Couple of questions, mostly about a Radeon 7000

[RickBungle]

I just started messing with GB-PVR, here's what I have so far.

-An older workstation with a Pentium 4 (don't know the speed off the top of my head, it's descent) and 1gb of RAM.

-HVR-1600 card

-Radeon 7000 going out S-Video converted to RCA and into a normal TV (nothing fancy, just a plain old TV). I don't need HD, as long as I have a clear picture I'm happy.

-Using on board sound card

-Windows XP Pro that I leaned way down using nLite

Here's my situation:
I've been messing with live TV, haven't started trying to record or anything yet. Everything works fine for the most part except the audio occasional stutters, mostly when changing channels, no big deal, but the picture looks somewhat pixelated. It keeps up and is pretty smooth, but it isn't as clear as I think it should be.

And here's my question:
I have an extra 4x AGP slot (but it has to be low profile so I think my options will be limited), would a better graphics card help with the pixelation? I guess I don't know what is causing the pixelation.

I also have an old sound blaster card I could throw in to help out with CPU load.

[mikeh49]

First thought is that a Radeon 7000 is not powerful enough. I had one and found I had to go up to a Geforce 6200 to get decent standard definition (720X480) analog performance with S-video output to a CRT television. At best, the Radeon will be very marginal. In my experience, you should set your resolution to 720X480 and try to get hardware acceleration (DXVA) working.

What kind of signal are you getting with the 1600? OTA analog channels, OTA digital channels, analog cable, QAM? Your pixelation suggests digital, since video card shortfalls seem to be stuttering, skipping frames, etc. Therefore, your problem may be in the signal. For OTA, do you have a decent antenna?

I'm not sure how to best configure your hardware for capturing OTA digital and displaying on a SD TV. Someone else on the forum probably has the answer.

A common suggestion is to get things working in WinTV and then move on to GBPVR. This method proves out the hardware, drivers and signal separately from the GBPVR issues of decoders, renderers, etc.

[RickBungle]

I'm actually receiving analog cable.
I'll see how WinTV works with it, I didn't even mess with it, I jumped straight into GB-PVR!

[mikeh49]

That helps. You may have a chance with analog cable. I'm still not sure about the pixelation, however.

Anyway, search the forum for posts by csy to find the setup instructions for best video. He has both nvidia and ATI instructions, if I recall. Also, you may want to get the latest drivers for the Radeon.

In GBPVR, start out with the overlay renderer (I think it's still available with the latest versions).

As a last resort, get an older version of GBPVR (99.x maybe) that contains the less demanding GBPVR interface. This looks good on SD CRT TVs and worked fine for me. It doesn't have all the latest features, and some things may not work (net radio), but the basic PVR functions do work. You do need to get one that works with Schedules Direct for EPG info in the US, however. Also, sub does not support anything but the current version, so you're at the mercy of the forum.

My conclusion after following this for a few years, is that GBPVR needs reasonably modern hardware. TV is more demanding than I expected, and needs a fair amount of power, especially in the video card.