Cheapest hardware for S-Video input / using DVB-T cards of different brands

[jjames]

Hi,

I've recently set up a GBPVR system with a Hauppauge Nova-T PCI and a MediaMVP. All is working very well, it really is an excellent system which seems extremely stable despite pushing the little MVP to its limits....

Just a couple of quick questions though.

Firstly, I have an old Aver TV Studio card which has a BT878 chip on-board which can be used for watching analogue channels and has an S-Video input. Reading this forum I note that it should be possible to get this to work utilising the software encoder plugin. Question is, will this give results good enough to be sufficient to grab programmes from a standalone satellite receiver or similar? If not, what is the minimum hardware I can get away with for this task, which I'll rarely use but may come in handy occasionally?

Secondly, are there any pitfalls associated with using two non-matching DVB-T cards? I've seen the Twinhan PCI card going cheap but will buy another Hauppauge if using one of each is going to cause a problem.

Thanks for any help

[jjames]

Actually in all honesty after having looked more closely at the whole software encoding thing I think I'll pass... dropped frames are a feature of these cards at the best of times and from what I've read they'll become a menacing plague once you start using the PC for anything else at the same time.

So, a second-hand PVR150 or similar would seem to be the way to go then? One of these should be able to control a satbox as well shouldn't it?

[stefan]

So, a second-hand PVR150 or similar would seem to be the way to go then? One of these should be able to control a satbox as well shouldn't it?

The 150 is generally the choice today, if you only want one tuner. The 500 has two (150) tuners, but no ir blaster. If your STB is supported, then GBPVR will use the blaster of the 150 to change channels on the STB when needed. See the bottom of this thread for a link to supported STBs:
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=8743&page=2

[nitrogen_widget]

I have a software based Compro card that drops frames during recording, but still gives in my opinion an amazing picture when viewing live TV.

If someone were to get a software based card to work with the plug-in in GBPVR, would it be possible to designate it as a live TV only card & keep it from being used as a recording source?

[sub]

If someone were to get a software based card to work with the plug-in in GBPVR, would it be possible to designate it as a live TV only card & keep it from being used as a recording source?

No, all capture sources are treated as potential candidates for recordings.