so, I'm making my first media center...

[flyswatta]

I guess my main question is how would you connect all this stuff together though?

Also I believe that the satellite box has svideo out, but how would that help?

one other note: I dont have a cable box. I just have a normal coax wire coming out of the wall for my cable.

I have an xbox, GBPVR, dvd-player and satellite dish all hook to one svideo input to my TV in the living room via an a/v switch ($20-$30 for a manual one), In the bedroom I have a dvd-player, satellite dish, VCR and GBPVR (MediaMVP) via an a/v switch w/ an rf modulator ($30-$40 for a manual one) (coax input to the TV).

There's also "auto sensing" switches out there in that price range.

You could have svideo coming from your satellite STB into a PVR150 (or similar card) and the cable coax going into a QAM tuner (if you want digital) or PRV150(or similar for analog - in this case I'd probably go for a PVR500 for both satellite and cable). Then it sounds like you'd want OTA ATSC - you'd need a card for that too - there's a number of them on the market, we talk about them frequently in the "hardware" section of the forum.

The big thing is to look on the wiki for supported tuner cards - that'll be a nice list to get you started - plus everything on the list has been tested and should work with GBPVR.

As for the remote, there are a number of solutions. If you get a tuner card with a remote and ir blaster, then you can use that (changing channels on the satellite STB) or you can get an add on IR blaster - there's some USB and serial ones available.

[csmaster2005]

can someone please explain the difference between the 150 and 250 for me please? I'm a bit confused.

flyswatta - for your bedroom setup, not sure what a mudulator is, but is it something like http://www.thetwistergroup.com/store/ima...E5445.JPG?

I take it you connect everything to the modulator, then it all goes out to the tuner via s-video input? (or maybe coax..?) then you output to your tv via the graphics card, and probally ouput via s-video as well?
How is all the quality? I heard s-video can't support hd quality, but not sure. Also, you manually switch over between things?

[flyswatta]

Yeh, that looks like an expensive rf-modulator. Here's a more affordable one - it's also an a/v switch. You only need it if you don't have a composite or svideo input on your tv. If you DO have svideo or composite, you can just get an a/v switch. Most of them have both svideo and composite inputs. You feed the dvd, vcr, computer (svideo), and whatever else into it, and then there's an s-video or composite from the switch to the input on the tv. To switch inputs, click the appropriate button on the switch. Some of them are now auto sensing, which means that you just turn on the device and it will auto switch to the input.

You are correct - you will not get HD quality over svideo. Instead of us playing a guessing game, what inputs do you have on your TV? Is it an HDTV or SD? Does it have an ATSC tuner?

[flyswatta]

can someone please explain the difference between the 150 and 250 for me please? I'm a bit confused.

Not much difference these days. Here's the breakdown on the Hauppauge site

In the olden days, (3 years ago ) 150's USED to be software cards and the 250's and 350's were hardware encoder cards. That changed a couple of years ago and the 150's started coming out with hardware encoding. The 250's are basically older technology now. The 350's had hardware encoding and decoding, but I don't think it's supported in GBPVR anymore.

One thing to look out for - the MCE versions are generally cheaper (you don't need MCE to use it), but don't include a remote or ir-blaster.

[sub]

In the olden days, (3 years ago ) 150's USED to be software cards and the 250's and 350's were hardware encoder cards. That changed a couple of years ago and the 150's started coming out with hardware encoding. The 250's are basically older technology now. The 350's had hardware encoding and decoding, but I don't think it's supported in GBPVR anymore.

Not quite right. The PVR150s were never software encoder cards.

PVR250/350 were the first generation of hardware MPEG2 encoder devices. A couple of years later the PVR150 (and PVR500) were released. This second generation used a similar design to the PVR250, but combined a couple of chips, making it cheaper for Hauppauge to manufacture.

[csmaster2005]

so I take it there's no real difference between the 2? So either or will work?

flys - if your computer is plugged into the the switch, then what exactly are you running into your computer, and what are you using the compute rfor?


also, any tips on where to get a 150 MCE version cheaply? I cant find a cheap one, only place decent is ebay, but even then not too much luck with mce version.

Also, no one's mentioned anything regarding hdtv, nor hdtv via s-video.

Also since your pvr 150's are MCE, what remote are you using? And what exactly does the remote read with? Just the software on the PC I take it right?

[csmaster2005]

Also one more note. Some 150's have audio input, some dont.
How exactly are you guys handling audio?

Once again, I appreciate all the help, it's been great!

[flyswatta]

Not quite right. The PVR150s were never software encoder cards.

PVR250/350 were the first generation of hardware MPEG2 encoder devices. A couple of years later the PVR150 (and PVR500) were released. This second generation used a similar design to the PVR250, but combined a couple of chips, making it cheaper for Hauppauge to manufacture.

Ah, quite right. I got mixed up with the WinGoTV cards which were software cards.

[csmaster2005]

also flys 1 thing I noticed I forgot to mention. The tv I'm building this for is a 42" plasma EDTV (not quite hdtv). I do have a different hdtv that I may experiment with later, but the main focus is for the edtv.

[flyswatta]

flys - if your computer is plugged into the the switch, then what exactly are you running into your computer, and what are you using the compute rfor?

There's a couple of different setups that you can do. Some people use the svideo out of the video card to the tv and also have it hooked up to their monitor. The video card will register it as 2 monitors and they put GBPVR on the "TV monitor".
Some will dedicate the PC as a PVR and just have s-video out to the TV with no monitor/keyboard/mouse (pretty common configuration)
I personally have a client/server setup with a Hauppauge MediaMVP (a device about the size of a home router) that plays back GBPVR over my computer network.

also, any tips on where to get a 150 MCE version cheaply? I cant find a cheap one, only place decent is ebay, but even then not too much luck with mce version.

I just went to pricewatch.com and the cheapest was $70 :eek: Prices have gone up a bit! There are other brands you can look around for if budget is an issue - use the wiki list as a guide to avoid compatiblity issues. YMMV, but I've had good luck with my $20 Emuzed MAUI III (from ebay)

Also, no one's mentioned anything regarding hdtv, nor hdtv via s-video.

I was just pricing a video card today (Sapphire x1650? that had component out for HDTV). We still don't know what inputs your tv has, so it's hard to say how to connect to it. Can you list what inputs you have?

Also since your pvr 150's are MCE, what remote are you using? And what exactly does the remote read with? Just the software on the PC I take it right?

Personally, I use the remote for the MediaMVP, actually, I'm using a universal learning remote to cut down on the number of remotes. You can use just about an IR remote if you have an IR receiver that understands it. For a while I was using an old Packard Bell serial reciever and remote ($5 off ebay) (replaced the remote with a universal remote) using Winlirc (converts the IR signals to computer keyboard/mouse commands). A lot of the other members use HIP (similar to WinLirc, also free). A lot of people have had luck with the USB blaster - I can't think of the name of it right now, but it's a reciever and sender (for something like your satellite STB).

Basically the general rule of thumb is that the cheaper you go, the more work is involved in configuring/troubleshooting. I tend for the cheaper route (budget limited for computer stuff - If I could only convince the wife...) but have spent a lot of time getting stuff to work.