ATI 650 will only show Digital Tuner in NPVR - GBVR works fine - I'm stumped..

[johnsonx42]

cd means "change directory"... sorry for this gripe, but it's tough supporting people who have no understanding of the command prompt... moving on...

you were very close. you just need to enclose the path in quotes since there is a space in it. type it this way:

Code:

regsvr32 "e:\Program Files\NPVR-WINTV7_FILES\HCW_MCMPEG2MUX.AX"

edit: see, sub's more patient than me, he managed to help without griping ... plus obviously griping takes more time

[All Steamed Out]

Thank you sub for the kind assistance - the quotation marks were the issue. I have now registered that file. Interestingly enough, the error message still persists when attempting to register the other two even though I am following the identical procedure. But I am now making progress. The Analog tuner is now recognized, I have now associated my channels from my XML scraper I was using with GBPVR. The EPG updated fine. I took a hit or miss approach to setting up the decoders and finally hit on the correct choice for Live TV (the ATI MPEG video decoder for both MPEG2 video and H264, and simply guessed at the rest). Is there a thread that provides basic setup info for the overall settings? Also, this is a minor point but when I go to full screen I no longer can see the upper right buttons to either minimize or re-size the window. I have to close the app and then reopen it. I am on a 23" monitor using 1920x1080 res. if that matters. Is there a keyboard command to return the window to partial screen size?

Thanks again for your help. I can already see it is a big improvement.

[sub]

Also, this is a minor point but when I go to full screen I no longer can see the upper right buttons to either minimize or re-size the window.

You can press alt-enter to toggle between window and fullscreen mode.

[johnsonx42]

Interestingly enough, the error message still persists when attempting to register the other two even though I am following the identical procedure.

Don't worry about the other two; you only need the mux since your card has a hardware encoder.

I took a hit or miss approach to setting up the decoders and finally hit on the correct choice for Live TV (the ATI MPEG video decoder for both MPEG2 video and H264, and simply guessed at the rest).

It probably won't make any difference, but you can leave the H.264 video decoder disabled, along with all the audio decoders except MPEG-1. The general recommendation so far has been to only enable the decoder types you will actually use; analog cards produce strictly MPEG-2 Video and MPEG-1 Layer 2 Audio. When the time comes to use your digital tuner, you'll likely also need an AC3 decoder as we do here down south.

[johnsonx42]

Thank you sub for the kind assistance

Oh, sure, one minor bit of ribbing and now we're all gushing about sub's kind assistance, nothing for little ol' me :p

Is there a thread that provides basic setup info for the overall settings?

I'm afraid so far my Getting Started sticky thread is all there is. Others are working on a new wiki, but it's mostly just a shell as of yet: http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/N-PVR/N-PVR

The sticky already has more stuff in it than I ever intended, but I may see about adding a section about decoders and other aspects of the Settings screen.

[All Steamed Out]

Hi Johnson - I apologize for not acknowledging your detailed assistance - and really appreciate it. All meant in a spirit of good humour....oops humor (there I go, typing in Canadian again - or should I say "Imperial", kudos to sub down in Wellington - he'd understand..).

I noticed that (as was the case in GBPVR) you can no longer set the bitrate for the various quality settings. In GB I was using for high quality a variable of 7500 and that would get me about 3.3GB per hour of recording. I noticed that with NPVR the best setting yielded 2.37GB on a first test recording. It didn't seem to look any worse on an SDTV or my PC monitor. Is it fair to say that the NPVR settings are as high as is reasonable given the input quality (analog cable)?

BTW - is it possible to set a manual recording? I can't seem to see a way to do it. The program guide is great and visually a big improvement.

Also, on the Alt+Enter to go return from full screen. I notice that if I use it, and the size returns to the lower right of the screen - then I close the app. Then re-open it - it opens at the same size in the lower right, but is actually at full screen with 80% off screen in the lower right. I then drag it up and corner-arrow it down to the proper size and position it. Then if I close and re-open it, it opens properly. Is this way it should happen?

[johnsonx42]

No apology needed of course, I was just kiddin' around...

I have read comments about not being able to set the recording quality. I think that feature is just not implemented yet. It's the whole beta thing...

For a manual recording, you can so far only do that from the NEWA web interface (access instructions in the sticky, end of the first post); you'll find a manual recording link near the top of the tv guide and search pages I believe.

Regarding the screen size and position issue, I think that's part of a bug that was mostly squashed in 1.5.28 or maybe 1.5.24... believe me, it was much worse before.

[All Steamed Out]

Yes, it definitely appears as a work in progress - but definitely going to be a big step forward from GB. I did install 1.5.28 from the outset, so that is the version I am using. There isn't much that can be controlled while watching a recording as can be done in GB. I can't see a way to either pause it, or mouse up to the slide bar and attempt a drag - I assume that's all in the works with further releases. I did find that Crtl+S will close either Live TV or recording playback and return to the main menu. Ctrl+P didn't do anything. Is there a list of keystroke commands kicking around anywhere?

Actually, I almost never watch a recording in the player itself (either GB or NP), only Live TV. I use a video editor to extract the show clips between commercials and drag into a new timeline, then export to a DVD file set. I then watch in PowerDVD 10 Ultra. It does a nice job of an upscaling attempt. But mostly, it has a "Smart Stretch" feature which does a near flawless job of taking 4:3 ratio SDTV and shaping it for a 16:9 screen. Any distortion is virtually invisible.

[sub]

Yes, it definitely appears as a work in progress - but definitely going to be a big step forward from GB. I did install 1.5.28 from the outset, so that is the version I am using. There isn't much that can be controlled while watching a recording as can be done in GB. I can't see a way to either pause it, or mouse up to the slide bar and attempt a drag - I assume that's all in the works with further releases. I did find that Crtl+S will close either Live TV or recording playback and return to the main menu. Ctrl+P didn't do anything. Is there a list of keystroke commands kicking around anywhere?

Personally I dont use a mouse for controlling it. It accepts the same keyboard shortcuts as GBPVR. Like:

Ctrl-Q, Pause
Ctrl-P, Play
Ctrl-S, Stop
Ctrl-RightArrow, skip forward a minute
Ctrl-LeftArrow, skip back a minute
Ctrl-F, skip forward 10 seconds
Ctrl-S, skip back 10 seconds
etc...

[johnsonx42]

Is there a list of keystroke commands kicking around anywhere?

Quoth the sticky: "NPVR reads MCE remotes and keypresses by default. The file keymappings.xml in the NPVR data directory lists and defines the keys."

That is found in the last section of the third post. In fairness, until now it was under the heading "Remote Control Help"; now it says "Keyboard and Remote Control Help"