiver that I'm going to continue to use (watch way too much stuff that is not easily or legally available online) and I want to pass the audio/video signal from its HDMI out into the HTPC and then into my HK AVR which then routes to my HDTV. I thought it'd be nice to be able to press a button on my keyboard to bring up an overlay interface that allows me to continue watching whatever I'm watching on my Dish STB while doing a web search or something along those lines. Yes I know a Logitech Revue unit could do this but I've seen & heard what issues those units have so I'd prefer to not bother with one. Would it be possible to do this with something like an AverMedia HD DVR capture card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E16815100049)? If so what would I need to use software wise to get the overlay that I'm looking for?

If specs are needed here's what's going in the PC:

CPU: AMD A6 5400K
RAM: 4GB DDR3-1333
Motherboard: Gigabyte F2A55M-HD2
 
Sep 12, 2004
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I don't believe it could be done by using the AverMedia card but what you are looking to do might be possible if your TV can handle PIP from 2 HDMI sources. If your TV can do that you could program a capable remote with a macro that would set the Dish receiver output to PIP and then you would be able browse the HTPC on the non-PIP portion of the screen.

It's also conceivable that you could use a Hauppauge HD Colossus to pass through the Dish box output to WMC which you could then put in Windowed mode while browsing but it's not something I have personal experience with so I'm not clear on the specifics of trying that.
 

nsafreak

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 2001
7,093
3
81
I don't believe it could be done by using the AverMedia card but what you are looking to do might be possible if your TV can handle PIP from 2 HDMI sources. If your TV can do that you could program a capable remote with a macro that would set the Dish receiver output to PIP and then you would be able browse the HTPC on the non-PIP portion of the screen.

It's also conceivable that you could use a Hauppauge HD Colossus to pass through the Dish box output to WMC which you could then put in Windowed mode while browsing but it's not something I have personal experience with so I'm not clear on the specifics of trying that.

Thanks for the thoughts, I'll have a close look into the Colossus and go from there. It looks like it may be the solution from the hardware side as several reviewers on Amazon have stated that they use it to pass through HDMI from their cable boxes so it sounds like it does fine with the HDCP handshake. The overlay sounds like the tricky portion. Unfortunately my TV is not PIP capable or that would indeed be the easy route since it does have a pair of HDMI inputs.