Knowing where to start!

[tdcp]

I am totally new to all this pvr set up, so I'm hopeing someone will help me out here. I have a wintv 350 in a dedicated P4 2500 set up. I have managed to get the card working well using the wintv 2000 software and can see good live tv and record using schedule feature.
My tv has an svideo, scart and red white and yellow connectors on it. I have got it set up at the moment with an svideo cable from the graphics card ( not the wintv 350) into the svideo on the tv. (this seems to be the only way I can see the desktop on the tv to be able to set anything up)
The main problem is that the wintv 2000 software seems too basic and the GB PVR software is the best option I have seen with tv listings for recording. Having tried to set it up all channels seem to appear in the tv listings (cable directly from the sky box out jack into the back of the wintv 350 card) but if I try to record anything I just get fuzz. Also if I try to watch live tv it just says "video is playing back using tv out press home to return to menu" this is accompanied by a black screen.
I obviously havent got this cabled up correctly and/or do not have the settings right in the software.
Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated to save me sitting here for another night trying every combination I can find.

[Talcum]

Go into 'Capture Source' on the GBPVR configuration. Edit the 'Recording Source' . Try using 'Fixed Channel, External Tuner'. I believe the Sky Box is acting as the actual tuner and you can't use the channel up/down options.

Apply these settings and try to play live TV. If it comes up...'Bingo'!! This will limit you to recording only what channel is currently listed on the Sky Box.

Give it a go and let me know.

[gEd]

welcome to gbpvr!

fuzz:
you need to configure the 350 to use the appropriate composite/svideo source in the direct recording configuration.

"video is playing back using tv out press home to return to menu"
you have set your hardware decoder device to pvr-350, which means all gbovr output is being sent via the svideo out on the 350. If the 350 was reliable (search the forums) this would be fine but itsn't. change this to "none-use software decode" to get the output via your video card.

hth

[tdcp]

Firstly thanks for your help. I have tried your suggestions above and now have the following set up.

svideo cable from graphics card (not pvr) to tv.
Playback
Hardware decoder device : none use software decoder
software mpeg-2 playback: system default
vmr9
Capture source
Recording source : direct recording plugin
epg source : Bleb (uk)
Channel changer : no channel changer
Recording source settings :
Card type: pvr 350
Country UK
Board number : capture device #1
source : s-video, external tuner (cable from sky box rf out 2 to pvr 350)

Now when I click on "live tv" or try to "watch" a programme via listing I get a message
error : object reference not set to an instance of an object

Hope you can persavere and help me get this sorted.

[stefan]

In your gbpvr folder, there are log files (ending with .log). If you can zip them all up and post them here, I think we can find the problem faster... "object reference not set..." message is simply .net2.0's way of saying "something is wrong and I have no idea what it is"

[tdcp]

Here are the log files as requested. Hope they are of soime help.[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

[gEd]

09:22:53.073 VERBOSE Capture Device is based on BlackBird architecture

I'm pretty sure this means that you have the capture device to something other than a pvr350.

09:22:53.089 VERBOSE Capture Device is using Conexant (derived) drivers
09:22:53.089 VERBOSE Loading filter names
09:22:53.089 VERBOSE Found names:
09:22:53.089 VERBOSE Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Crossbar
09:22:53.089 VERBOSE Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture
09:22:53.089 VERBOSE Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II TvTuner
09:22:53.089 VERBOSE Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II TvAudio
09:22:53.198 VERBOSE ConnectPins: 'Audio Decoder Out' to 'Analog Audio In'
09:22:53.323 ERROR Failed to get capture filter output pin. This will cause encoder auto-detection to fail

[tdcp]

Nearly there. I think!
I checked the capture card settings and indeed they had somehow changed to a pvr 150. Reset everything and re-ran the update epg and I now get no error messages when using live tv or watch via the programme listings.
However. the picture is barely visable. Just visable enough that I can see it is a tv channel, and I must not have them tuned in properly. Any pointers to get me completed?

[tdcp]

P.S I am using fixed channel, external tuner as the source with cable set as the tuning. I have assumed that the sky digibox fits this discription, but then I have assumed wrong on many occations in the past.

[stefan]

That would probably do it. Try changing the fixed channels to the ones "above and below" and see if that fixes it. However, using coax from your digibox to the pvr-350 is not the best solution, you'd be much better off if you could use a scart cable or s-video.