Newbie building WinXP-Home PVR

[jtaylor75]

I'm a newbie to PVR, so I apologize for my ignorance. First, my specs: P4 3.0 GHz Dell 4600 with a Hauppauge PVR-150 ver.1045 (MCE?) and a NVidia FX5200 video card. I'm running gbpvr 98.13b. I have Mediacom extended basic analog cable and a analog LCD monitor. All I did was connect the coax/RG6 cable to the PVR-150 and then to the wall outlet (through a 2-outlet splitter that does give me cable tv, so I know it works) and plug in the IR receiver.

I just wonder what other hardware or cables I need and where else I'm going wrong. I'm not trying to output any video to the TV, so do I still need the RCA cables? I am able to get my channel line-up in the GB-PVR and change channels, but no sound or video comes through. Thanks in advance for any help. I'm lost and getting desperate.

[toboR]

It sounds like you have everything connected; no additional cables should be needed. 2 questions:
1 - Did you try to run the software that came with the TV card, and if so did you get picture and sound? The install software includes necessary items to make your TV card work.
2 - Did you split the cable at the point after it comes out of the wall, or did you split it after another device, like a cable box? The first option will allow you to change channels at the computer, the second doesn't.

[jtaylor75]

Thanks for your fast reply, toboR. I installed all of the software on the CD. I may not need all of it, but I wanted to play it safe and then uninstall anything not needed later. I also downloaded and installed the updated drivers for the PVR-150 board. I get neither picture nor sound. I can change channels and the channel line-up and programming are correct, but there's nothing showing on the screen.

I had to run a 6ft coax cable from my wall to the splitter and then run two more coaxes, one to the PVR-150 and the other to the TV. I used the extra 6ft coax to the splitter because I couldn't find a male splitter to go directly into the wall. I don't use a cable box. Thanks again for your help.

[HtV]

So if I understood right, you don't have any video/audio in WinTV nor GBPVR. Did you try the tuning-assistant? Have you tried linking direct to the wall-outlet, to rule out a faulty splitter? Did you install a MPEG-decoder, is that included with the 150MCE?

[jtaylor75]

HtV,

That's correct. I have neither audio nor video using WinTV or GBPVR. I ran the tuning assistant. While it ran, I got just snow as it scanned all of the available channels. I don't remember installing a MPEG decoder with the 150 board, but I have never had a problem viewing MPEGs before with other programs, like Power DVD, Real Player, etc. At least, I think those were MPEGs since they had the mpeg/mpg extension. I have tried linking directly from the wall outlet to the 150 board, but that didn't help either. Thanks for your help.

JT

[zed]

Does the TV that's connected to the wall outlet work OK?

Be sure you're connecting to the TV input on the 150 and not the FM input (don't ask how I know about that )...

[toboR]

I didn't know the 150 had an FM input, or I would have suggested that first...

[zed]

One model doesn't but most of them do. TV won't work if you connect the antenna to the FM connector... :o

[stefan]

Did you try the card with wintv2000 (hauppauge's own software)? I'd suggest getting it to work there first, so we know that the card isn't faulty (my first card was )

[jtaylor75]

I just got home from vacation, so I wasn't able to respond until now. Thanks to everyone who replied. I just tried going directly from the tuner board to the cable jack and still got no picture with either WINTV2000 or GBPVR. I'm definitely using the 150's TV jack. I guess I have a bad board. I'm able to get both WinTV2K and GBPVR to scan and receive a signal through all of my available channels, but that's it-no audio or video. My TV connected to the wall outlet works perfectly. Another frustrating thing is that WinTV2K freezes my entire PC when I load it and I have to do a hard reboot. I can't even CTRL-ALT-DEL it away Anyway, I welcome any and all further suggestions. I'll try anything once. Thanks again.

JT