Brand Spanking New User

[gamerscircle]

Hi all -

I am not a computer idiot, but this PVR is all new to me... and well, with Direct TV and TIVO falling by the waste side.. I thought I would try to make my own.

I have a spare PC (P4 2.2 with 1 gig of ram and 2 80 gig HD's) I thought that this would be a good machine to start with.

I bought the Hauppauge 250 (since it was on the list)

I installed a fresh copy of WinXP Sp2, got all of the updates, installed the capture card and I have no little yellow marks in the device manager.

So... here is where I sit.

Currently ... I am using a Dual tuner Diretivo unit from Hughes... and I would like to be able test the new PVR PC.

I thought I would be able to split the sat signal and put one of the lines into the PVR PC just for testing... but I am getting snow...

Then I thought... well.. I would have to split the signal coming out of the reciever, but that goes to the TV.. so I think I am confusing myself?

Can I get some advise?

Thanks,
Andy

[sub]

From your description it sounds like you effectively tried to hook the cable from the dish directly to your PVR250. That wont work. The PVR250 cannot tune in to satellite broadcasts.

You would have to have the output of the Directv decoder going to GB-PVR. In effect your directtv box would have to tune in and decode the satellite broadcast.

[gamerscircle]

hey! Thanks for the very quick reply...

I thought that would be wrong, but then the only other out puts that I have are:

To the TV - coax (do not think that is what I want)
Svideo - okay.. I can try this one..
component (or RCA) - this offers both video and audio

[gamerscircle]

I used the Svideo - and did a change on the config, I get a signal, but I am getting what ever I have selected on the Directv tuner... this isn't what I want.

stumped.

[sub]

Either svideo or composite should be fine. Obviously GB-PVR will only view the channel the directtv box is current set to.

[gamerscircle]

Then... since I have a tuner card - I can't use it to "tune" since I need the sat. tuner to do this for me.

With the H250 card only has a 3.5 mini plug for audio.. so, I would have to either pick Svideo or Component for the video source, then for the audio I would have to conver the RCA to mini plug to get the aduio into the capture card.

I really do not want that kind of setup...

What I thought I would be able to do is to use the capture card to "tune" and use it replace my TIVO - yes, I konw that I would still have to use the tuner and would be willing to get a dedicated tuner for this PVR... but it sounds like to me that I will not be able to tune?

[sub]

With the H250 card only has a 3.5 mini plug for audio.. so, I would have to either pick Svideo or Component for the video source, then for the audio I would have to conver the RCA to mini plug to get the aduio into the capture card.

Yes.

I really do not want that kind of setup...

What I thought I would be able to do is to use the capture card to "tune" and use it replace my TIVO - yes, I konw that I would still have to use the tuner and would be willing to get a dedicated tuner for this PVR... but it sounds like to me that I will not be able to tune?

The Hauppauge PVR250 is a card designed to tune in regular analog broadcasts, over the air or cable.

In your case you want to watch satellite broadcasts. The PVR250 knows nothing about satellite transmissions, so you need to use a regular directtv box to recieve and decode the directtv transmissions. The directtv box then sends the video/audio to the composite/svideo (and audio) inputs of your PVR250.

You can add an IR Blaster to this setup so that GB-PVR can tell your directtv box to change channels as needed. To do this, the IR Blaster imitates your remote control.