Number of Cards per Computer

[rhonke]

Hello,

I have 2 questions.

1) Can 2 WinTV Pvr 500 be connected on 1 computer and record 4 tv programs at once?
Pc specs (Optiplex 740 Minitower)
AMD® ATHLON® 64 3500+ (2.20GHz, 512KB)
1GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM,667MHz

Or whould it be better a Pentium Dual Core



2) While you are recording 2 tv shows at the same time with a WinTV Pvr 500, can you also record from the FM radio receiver at that time?


Thanks!

[bgowland]

1) Can 2 WinTV Pvr 500 be connected on 1 computer and record 4 tv programs at once?

Yes, as far as I know, there are people here with 2x PVR500s that do the same thing. I don't have 2x PVR500s but I do have 7 tuners in one computer (don't ask why ). I rarely run all 7 at the same time but when I do, things are OK unless I have transcode sessions running at the same time at which point CPU usage and disk usage tends to make recordings hiccup a lot.

2) While you are recording 2 tv shows at the same time with a WinTV Pvr 500, can you also record from the FM radio receiver at that time?

First, you can't record radio with GB-PVR at the moment. Second (in answer to your question), the FM tuner shares some of the circuitry with one of the TV tuners so if both TV tuners are in use then you can't use the FM tuner. In saying that though, if you have two PVR500s then you'd be able to listen to FM radio on the second card if the first has both of its tuners in use.

Cheers,
Brian

[cosmocat]

I dont have the 500 cards, but I use 3 x Nova-T cards no problem and can recording or stream three different channels at once without the CPU usage getting above 40% on my Celeron.
4 tuners will be no problem at all.

[dazzyb2k3]

Can't comment on 2 X PVR 500's but my modest setup will record 5 programs at once and let me watch another without any probs. Ususally about 30-40 CPU usage. I'm guessing you should be OK.

[rhonke]

Thanks for the answers, they help me a lot