WinTV HVR-3000 specs

[fluffykeith]

Hi

I see that some people are using HVR-3000 and HVR-4000 multi tuner cards.

Do these cards have an MPEG2 encoder?

Also are these capable of getting Freeview HD channels that are being trialled?

Cheers

Keith

[sub]

Do these cards have an MPEG2 encoder?

No, so the analog aspect of these cards is not compatible with GB-PVR.

Also are these capable of getting Freeview HD channels that are being trialled?

Yes. You need to have the Cyberlink H.264 decoder installed, and a pretty powerful machine (or Vista + EVR + DVXA2.0 compatible video card with H.264 acceleration).

[fluffykeith]

Is there a better card than the HVR-3000 or HVR-4000?
I was looking that that one because it does HD so it may be future proof for when HD becomes used a bit more and it does Sat and DVB. I could get seperate cards for a similar price (maybe not HD though).

I am due to buy a new system as well as another Tuner (I have the nova-T PCI card). I'm looking at a low end AMD (I currently use an AMD 2500, I think thats the number) and was looking at an AMD 3500. (64 bit but running 32 bit OS and apps).

I guess my question now is, will that be enough for 2 lots of sw encoding?

Oh - am I being stupid (don't answer that!) - is the mpeg encoding only performed for analogue? or is the digital re-encoded according to the media center settings? in which case it's probably not done on the card anyway.

I don't use analogue so is the built in encoder not relevent?

Thanks for your help

Keith

[sub]

Is there a better card than the HVR-3000 or HVR-4000?
I was looking that that one because it does HD so it may be future proof for when HD becomes used a bit more and it does Sat and DVB. I could get seperate cards for a similar price (maybe not HD though).

Its seems to be an ok card from my experiences. Its a pity there wasnt a hardware MPEG2 encoder on the analog side, then it would have been perfect.

I should point out though, you cant do DVB-T and DVB-S at the same time on this device. Its an either/or type of setup.

I am due to buy a new system as well as another Tuner (I have the nova-T PCI card). I'm looking at a low end AMD (I currently use an AMD 2500, I think thats the number) and was looking at an AMD 3500. (64 bit but running 32 bit OS and apps).

I guess my question now is, will that be enough for 2 lots of sw encoding?

sw encoding would only have been required if GB-PVR supported the analog input of this device, but it doesnt.

The digital DVB-T/DVB-S transmissions arrive already encoded. The encoding was done by the broadcaster prior to transmission.

[fluffykeith]

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

the HVR4000 and 3000 system requirements say that I need windows XP. Do they mean because of the included software or do they mean because of the drivers. I was hoping to run with win 2K as thats what I have spare.

cheers

Keith

[sub]

I dont know - I've not used Win2K with one of these devices.