Steeeeep Learning Curve... Help

[Hammerdown]

Took me an hour just to get ATSC OTA channels scanned and watching Live Tv. Picture Quality looks great! AC3 DD passthru is awsome. Some questions:

WinXP Pro
Kworld Plus HD 120 ATSC
GB-PVR v1.2.9

Shrink size of the Live Tv OSD??
Start in Live Tv mode?? (Skip the front end/main menu)

Can't get composite or svideo source working-
Added capture source
Found capture card type (Conexant Blackbird) by checking only show devices on this machine
Set to USA
Set to board #1
Tried every Composite and Svideo, External Tuners listed
Added a (dummy) channel
Launch Live Tv
When I get to what is supposed to be the composite or svideo input (between the highest and lowest ATSC channel), the video just stops at the last frame of the last ATSC channel. I never see video from that input and I can't change channels or back out of Live Tv mode with the mouse, I first have to change back to an ATSC channel with the keyboard.


Can't figure out simple recording
I'm watching live Tv and I want to record, but there is no button... OR... I want to set a manual timer but I can't set the channel or change the date, start time, end time, quality, type, name.


Biggest mystery of all- EPG
Don't even know where to start???? Is everything external based- xml's, plug-ins, online services/logins.... Can't this thing just read the guide info broadcast within the psip of each ota channel? I want the simplest setup for like 6 local ATSC OTA Network Tv.

[sub]

Start in Live Tv mode?? (Skip the front end/main menu)

Sorry, there is no option for doing this. It will be possible in the next release though.

Kworld Plus HD 120 ATSC

Can't get composite or svideo source working-
Added capture source
Found capture card type (Conexant Blackbird) by checking only show devices on this machine
Set to USA
Set to board #1
Tried every Composite and Svideo, External Tuners listed
Added a (dummy) channel
Launch Live Tv
When I get to what is supposed to be the composite or svideo input (between the highest and lowest ATSC channel), the video just stops at the last frame of the last ATSC channel. I never see video from that input and I can't change channels or back out of Live Tv mode with the mouse, I first have to change back to an ATSC channel with the keyboard.

This device isnt usable for analog - it lacks the required hardware MPEG2 encoder.

Can't figure out simple recording
I'm watching live Tv and I want to record, but there is no button...

Press Ctrl-K while watching live tv.

OR... I want to set a manual timer but I can't set the channel or change the date, start time, end time, quality, type, name.

You can use the "Manual Rec" button in the Recordings screen to do this.

Biggest mystery of all- EPG
Don't even know where to start???? Is everything external based- xml's, plug-ins, online services/logins....

The vast majority of north american users here use the Schedules Direct service. Its cheap, reliable, and easy to use.

Can't this thing just read the guide info broadcast within the psip of each ota channel?

No, the PSIP EPG info in north america is next to useless. The vast majority of channels only contain a half days worth of listings, which is no good for a PVR. Not worth me wasting time implementing support for it. DVB countries fair alot better, and often get 7 or so days of listings from the EPG info in the stream.

[JEF]

"Start in Live Tv mode?? (Skip the front end/main menu)"

I can start mine in live TV.

Right click the icon, select properties and add this to the target -direct "Live TV"

[Hammerdown]

This device isnt usable for analog - it lacks the required hardware MPEG2 encoder.

Well, good thing I have a real DVR for Satellite. Guess I will only be using this app for ATSC recording. Dscaler works good with this card for analog without hardware mpeg2 encoder, so I'll live.

Press Ctrl-K while watching live tv....You can use the "Manual Rec" button in the Recordings screen to do this.

I finally figured all this out. Working good for me now.

The vast majority of north american users here use the Schedules Direct service. Its cheap, reliable, and easy to use....

Cheap... You mean there is no free solution? Guess I'm still using manual recording. Oh well, I'm used to it.

I can start mine in live TV. Right click the icon, select properties and add this to the target -direct "Live TV"

Nice, that works fo me too. Thanks

Any way to shutdown PC after last recording of the night?
Any way to shrink/change look of the Live Tv OSD?

[sub]

The vast majority of north american users here use the Schedules Direct service. Its cheap, reliable, and easy to use....

Cheap... You mean there is no free solution? Guess I'm still using manual recording. Oh well, I'm used to it.

There are various utilities that users use for generating xmltv files for free, which GB-PVR can use. These utilities get the listings from various sources (yahoo, MCE, zap2it website scraping etc), but these are generally more work for the user. Given how cheap and easy Schedules Direct is, I'd personally save myself the hassle and go with that, but these other options exist for those that dont want to spend a single cent.

Any way to shutdown PC after last recording of the night?

There is nothing built in to do this. Some people set their PCs to auto hibernate/standby after x minutes of inactivity.

Any way to shrink/change look of the Live Tv OSD?

There is a lot of stuff that can be changed about the OSD. You'd need to create your own skin to do this.

[Hammerdown]

There are various utilities that users use for generating xmltv files for free, which GB-PVR can use...

Keeps getting steeper...

...Some people set their PCs to auto hibernate/standby after x minutes of inactivity.

ok

There is a lot of stuff that can be changed about the OSD. You'd need to create your own skin to do this.

Almost vertical... Where are these settings at?

[sub]

There are various utilities that users use for generating xmltv files for free, which GB-PVR can use...

Keeps getting steeper...

Thats not really a GB-PVR problem though, but rather your problem for living in a country with no easy access to free EPG information. There is no freely available EPG data for north america that GB-PVR can supply, but GB-PVR makes it painless to select a listing file to supply your own listings. These free utilities that generate these listing files and make life difficult for you are nothing to do with the GB-PVR project, and GB-PVR has no say over how easy/complex they are.

If you'd been here before about 9 months ago, life would have been much easier for you. For several years before that every north amercian user here was using the free zap2it data service, and easily getting 14 days worth of listings. The decided to terminate this service, and instead have the same data sold through Schedules Direct.

There is a lot of stuff that can be changed about the OSD. You'd need to create your own skin to do this.

Almost vertical... Where are these settings at?

I'm not suprised you consider this "almost vertical", its not intended to be the sort of thing that users would tweak. Its more your hacker type of task. The OSD appearance is defined in C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\skin2\blue\OSD\skin.xml.