Is February 2009 the end of GBPVR for me?

[zehd]

Thanks, Frank! GBPVR is pretty darn amazing that can keep up with all that stuff in the tuner priority/conflict thing.

Question: I have a total of three tuners in my system, so would I want to only select Cartoon Network in the channel list? Wouldn't that make it so my EPG only showed Cartoon Network for the other three tuners? Or when I download the EPG for the Svideo capture source, should I then remove all other channels other than Cartoon Network, which would leave the EPGs for the other capture sources intact?

Now I have to go out to SchedulesDirect and find out if they actually have a digital EPG listing for my area. It was difficult enough to get the analog one....

Thanks again. This might just be possible to keep GBPVR "limping" along for a while longer for me.

You can use the same xmltv file as your other sources just turn all of the channels you don't want to see

Yes, if you only want to record cartoon network on s-video, then that should be the only channel enabled, and disable the channel for the othe capture sources

[zehd]

hmmmmm..... Do you think Comcast Customer Support would help me with that? Haha.

No they most likely won't

[Pilot]

Okay, this setup (adding a composite capture source using the one STB I have) seems to be working fine. Since I don't have an IR blaster, I'm using the STB's feature for scheduling a recording (it turns on and changes the channel 6 minutes before the start of the show and stays on 6 minutes after the show and GBPVR is set to record with a 5-minute buffer). I'm testing it now, so we'll see how everything works out.

I did initially have a problem because of my PVR150 driver. Apparently, I have a PVR150MCE (forgot about that), and I was getting an error message that said that said something like the source I was creating didn't have the correct hardware installed or something like that. Anyway, apparently when I setup my dedicated HTPC from scratch (a few months ago), I just used whatever drivers Windows XP found for me. Oops. Now I have genuine Hauppauge drivers, so that error quickly went away when setting up that composite capture source. I also had to do a bit of research about two different channel lineups with SchedulesDirect and downloading the EPG. I just deactivated all the channels in the digital lineup but Cartoon Network (which I'm sure is what you were trying to tell me), and now my EPG just shows all my basic analog cable lineup + channel 124 (Cartoon Network).

Am I correct in my thinking that my GBPVR system now has a total of four tuners so I could (theoretically) record four sources at a time?

I think it's time to get an IR blaster, as the number of channels is only going to increase and using two different devices to control external tuner channel changes/recordings has one too many methods of failure. I take it from other threads that the Hauppauge one is NOT the one to get? I also need to get a SVideo cable. I can't believe that I can't find one of those laying around here somewhere! I remember having like a dozen of them and never using them, but of course I need one now, so POOF....they're all gone!

Thanks again to Frank and everyone else who replied in this thread. Sorry for all the doom and gloom about my GBPVR/Comcast situation. Hopefully things won't be so bad as soon as I initially thought they would be. I'll just keep adding more and more channels to the digital schedule lineup when needed, and then later add another STB if I start getting recording conflicts.

[zehd]

Am I correct in my thinking that my GBPVR system now has a total of four tuners so I could (theoretically) record four sources at a time?

No (with 150s) two cards means two simultaneous recordings

[philly_phenom]

Get the STB's, but forget the blasters - firewire channel changing is much smoother.

[Pilot]

No (with 150s) two cards means two simultaneous recordings

Okay, this is a little weird and kind of glitchy. Maybe I have something configured wrong. I have a PVR500 and a PVR150 in my HTPC. That's a total of three analog tuners. I then have my Comcast (Motorola) STB going through the composite connection on my PVR150, but only for one digital channel.

I can go into my EPG and set four shows recording (three regular analog channels and the one digital channel by way of the STB). All four show that they're recording. However, only the two PVR500 tuners and ONE of the PVR150 recordings are actually working. The recording that works is the composite connection, but if I start the built-in tuner recording first, then it works until the composite recording is started and then the composite connection takes over the PVR150.

Now I understand that this must be a limitation of the PVR150 (that it can't record from both the composite connection and the built-in tuner at the same time) and that I cannot set up a separate recording source (like Capture Source #4) because I then get an error saying that I do not have that hardware installed, but should GBPVR be allowing this to happen? Shouldn't it report a conflict if either the internal tuner or the composite connection is already recording something?

[sub]

Are you sure you set the device number correctly on the new capture source? It'd either have been #1, #2 or #3, depending on which device was your PVR150. It wouldnt have been #4.

[Pilot]

Get the STB's, but forget the blasters - firewire channel changing is much smoother.

How does one configure GBPVR to use fireware channel changing? I don't see that in the config anywhere.

My HTPC motherboard doesn't have any onboard firewire ports, so I'd have to buy a card. I have a PCI Express 1x slot available, and it's not unreasonable to find a firewire card for that type of slot. However, they typically cost as much as USB UIRT or other IR based solution. Which is easier to setup? I can't find any docs in the Wiki or the forum about firewire channel changing (although I'm pretty unsuccessful with searches on this forum).

[drlava]

STBs should become free again if they are a requirement for cable.
I don't have cable (use OTA HD digital) but all this talk of the companies Lincoln and Hamilton-ing the cutomers to death makes me want to keep far away.

[Pilot]

Are you sure you set the device number correctly on the new capture source? It'd either have been #1, #2 or #3, depending on which device was your PVR150. It wouldnt have been #4.

Thanks for checking in on this thread, Sub. I found the problem -- for the PVR150 recording source config I used the Hauppauge PVR150 capture card type, but for the PVR150 composite recording source config I used the Hauppauge PVR150MCE capture card type. I did have them both correctly set to Capture Device #1, but because they were using two different (but compatible) capture card types, they were still be treated as two different recording sources by GBPVR (at least for conflicts). I just made sure both capture card types were set to PVR150MCE and now the conflict function works as it should.

The tray icon still reports four different tuning sources though, and even when the internal tuner in the PVR150 is recording, the composite source shows that it's sleeping. Which I guess is accurate (since the composite connection is not in use). Come to think of it, it's probably best this way because the tray icon is showing what recording sources are in use -- not what cards are in use.

Sorry for the false alarm and thanks again.