...Finally came to the end of several evenings tinkering with an old PC, GBPVR and MVP last night and have everything working. GBPR I must say is simply superb - it's the extentions/plugins that make this thing so powerful, you really can make the 'digital home' thing happen. I wanted to post some do's and don'ts for anyone thinking about setting up MVP/GBPVR with an old PC. Using an old PC can work and has been recommended in various sites like http://www.byopvr.com but it wont be straightforward.
Before you even think about setting installing GBPVR consider the following:
CABLING
- You're probably going to run coax and ethernet together, all the way back to your pc/server from the MVP under your TV - use sheilded ethernet to avoid interference from the coax. If you have a separte aerial for your PC then this wont be a problem but I wanted to use the aerial on my roof and the RF loop through on my Freeview(digital TV in the UK) box - so my coax connects to the loop through and runs outside my house and into the garage where the media server resides.
- If you are running ethernet outside get 'outdoor cable' but be careful as this is easy to damage if you kink it. Outdoor sheilded will be more expensive but worth it if you are going to keep your set up for years.
- Make sure your coax (from aerial to pc or from freeview box loop through to pc)is one continous length - don't buy a wallplate terminator and plug in a second coax patch to increase the Wife Accep. Factor - this may reduce quality of signal.
- Avoid using wireless - even with 802.11g you will get stutter on playback. Wait for 802.11n in 2007!
CAPTURE CARD
- The MVP handles the decoding so your capture card does not need onboard processing. This means you can use pretty much any TV capture card - I live in the UK and want to record Freeview (digital over the air) so I picked up a second hand NOVA-T on ebay which is half the price of the usually recommended PVR350. If you want to use GBPVR on your PC then you will need a good card like the PVR 350 with hardware mpeg decoding - but if you're using MVP then I will assume you wont be using your pc/server for viewing media directly on a PC Monitor.
- Install all the drivers for your card first - GBPVR needs to see a TV card fully installed and working. If you have bought Hauppage then get the LATEST drivers from Hauppage forumhttp://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=5088 and I would avoid using Technotrend.de drivers as recommended elsewhere on this forum (OEM for some cards like NOVA-T) as this seems to cause problems.
PC/SERVER
- Check that you have the latest bios installed,it makes things easier down the line.
- Check that your motherboard supports SATA before you think "I'll go and buy some of those new SATA drives as they will be faster/bigger/better than IDE" If you use an old PC chances are pretty high that it wont. You can buy a SATA controller but if you are on a budget you'll probably want to buy IDE and make sure you buy the biggest you can afford. If you are going to buy SATA then I would go the whole hogg and buy a new motherboard too!
- Check before you buy that 250gb IDE or SATA drive that you have installed at least Service Pack 1 - this will ensure that XP can see beyond a 137gb limit.
- Think about mirroring (or better RAID 5'ing) your drives. Yes this means that you have to buy two drives (x2 250gb) but if your drive dies in the attic/garage/cupboard in 2 years time and you have all your media on it you won't be happy having to convert, rip and store it all again (assuming you haven't studiosly backed up to DVD!). Chances are that your drive will fail in 2-5 years depending on usage as your media server will be 'on' 24/7 ad big fast drives get hot - drives dont last forever and one will go pop at some point. If you have SCSI or SATA then you could go for a RAID controller and then you'll be able to do this from hardware - but for those of us on a budget this is not an option. If you use Windows XP Pro then you'll need to hack the registry to 'enable' mirroring as its disabled. Once you do this you are on your own (microsoft probably wont support your OS) but it works great - see http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/19/u..._5_happen/
All the details to create so called 'dynamic drives' and set up mirroing are in this article. Also make sure you understand Master/Slave drive setup as you'll need to play with jumpers and your system bios to get two big drives, the original drive (e.g. an old 40gb ide drive thats probably in the PC with an OS like Windows 2000 on it) and a CD all working together. Just google for 'hard drive setup how to' to get a primer on this. You'll thank me if you mirror and you have that second drive to save you.
- Get as much memory in your PC as you can afford 512mb ok, 1GB great
- Check to see if you can offload some processing to your Network Card - look at the tips in the GBPVR wiki.
SOFTWARE
- Make sure you intall the .Net libaries AND DirectX9 as recommended in the WIKI before you install GBPVR
- Make sure you have XP SP1 installed at least - service pack 2 better
MEDIA MVP
- I installed the Media MVP CD and then installed the GBPVR software. I then disabled the Media MVP server and removed it from STARTUP in Windows. I then started GBPVR MVP server and it is this that allows you to see GBpvr through MVP.
- When you power up MVP it takes 30-60 secs before it will go to the 'Connecting to server page..." you will see four white blocks and the remote WONT work at this point. Once it connects everything magically works!
- MVP (assuming you have it plugged into a hub that has access to your router/gateway) will look for an IP address. It will try and grab an IP from your DHCP server (on your router/gateway) so make sure this is enabled. Once it has an IP it will display the GBPVR menu.
- Assuming you have setup GBPVR config (look at the walk though in the wiki - its all in there) so that you have channels setup, EPG setup then you should be ready to rock and roll. There are tons of tips for GBPVR setup with various cards in this forum.
