Hauppauge (various) vs Ati 550 - need help

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Hi all. I'm new to all of this PVR stuff, so I hope you'll suffer my ignorance.

I have Windows XP, and I want gbpvr to run well, and I want a remote that works well enough that my wife can pretend that there isn't a computer running the TV.

I first bought a Sapphire ATI Theatre 550 card, which seems to work well (and only cost $100 CAD). I haven't been able to get the remote to work very well (if you set gbpvr to think the remote is an MCE remote it sortof works)... but I need it to be better.

I'd never heard of Hauppage before, but it seems like everybody in the PVR community knows them well. I could take my 550 back and get a WinTV PVR 250. This would come with a remote that I think would work perfect. What about the tv quality though? Better? Worse? Also; it is almost double the price of my ATI 550.

I'm really lost in all of this; at the end of the day, all I really want is a gbpvr setup that is robust and easy to use. I have had problems so far like:
- pressing the wrong button on the remote causes me to lose audio, and I can't get the audio back without leaving the video and coming back.
- sometimes things get goofed up and I try to watch TV and I only get a black screen
- sometimes things get goofed up and I try to watch a video and it opens in a window instead of full screen, frozen on the first frame, the audio track maybe keeps going... I have to force-quit gbpvr.

I don't want problems like this My wife has to be able to use the system comfortably, or I have failed.

I realize this post is a little scattered, but can anyone help?

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I first bought a Sapphire ATI Theatre 550 card, which seems to work well (and only cost $100 CAD). I haven't been able to get the remote to work very well (if you set gbpvr to think the remote is an MCE remote it sortof works)... but I need it to be better.

What keys dont work for you? The majority should. The only ones that shouldnt be working are eight or so in the white square (SAP, LANGUAGE, ANGLE etc) since these dont really map well on to features offered by GB-PVR. I will add some of these buttons in coming releases. The other buttons should be fine.

- pressing the wrong button on the remote causes me to lose audio, and I can't get the audio back without leaving the video and coming back.

Can you provide a detailed description of the problem.

- sometimes things get goofed up and I try to watch TV and I only get a black screen
- sometimes things get goofed up and I try to watch a video and it opens in a window instead of full screen, frozen on the first frame, the audio track maybe keeps going... I have to force-quit gbpvr.

These both sound related to the video decoders installed on your machine. Which video decoder are you using?

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What keys dont work for you? The majority should. The only ones that shouldnt be working are eight or so in the white square (SAP, LANGUAGE, ANGLE etc) since these dont really map well on to features offered by GB-PVR. I will add some of these buttons in coming releases. The other buttons should be fine.

Ok. so, you're right. Its some of the ones in the button in the white square that are not working, like "last channel" and "Info/EPG". Otherwise things are mostly rosy.

These both sound related to the video decoders installed on your machine. Which video decoder are you using?

I've narrowed down the problem with the blank screen and the lockups. If I am watching live TV and recording it, things go bad if I pause, then play, then try and rewind. My screen goes black, I need to ctrl-alt-delete and kill the software, and further need to restart the recording service before I can come back and do anything.

I'm a newb... so I'm not sure if I should have downloaded something, or set something up special. Again, I apologize for my ignorance.

The decoder I'm set to in config is:
Hardware Decoder: None, use software decoder
Software MPEG 2 Playback: System Default (other option is Cyberlink video/sp decoder)
Audio Decoder: System Default (other options are MPEG and Cyberlink)
Audio Renderer: Again default other options are:
- Realtek AC97 Audio
- Cyberlink Audio Renderer
- Defaiult Directsound device
- Default waveout
- Realtex Direcsound AC97

Really appreciate your help Sub.