GBPVR feature request

[sub]

However, if you want something that'll work with almost every PVR software out there, you can get a hardware based card for around $60, which isn't much compared to the time saved, and the peace of mind

Yes, very true.

[Fatman_do]

I'd love to know where you get your statistics from.

98% of all statistics posted in messages are made up on the spot.:p

[mobiusnz]

Having 4 tuner probably represent less than 1% of all TV tuner card user, whereas at least 50% of them use software based card. As I've said, software MPEG2 encoding only takes about 10% CPU (probably less than that, because there are other background tasks running) on my C2D. So I don't think 4 capture card will be a problem. Besides, from my experiences xvid encoding is not much more CPU intensive than MPEG2, so software encoding directly to xvid will be a lot cooler than taking up 3G/hour HD space.

4 tuners is a little overboard - but dual tuner cards are very common these days and without hardware encoders you will not get software encoding over 2 recordings on the fly. Yes DIVX does give better quality than MPEG2 - but thats when people spend HOURS on a two pass Divx encode.

If you want to just play with occaisional TV recording I can understand a non-hardware encoder but if you want to seriously use a pc as a hard drive recorder you need hardware encoders for reliability. Also once you experience the convenience a system like this gives you then you will definately want more than one tuner as you will never want to watch anything live again so you don't have to watch Ad's. I started playing with one single tuner (it was a hardware tuner and it did Mpeg 4 and 2 but was usb and not entirely reliable) and quickly saw how nice it was to skip ad's and control when you watch TV instead of watching when the programmers want you too. Upgraded to a reliable dual tuner PVR500 - then I got annoyed with missing a minute of a program because it was on the end of something I already deleted so banged in another dual tuner card to cover it.

Having seen how long it takes to encode a good DIVX movie from a DVD I don't believe you will see reliable/quality on the fly encoding with software - especially with a second tuner - It only takes something else to take priority for a second or two to have dropouts in your recording. With a hardware encoder you can also use the pc while its recording with Great success - I even risked playing a high cpu intensive game while recording in the past with success - now I have a dedicated pc in the lounge.