Bottom line: What do I need?

[John_Shil]

I'm new (obviously.) I just found this site about three days ago, and have since contemplated buying a PVR card to record my favorite shows without buying a TiVo.

I have a computer with a GeForce4 MX 440 (I think I got that right...) that apparently has a TV-Out. (I have no idea what that means.)

So, I need one of those PVR cards, like those listed at the main page.

My TV is rather old, and only has a cable thing, so I go through my VCR so my Playstation 2 works, but I'm not even sure this matters.

Bottom line, what do I need to set up a PVR with my computer?

[A step by step guide would be nice, I'm rather slow with computers since I stopped watching TechTV.]

I know, being new, I might be asking too much, but I am rather greedy, and really want this PVR thing to work.

Thank you.

[reven]

[A step by step guide would be nice, I'm rather slow with computers since I stopped watching TechTV.]

to be honest, this isnt really a good program to use if your not very good with computers, there is quite a bit of hands on required, and may need tweaking etc. its more for computer geeks. some people have no problems getting this up and going in say an hour, some take a few days with bug fixes etc.

the bottom line is, you need to be good with computers, and if you don't even know what tvout means, you probably arent. mce 2005 is probably your best bet, but you're going to need to buy it (probably a entire computer).

the minimum requirements for computer knowledge would probably be, can you put a computer together (well 80% of it anyway)? and how are you with setting up windows? could you get a windows machine up and running in an hour? gbpvr isnt a program that takes 5 minutes to setup.

dont mean to sound harsh, just honest, you need to be good with computers, otherwise you probably wont be happy with your setup with gbpvr.

[CaptainVideo]

its more for computer geeks.

What? Huh?!? I resemble that remark!

While my WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) has gone up with all my work, my GQ (Geek Quotient) has increased exponentially after several evenings sitting on the floor at the TV trying to tweak things until they work nicely and after carrying the PC monitor up and down the stairs (because of the way the Matrox G550 works).

My experience: You have to try it several times before things come together properly. A good example is MDAC. I must have installed the wrong version first and I could NEVER get GBPVR to install no matter what I did. I edited the registry, uninstalled and reinstalled the newer version. GBPVR always thought I had an old version of MDAC. I had to reinstall Windows to get it to work. I must have reinstalled Windows2000 8 times through all this (mostly due to bad hardware).

The difference is that a "geek" finds some fun in all this. A "wife" wonders why we just don't spend $7 a month to rent a Time Warner DVR

[reven]

you need to be a geek to set this up, not to use it

[dneprrider]

you need to be a geek to set this up, not to use it

I just had to comment on something that happened yesterday at my house. I had the TV repairman scheduled to come in to replace a faulty speaker on my very heavy 32" tv. I was at work and I had forgotten he was coming so here I am on the phone trying to tell my wife how to shutdown the GBPVR computer system, move out the TV (on a table with swivel wheels) from the wall. etc.

In the verbal step by step procedure I end up saying to her "now the proper procedure to shutdown the TV"....

You have to be a geek when there is a procedure to shut down the TV system.....

Just my 2 cents worth.

Regards,
Richard