Late to the game with PVR-350

[SickBoy]

I had GBPVR working great on my initial machine I tried it on (866 MHz P3). While that is **close** to sub's current minimum CPU spec recommendations, I think (at the time) GBPVR still used the .NET 1.1 (or whatever it was) framework. I had that system loaded with quite a bit of RAM as well (768 MB, which was a lot by P3-class machine standards).

I've since moved to a Sempron64 2600+ with 1 GB RAM, but at no point in my history have I ever run into issues where my hardware hasn't been able to keep up.

[kram_0]

I used a 2nd hand 500MHz processor for about a year. I wasn't happy with the recording quality that I had to use in order be able to record in software MPEG2 and watch at the same time - this was not using GBPVR though. Myth forums were recommending PVR-350 for hardware encoding/decoding and TV output so I decided to give it a try and ordered it from the manufacturer overseas as it was ~$500 Australian. I bought it for ~$300 shipped and then had to pay ~$150 customs charges so I only saved about $50 in the end. But I was definately happy with the quality!! Perfect.
The mainboard finally gave up the ghost and I replaced it with a P4-3GHz and it can't believe how I ever put up with the slow response from the UI in GBPVR. Myth was faster but a PITA as well.
I couldn't go back to how it was back then now, but as they say, ignorance is bliss.
If you have the 350 working and are can accept the speed then more power to you - and welcome to the wonderful world of GBPVR.

[kmoore]

Actually, since I made a couple changes to the box, stability seems to have taken a turn for the worse.

I added a 2nd hard drive and joined its partition with a partition on another hard drive to make a dynamic disk in Win2k. I added a fan to the PVR-350. And I stopped using the Hauppauge IR program and checked off that Direct Access thing in GBPVR. Since I made these changes, going from the menu to live TV and back to the menu results in a blank screen. This is after a cold boot, within minutes. Interestingly, I brought the PC back to my computer room and connected a monitor, keyboard and mouse. I also disconnected my cable modem and hooked that to the PVR-350. I don't have anything I can look at the output of the PVR-350 in this room, though. Anyway, when I do that, I see the menu on the VGA monitor, then back to live TV (it says it's outputting to the PVR-350). Then I can go back to the menu no problem. I skipped around for a couple minutes with no apparent problems. But yet when the PC is next to the TV with no keyboard, mouse or monitor, I get a blank screen after going from the menu to live TV, then back to the menu.

The only thing I can think of is the PVR-350 output is going blank but the machine and GBPVR are still running fine. I will have to connect the monitor, keyboard and mouse when the PC is next to the TV so I can really see what's going on.

Does this mirror the typical PVR-350 trouble people have had or is something more simple wrong?

[stefan]

The typical "big" problem people have is that the machine freezes (after a while, typically when the OSD is brought up while watching a recording) completely, requiring a hard reboot.

[onestar]

Sounds like a connection or output (has in connector) problem, rather than GBPVR or PVR-350.

Incidentally I am one of those 50% it works for users. I've had it in a VIA chipset PIII W2K box and a sempron XP box, and its been 100% reliable all the time. I am just glad that although Sub doesn't support it, he doesn't take it out either phew!

[kmoore]

The typical "big" problem people have is that the machine freezes (after a while, typically when the OSD is brought up while watching a recording) completely, requiring a hard reboot.

I'm going to leave the monitor connected for a while so I can see if the machine is actually frozen. And that type of problem really sounds like a heat issue to me. My PVR-350 was REALLY hot when I was having the issues originally.

[kmoore]

Sounds like a connection or output (has in connector) problem, rather than GBPVR or PVR-350.

Incidentally I am one of those 50% it works for users. I've had it in a VIA chipset PIII W2K box and a sempron XP box, and its been 100% reliable all the time. I am just glad that although Sub doesn't support it, he doesn't take it out either phew!

I found out this is an Intel 810 chipset. Hopefully everything is compatible.

[K.S.]

I'm going to leave the monitor connected for a while so I can see if the machine is actually frozen. And that type of problem really sounds like a heat issue to me. My PVR-350 was REALLY hot when I was having the issues originally.

i had occasional freezes that were not caused by heat, it was just that damned tv-out, no BSOD, no nothing. only hard reset worked.

[kmoore]

If it turns out that the machine doesn't freeze, but the TV-out goes black, what does that mean?

[onestar]

From my early experiences suggests that the output connectivity is not right. e.g. I forget now, but the output is composite video, pal. I connect it through a scart convertor and sometimes set the switches on that wrong, tv input is sometimes set for rgb and not composite. Things like that. Not saying its not anything else. sorry not sure if you are saying you can see the menus on tv, just not live tv, or you can't see anything on tv?