To PCH or not...that is the question

[huck]

Is it possible to have both the PCH and the MVP up by my TV and just use MVP for music duty and PCH for TV?

[mvallevand]

When it comes to the server hardware requirements, I would say the GBPVR server can actually be less powerful then if you use an MVP because of reduced requirement for transcoding so most people are safe if they have decents disks and networks that can sustain 40Mbs

Psycik, I disagree that most new formats can be added with ease to a PC. I think many people also going to need a newer PC too or a video card that is as expensive as the PCH. We are just starting to see the beginning of the transition to h264 with new audio formats, mkv files, m2ts, BluRay etc and many machines are too obsolete for these. The good thing is a full system now is only about 3 times the cost of a PCH.

I just wish I wasn't stalled in helping make this easier by offering more things in the client. Syabas are not making this easy at all.

Martin

[mvallevand]

Is it possible to have both the PCH and the MVP up by my TV and just use MVP for music duty and PCH for TV?

Sure. It also depends on your music listening needs. If you are using sub's MusicLibrary, Internet Radio and UbuRadio the PCH is probably good enough, and GBPVR is world's better than the PCH's native player.

Martin

[zed]

Zed...so its your opinion that I could get the WinTV HVR1600 (I only have PCI, not PCIe), put that in my P4 2.8GHz jalopy in the basement, then get a PCH A110 and hoook that up to my TV (probably a vizio 32"...lcd vs plasma still deciding) and have a working system? The weak link being the PC? If its the killer I can upgrade that but all the rest of the components are enough?

You'll need the 1600 regardless so why not get one and put it in the jalopy and see how it goes? My guess is that it'll work OK for capture and playback on a PCH. If not, upgrade it...you'll already have the 1600 card. I have a P4 3.0GHz HP box that I used to capture OTA HD using both a DVICO and a Twinhan card (at different times) before the 1600 came out. I played back on another client PC (before I got the PCH) and it worked OK (after much farting about with drivers and decoders in the client) but the PCH PQ is still better. I have the PCH connected via HDMI to our 65" Mitsubishi HDTV. The client box (which cost twice as much to put together as a PCH) is driving a 32" Viewsonic HDTV over HDMI. I don't find the lack of comskip to be all that bad but I seem to watch a lot of PBS stuff that doesn't have commercials. I don't use GB-PVR for live TV, only recordings. Oh...and plan on a bigger hard drive...HD recordings get big fast .

I can't claim to be an expert, I can only say that my config works pretty well for what I use it for.

[philly_phenom]

I'd go for the PCH - no worries about codecs & I have no idea how you'd find a PC capable of playing HD recordings back for $200

[gazoo]

I'd go for the PCH - no worries about codecs & I have no idea how you'd find a PC capable of playing HD recordings back for $200

You can get one for $300.
Yes I'm in the "for PC" field. You don't have to spend a fortune on your pc client either. But if it's strictly a money issue, the PCH would beat everytime. So if you're on a budget, go PCH. If you can afford $100-$130 more, go for the PCH. Hell, I might even do PCH for some of the guest rooms etc. However, on TVs like my bedroom where I spend hours and hours of viewing, I opted for the PC client.

[huck]

Gazoo...can you give some more details? For one, you say client PC...so do you still have a server PC elsewhere with tuner/capture card and use PC-by-the-TV just as client? Can I have my server machine be by the TV instead, so I only have one PC?

What will $300 get me...what would I buy with that? How much of a headache are the codecs etc in your opinion?

[Anthony]

I have been wrestling with the same PCH or PC question, but the lack of Comskip has been a significant negative for the PCH. For PCH users, how well does the skip function work to jump over the commercials? My wife and I have become addicted to the automagic commercial-free TV that Comskip produces, so returning to manual skipping seems a regression. Is there any hope of getting Comskip working on the PCH?

I have an older TVix M-4000P media player, which is a lot like the Popcorn Hour player. I use GBPVR with a couple of Hauppauge HVR-1600 tuner cards to record both analog shows from cable, and HD digital shows from an antenna. All play back perfectly on my TVix, streaming over my home network from the PC in my office to the TV in our livingroom.

As for commercials, I have GBPVR record the name of each show in a file when it is finished recording. Then each evening I have a script run Comskip to find the commercials, and feed the results into VideoReDo to physically cut the commercials from the show. This not only reduces the drive space needed to store the shows, but it usually reduces one hour shows down to 40 minutes or so, and two hour shows are often around 90 minutes. No manual skipping needed, and we can watch the shows we find interesting in less time (allowing us to watch additional shows, if we wish).

I've attached my batch files and instructions if you are interested.

Anthony

[mvallevand]

You can get one for $300.
Yes I'm in the "for PC" field. You don't have to spend a fortune on your pc client either. But if it's strictly a money issue, the PCH would beat everytime. So if you're on a budget, go PCH. If you can afford $100-$130 more, go for the PCH. Hell, I might even do PCH for some of the guest rooms etc. However, on TVs like my bedroom where I spend hours and hours of viewing, I opted for the PC client.

Obviously I am a big fan of media extenders but I think $300 is totally unrealistic for a PC client with solid, quiet BlueRay/h264 capable HDMI audio and video @ 1080p24. I am trying to piece together a Intel G45 solution and I would be happy with $450. When I first say the Dell Studio PC I thought it was expensive (it still isn't as capable as the PCH) but it turns out to be competive.

Barebone rough estimates

Vista Home Premium $120.
Wife friendly case & quiet PS $100
MCE remote $25
MB w/integrated a/v $100
CPU $100
2MB DRAM $50
Small SATA HD $50
Cyberlink/PowerDVD/TMC $50 (for codecs missing in Windows, DVD iso, h264 etc)
Cheap mouse keyboard $20
DVD for install $30

Total $645 and you can't convince me it's going to be a plug and play experience.

You might be able to harvest some parts from older systems but they are typically too noisy, obsolete or not suitable for the living room or bedroom.

Martin

[ilovejedd]

I think a lot of times, people don't count in the cost of the operating system and peripherals, hence, the $300 quote.

It is possible to build one for cheaper, though, if you look for deals and you've got some spare parts you can recycle.

All prices in US Dollars.

Vista Home Premium OEM $100 or XP Home OEM $85
hec 7K09 $40
Foxconn A7GM-S $67
AMD Athlon X2 4850e $67
Kingston 2GB DDR2 800 SDRAM $32
500GB SATA2 HDD $70
Samsung DVD burner $24
MCE Remote $25

Software/Codecs
CoreAVC $15 or MPC HomeCinema H264 (DXVA) - free
Vista - included MPEG2 and AC3 decoders
XP - free MPEG2 and AC3 decoders (Gabest, DScaler, etc)
GB-PVR!!!

Misc
spare keyboard/mouse

Vista system - $425 ($440 w/CoreAVC)
XP system - $410 ($425 w/CoreAVC)

Even with the lower price, that's already two Popcorn Hour's right there.

For an initial set-up such as the OP's, though, I'd scrap the old PC and build a full-fledge GB-PVR based HTPC and then, just use Popcorn Hour's for other TV's in the house. Of course, that depends on their budget and time, too. The Popcorn Hour is no doubt the cheaper option and would require less set-up time than an HTPC.