MVP and IR Blaster

rdaleypa · 2007-10-05, 05:24 PM

Hi everyone,

I am going to upgrade our PVR so that we can stream to our living room. We moved recently and our computer used to be in our bedroom but now it is in an office which means we have to burn DVDs to watch or sit in the office. Our computer is currently our only way to record.

In any case, is it possible to use an IR blaster with an MVP? What I would like to do is move the cable box into the office with the computer and then control the whole thing via the MVP. How about performance? Our computer is a P4 with 1Gb of ram. GBPVR runs very well on it.

Or would I be better off just getting a second machine for the living room?

Thanks!
Rich

Satori · 2007-10-05, 05:37 PM

I use my MVP with a blaster. I have the MVP in the living room for my main TV and on the other side of the wall my master bedroom TV is also hooked up to it via a RF modulator. Next to the TV in the bedroom I have the blaster receiver set up and I have the actual blaster pointing to the MVP on the other side of the wall.

It works perfectly since I never watch both TVs at once. If I did I would buy another MVP and a switch before I bought another machine. My setup is pretty modest and I can record two things at once while streaming to the MVP and watching something off the 3rd TV I have hooked to the server upstairs.

SD is not hard on the system.

rdaleypa · 2007-10-11, 04:57 PM

thanks for the response. I think I am going to set it up. I am on a budget because even though I enjoy working with the PVR, we don't really watch a lot of TV! So spending a bunch of money doesn't make too much sense plus I have kids that expect 3 meals a day and a place to sleep etc.

For now though, I am going to hook up the MVP without the blaster and make sure that works for us. Our living room TV has multiple inputs so I will hook up the cable box to one input and then the MVP to another so I can watch and record at the same time. If that works out, I will add a second cable box to the bedroom and set up the IR blaster.

Thanks!
Rich

martint123 · 2007-10-11, 09:22 PM

I'm not sure of the relationship of MVP to Blaster. Don't you already use a blaster to change cable channels? All the MVP does is to offer a sort of extension to your PVR base machine. I have a STB and it's controlled by a blaster on my PVR150 tuner board - this changes channels from the PVR, client PC's or MVP's

rdaleypa · 2007-10-12, 02:47 AM

Right now I don't have a blaster or a cable box connected to my pc. The cable feeds basic cable directly to the 150 card I have installed. I have a cable box in the living room but on the computer I just get basic cable.

How is performance with the MVP? That has been a concern of mine ever since I have thought about getting one. I have never seen one in use. My machine is decent...a P4 1.9with 1 GB of RAM and a PVR 150. I wouldn't expect it to be seamless like a digital cable box but does it respond pretty well when controlling GBPVR?

martint123 · 2007-10-12, 09:17 AM

OK, I'm with you - didn't realise you were not already recoding off the cable box. It's easy enough to upgrade in steps anyway.

MVP performance - mine seems to be fine, the only delays I see are when changing channels on terrestrial digital channels. The analogue side of the PVR150 is fine - I use it for analogue TV and from my satellite box, using the 150 blaster to change it's channels. Going round the GBPVR menu's and things like that are fairly quick.
I'd have to say the text on screen isn't as easy to read from the MVP than my STB, but it gives more info in the same space.