Newbee question (big time!)

[Siggi]

Hi,

I have some very basic questions.  Have an oldish PC I plan to use as a PVR (and for nothing else).  Planning to put it next to the TV for now, possible adding an MPV later and move the PC away.

My questions are as follows:

If I buy the Hauppauge PVR-350, is there any more hardware I need apart from what normally is included with the PC and my wireless network?

I subscribe to Sky in the UK, having an Amstrad DRX300 STB.  The STB has two scart sockets (in/out) currently in use, two RF Out and an RS 232 port.  My questions are:  How/can I control the STB from the PVR?  How do I best connect the STB to the PVR card?

Finally, am I right to assume that once this is set up with GB-PVR I do not neet to have keyboard, mouse or monitor attached to the PC/PVR, but will be able to control it with the remote?

Sorry for these basic questions, but any help would be appreciated!  Thanks.

[sub]

Quote[/b] ]If I buy the Hauppauge PVR-350, is there any more hardware I need apart from what normally is included with the PC and my wireless network?

It depends. Is your CPU fast enough? The menus can be really sluggish on a slow machine. Is your hard drive big enough?

Quote[/b] ]I subscribe to Sky in the UK, having an Amstrad DRX300 STB. The STB has two scart sockets (in/out) currently in use, two RF Out and an RS 232 port. My questions are: How/can I control the STB from the PVR? How do I best connect the STB to the PVR card?

GB-PVR can use IR blasters to change channels (USB-UIRT or Actisys IR200L) to change channel, but doesnt directly support RS232 to change channels. That said, it does support a Girder channel changer (see http://www.girder.nl) and a .exe channel changer. Either of these can be used to change channels using a serial cable, but will requires some third party software to the actual channel change.

Quote[/b] ]Finally, am I right to assume that once this is set up with GB-PVR I do not neet to have keyboard, mouse or monitor attached to the PC/PVR, but will be able to control it with the remote?

You can control GB-PVR from the Hauppauge remote control.

[Siggi]

Thanks a lot for your answer.

The CPU is a Pentium 667 Mhz. Do you think that will do? I will need to upgrade the hard drive.

[sub]

Thats probably as low as you'd want to go with the CPU, but it should be OK.