Newbie on GB-PVR with ATI Radeon 9800 Pro AIW...

[antdude]

Hello,

I currently use ATI Radeon 9800 Pro AIW (128 MB)'s MultiMedia Center (MMC) v9.03.1 in Windows XP
Pro. SP2 (all updates; NTFS). I like the features in this software, but its software is buggy
(crashes once in a while). I am looking for alternative softwares. I have questions about Media
Portal:

1. Can I still install and use the other program without uninstalling MMC for testing?

2. Can the program record closed captions (CC) with the video recordings and into a text file
(log)? I find this feature useful.

3. When I use the program's scheduler to record automatically, does it record with the timeshift
Live TV? Basically, can I record a TV show for an hour, watch the beginning of the recording
when 30 minutes of recording has been made and still recording, etc.? MMC doesn't let me do
this. I have to use its TV-on-Demand manually (no scheduler) and I have to be at the computer to
start it.

4. Does the program use analog input for audio? Basically, analog is useful for console games
and watching TV with my computer speakers hooked up to my computer for audio. The latest ATI
Catalyst drivers started using digital audio which others and I were upset. I stuck with
Catalyst v5.2 driver. Sometimes, I watch TV without recording on both my TV (not via video out)
and computer. I leave the TV audio muted, but use my computer speakers (nice Klipsch Promedia
speakers) for audio. I do not want the audio to be desnched with the TV's video. Hence, why I
need analog audio and not digital. See http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33818453 for
details.

5. When using timeshift Live TV feature, can this be outputted to a TV (secondary screen) via
AIW's video out? I use this a lot in MMC. I tend to watch my recordings on TV instead of CRT, but its audio from my sound card via good speakers.

6. Does the program lower the line input volume when recording? MMC does. Others and I could not
figure out why this happens. It happend with SB Live! (former card) and Audigy2 ZS sound card
with the newest drivers. The recordings always had low audio volume.

7. Can I still record (scheduled) when a screen saver is running and monitor is asleep (power
saving)?

Thank you in advance.

[herbs]

The 9800 AIW is not supported by gbpvr natively as it is not a hardware encoder card or bda device. You might get it working with the software encoder patch http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=2753

[antdude]

The 9800 AIW is not supported by gbpvr natively as it is not a hardware encoder card or bda device. You might get it working with the software encoder patch http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=2753

Thanks for the quick reply, herbs. How stable is that patch? Hmm, I thought AIW was hardware based (TV tuner).

[stefan]

Hmm, I thought AIW was hardware based (TV tuner).

The tuner part is hardware based, but that card relies on software to encode the video into mpeg. GBPVR only (without the plugin mentioned above) supports cards that have mpeg encoding built-in in the hardware.

[antdude]

The tuner part is hardware based, but that card relies on software to encode the video into mpeg. GBPVR only (without the plugin mentioned above) supports cards that have mpeg encoding built-in in the hardware.

Hmmm, it looks tricky to patch. Maybe I should wait for the upcoming versions.

How about my other questions?

[stefan]

1. Can I still install and use the other program without uninstalling MMC for testing?

I have no idea.

2. Can the program record closed captions (CC) with the video recordings and into a text file
(log)? I find this feature useful.

I believe (but not sure) that the a) part of this question is yes, and the b) part is no

3. When I use the program's scheduler to record automatically, does it record with the timeshift
Live TV? Basically, can I record a TV show for an hour, watch the beginning of the recording
when 30 minutes of recording has been made and still recording, etc.? MMC doesn't let me do
this. I have to use its TV-on-Demand manually (no scheduler) and I have to be at the computer to
start it.

You can definitely do this.

4. Does the program use analog input for audio? Basically, analog is useful for console games
and watching TV with my computer speakers hooked up to my computer for audio. The latest ATI
Catalyst drivers started using digital audio which others and I were upset. I stuck with
Catalyst v5.2 driver. Sometimes, I watch TV without recording on both my TV (not via video out)
and computer. I leave the TV audio muted, but use my computer speakers (nice Klipsch Promedia
speakers) for audio. I do not want the audio to be desnched with the TV's video. Hence, why I
need analog audio and not digital. See http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33818453 for
details.

Come again?

5. When using timeshift Live TV feature, can this be outputted to a TV (secondary screen) via
AIW's video out? I use this a lot in MMC. I tend to watch my recordings on TV instead of CRT, but its audio from my sound card via good speakers.

That shouldn't be a problem.

6. Does the program lower the line input volume when recording? MMC does. Others and I could not
figure out why this happens. It happend with SB Live! (former card) and Audigy2 ZS sound card
with the newest drivers. The recordings always had low audio volume.

It doesn't for me. However, I don't have your sound cards.

7. Can I still record (scheduled) when a screen saver is running and monitor is asleep (power
saving)?

How do you get the screen saver running when the monitor is asleep? Anyway the recordings are managed by a windows service, and it couldn't care less what the rest of the computer is doing

[herbs]

I think got all media (http://www.gallm.com) will be better for you if you don't want to use the wdm software encoder. I prefer gbpvr but got all media supports software cards, well it did when I last looked.