New user - advice wanted please

[betlit]

One question though. What happens if you install another tv-card to have two tuners? I understand that both cards would need the arial plugging into them, but what about the output. Would I just need the one output from the 350?

yes. if you configure gb-pvr to use the hardware decoder (tv out) of the 350, everything is sent to it from all tuner cards.

the tuner and tv out of the 350 are completely independent. you can e.g. record something with the pvr 350 tuner and watch a previously recorded show at the same time... or watch live tv using the tv tuner of another card on the tv out, etc. etc.

[bluesxman]

In that case I now think i'm going to get the 350, at least if it doesn't work I can fall back on the tv-out on my graphics card.

One question though. What happens if you install another tv-card to have two tuners? I understand that both cards would need the arial plugging into them, but what about the output. Would I just need the one output from the 350?

Yes, the two tuners will enable you to record two things at once, you can't view two channels simultaneously.

[reckoning]

Great, thanks guys. I think I have a pretty good idea how it works and what card to get now.

Many thanks for everyone's help.

Will no doubt have some more questions when i've got the card though

[harrymattson]

WOW! Just about all the info here that I could have asked (I'm very new to all this too)
I'm using a Sky+ box at the moment that I am desperate to ditch as soon as the contract is up (I got it as I couldn't get to NZ to watch the Lions tour - good job really due to the results!)

My question really is due to the fact that I live out in the sticks and Digital Terrestrial TV is a non starter I am only able to receive satalite signals. Can the 350 and 500 (amongst others) cards interface to the LNB output or are they only for use with FTA terrestrial? If you can input the LNB sigs how about the viewing card to decode pay per view etc??

TIA guys
Matt

[sub]

Can the 350 and 500 (amongst others) cards interface to the LNB output or are they only for use with FTA terrestrial?

These devices are analog cards, so cant work with with terrestrial/satellite digital. They can receive analog signals from a external satellite receiver.

Alternatively you use a DVB-S card which can receive digital satellite broadcasts.

If you can input the LNB sigs how about the viewing card to decode pay per view etc??

Sorry, GB-PVR cant do this.

[reboot]

I would never get a 350. It only plays mpeg's, and it's stability is questionable. (along with Hauppauge's HD card, a mistake IMHO).
The 150, with your current Radeon card is plenty.
I ran a 250 with a Radeon 7000PCI, and it worked just fine.

[reckoning]

I would never get a 350. It only plays mpeg's, and it's stability is questionable. (along with Hauppauge's HD card, a mistake IMHO).
The 150, with your current Radeon card is plenty.
I ran a 250 with a Radeon 7000PCI, and it worked just fine.

Well the reason I was going to get the 350 was because someone said earlier on in this thread that the quality would be better through the 350 as opposed to through the tv out on my graphics card. That was the reason I was going for the 350. As I don't have any DIVX files etc, all my video files will be MPEG files anyway as i record the tv programes or convert my dvd collection, so only being able to play mpeg files should not be a problem i don't think.

I suppose I need to find out if the output from a 350 looks much better then the output from my video card, a Radeon 9800 pro. Has anyone got a 350 and can tell me the differnce between quality from the 350 comparted to the tv out on their graphics card, thanks.

[Pioneer4x4]

While I do not have a 350, I use a MVP. And on my TV (36" tube JVC not HD) it looks VERY good, much better than on my computer itself. And I have made mpgs of dvds with DVD2MPG (great plugin) and they look very comparably to the dvd from a dvdplayer, and I put mpgs from gbpvr on DVDs and play them from the standalone dvdplayer, and they look the same as from the mvp. I assume it is all because of not needing to muck around with the interlaced videos (they should stay interlaced for tv viewing), and hardware decoding.

So if the 350s hardware decode video out is comparable to the MVPs, it should look very nice, plus there is no CPU load decoding the file on playback. I have not tried viewing videos on my tv from a tv-out to compare.

[reckoning]

Thanks for the info Pioneer, not really sure what to go for now, the 350 or the 150. It all depends on the quality of the output. Although it sounds like the quality from the 350 would be good, if the 150 was just as good i'd go for the 150, if not i'd go for the 350. The processor loads doesn't really bother me.

I'm going to wait and see if anyone replies who's tried out a 350 and compared it to video out from a graphics card.

Edit: Just thought. If I buy a 350 and find that i'm having driver issues, can I just disable the hardware decoding and use software decoding and output via the graphics card i.e. get it to work the same as a 150?

Also if I put a dvd in my dvd recorder on the computer will I be able to watch the movie via the 350?

[harrymattson]

These devices are analog cards, so cant work with with terrestrial/satellite digital. They can receive analog signals from a external satellite receiver.

Alternatively you use a DVB-S card which can receive digital satellite broadcasts.


Sorry, GB-PVR cant do this.

Thakns for the tip!