PLUGINS
- Dont miss the plugins (again see the WIKI) for Picture Viewer, RSS Feeds, Music management etc etc...great stuff.
Next step is to buy another MVP and get it working in the master bedroom. I'll let you know how I get on.
Good luck.
Before you even think about setting installing GBPVR consider the following:
CABLING
- You're probably going to run coax and ethernet together, all the way back to your pc/server from the MVP under your TV - use sheilded ethernet to avoid interference from the coax. If you have a separte aerial for your PC then this wont be a problem but I wanted to use the aerial on my roof and the RF loop through on my Freeview(digital TV in the UK) box - so my coax connects to the loop through and runs outside my house and into the garage where the media server resides.
- If you are running ethernet outside get 'outdoor cable' but be careful as this is easy to damage if you kink it. Outdoor sheilded will be more expensive but worth it if you are going to keep your set up for years.
- Make sure your coax (from aerial to pc or from freeview box loop through to pc)is one continous length - don't buy a wallplate terminator and plug in a second coax patch to increase the Wife Accep. Factor - this may reduce quality of signal.
- Avoid using wireless - even with 802.11g you will get stutter on playback. Wait for 802.11n in 2007!
CAPTURE CARD
- The MVP handles the decoding so your capture card does not need onboard processing. This means you can use pretty much any TV capture card - I live in the UK and want to record Freeview (digital over the air) so I picked up a second hand NOVA-T on ebay which is half the price of the usually recommended PVR350. If you want to use GBPVR on your PC then you will need a good card like the PVR 350 with hardware mpeg decoding - but if you're using MVP then I will assume you wont be using your pc/server for viewing media directly on a PC Monitor.
- Install all the drivers for your card first - GBPVR needs to see a TV card fully installed and working. If you have bought Hauppage then get the LATEST drivers from Hauppage forumhttp://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=5088 and I would avoid using Technotrend.de drivers as recommended elsewhere on this forum (OEM for some cards like NOVA-T) as this seems to cause problems.
PC/SERVER
- Check that you have the latest bios installed,it makes things easier down the line.
- Check that your motherboard supports SATA before you think "I'll go and buy some of those new SATA drives as they will be faster/bigger/better than IDE" If you use an old PC chances are pretty high that it wont. You can buy a SATA controller but if you are on a budget you'll probably want to buy IDE and make sure you buy the biggest you can afford. If you are going to buy SATA then I would go the whole hogg and buy a new motherboard too!
- Check before you buy that 250gb IDE or SATA drive that you have installed at least Service Pack 1 - this will ensure that XP can see beyond a 137gb limit.
- Think about mirroring (or better RAID 5'ing) your drives. Yes this means that you have to buy two drives (x2 250gb) but if your drive dies in the attic/garage/cupboard in 2 years time and you have all your media on it you won't be happy having to convert, rip and store it all again (assuming you haven't studiosly backed up to DVD!). Chances are that your drive will fail in 2-5 years depending on usage as your media server will be 'on' 24/7 ad big fast drives get hot - drives dont last forever and one will go pop at some point. If you have SCSI or SATA then you could go for a RAID controller and then you'll be able to do this from hardware - but for those of us on a budget this is not an option. If you use Windows XP Pro then you'll need to hack the registry to 'enable' mirroring as its disabled. Once you do this you are on your own (microsoft probably wont support your OS) but it works great - see http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/19/u..._5_happen/
All the details to create so called 'dynamic drives' and set up mirroing are in this article. Also make sure you understand Master/Slave drive setup as you'll need to play with jumpers and your system bios to get two big drives, the original drive (e.g. an old 40gb ide drive thats probably in the PC with an OS like Windows 2000 on it) and a CD all working together. Just google for 'hard drive setup how to' to get a primer on this. You'll thank me if you mirror and you have that second drive to save you.
- Get as much memory in your PC as you can afford 512mb ok, 1GB great
- Check to see if you can offload some processing to your Network Card - look at the tips in the GBPVR wiki.
SOFTWARE
- Make sure you intall the .Net libaries AND DirectX9 as recommended in the WIKI before you install GBPVR
- Make sure you have XP SP1 installed at least - service pack 2 better
MEDIA MVP
- I installed the Media MVP CD and then installed the GBPVR software. I then disabled the Media MVP server and removed it from STARTUP in Windows. I then started GBPVR MVP server and it is this that allows you to see GBpvr through MVP.
- When you power up MVP it takes 30-60 secs before it will go to the 'Connecting to server page..." you will see four white blocks and the remote WONT work at this point. Once it connects everything magically works!
- MVP (assuming you have it plugged into a hub that has access to your router/gateway) will look for an IP address. It will try and grab an IP from your DHCP server (on your router/gateway) so make sure this is enabled. Once it has an IP it will display the GBPVR menu.
- Assuming you have setup GBPVR config (look at the walk though in the wiki - its all in there) so that you have channels setup, EPG setup then you should be ready to rock and roll. There are tons of tips for GBPVR setup with various cards in this forum.
PLUGINS
- Dont miss the plugins (again see the WIKI) for Picture Viewer, RSS Feeds, Music management etc etc...great stuff.
Next step is to buy another MVP and get it working in the master bedroom. I'll let you know how I get on.
Good luck.
