After reading countless time people asking for help to get their software encoder card to work with GBPVR etc etc etc......
It gets a bit tiring

In big letters please say (or something to the effect)

Before you download GBPVR ENSURE you have a hardware MPEG-2 encoder device installed. Check for compatiable devices using this link.....

If you are using a software encoder card PLEASE go away and use the PVR software provided by the cards manufacturer, etc..

Come back here when you have come to your senses and bought a proper compatiable hardware encoder card.

Or something similar. What do people think?

dneprrider Wrote:After reading countless time people asking for help to get their software encoder card to work with GBPVR etc etc etc......
It gets a bit tiring

In big letters please say (or something to the effect)

Before you download GBPVR ENSURE you have a hardware MPEG-2 encoder device installed. Check for compatiable devices using this link.....

If you are using a software encoder card PLEASE go away and use the PVR software provided by the cards manufacturer, etc..

Come back here when you have come to your senses and bought a proper compatiable hardware encoder card.

Or something similar. What do people think?

I understand your frustration, but that's overboard...

I'm sorry I lost it ! I promise I'll behave better in future. I do feel much better now all the same.

Cheers,
Richard

dneprrider Wrote:After reading countless time people asking for help to get their software encoder card to work with GBPVR etc etc etc......
It gets a bit tiring

In big letters please say (or something to the effect)

Before you download GBPVR ENSURE you have a hardware MPEG-2 encoder device installed. Check for compatiable devices using this link.....

If you are using a software encoder card PLEASE go away and use the PVR software provided by the cards manufacturer, etc..

Come back here when you have come to your senses and bought a proper compatiable hardware encoder card.

Or something similar. What do people think?

zehd Wrote:I understand your frustration, but that's overboard...

Nah - I tend to agree. Perhaps more subtle wording might be in order but the sentiment is right.

But thinking about it - a page in the installer where the 'Next' button was greyed out and said something like...

Then the user has to click a 'Yes' radio-button in order for the 'Next' button to be enabled.

Similar to the licence agreement page of the installer.

Oh well - that's up to sub. Just a thought.

Cheers,
Brian

The trouble is enough people are out there that don't know if they bought a software or hardware card. They just know they have a tv tuner card.

bgowland Wrote:Nah - I tend to agree. Perhaps more subtle wording might be in order but the sentiment is right.

But thinking about it - a page in the installer where the 'Next' button was greyed out and said something like...

Code:

GB-PVR only supports...

Blah

Blah

Please confirm etc....

Then the user has to click a 'Yes' radio-button in order for the 'Next' button to be enabled.

Similar to the licence agreement page of the installer.

Oh well - that's up to sub. Just a thought.

Cheers,
Brian

Does anyone read that? I know, we'd be able to say, "But you signed off -- you knew it wouldn't work..."

all the same, people will try and they will have a bad experience.

There are some forums where all people do is refer newbies to wiki pages or previous posts. Then there's this one, where perhaps all of us should do it more. The repetition is certainly frustrating. I asked sub recently whether he had a macro for 'post your logs and I'll see...' He said he types it new every time... Perhaps personal support is the model sub wishes to use.

That said, I have been moved to write wiki pages before, particularly when there's a post that reads "I've searched here and the wiki and I can't find the answer". I usually do a few 'newbie style' searches, and when I can't find the answers I know exist, I write/edit some pages...

Maybe that's what we should be doing: asking what type of search the newbie is doing to get his answers, and then addressing the documentation issue...

zehd Wrote:Does anyone read that?

You're right - I think even a user that has limited experience of computers probably automatically selects 'I agree' when it comes to a licence agreement page. On the other hand, a page which doesn't look like a licence agreement but had big letters saying 'IMPORTANT BEFORE YOU PROCEED...' - might catch a percentage at least.

Quote:I know, we'd be able to say, "But you signed off -- you knew it wouldn't work..."

all the same, people will try and they will have a bad experience.

But that would be their choice - without a warning they're just going to proceed expecting everything to be fine and the bad experience would be worse.

Quote:I asked sub recently whether he had a macro for 'post your logs and I'll see...' He said he types it new every time...

I was thinking the other day that he might have a 'Special Edition' vBulletin client with buttons for 'Post your logs...', 'No', 'Never going to happen', 'Maybe in a future release', 'This is fixed for the next release'.

Quote:Maybe that's what we should be doing: asking what type of search the newbie is doing to get his answers, and then addressing the documentation issue...

I've been in tech. support for a lot of years now. People search for what they think - they don't think about what they're searching for. It's a human condition, particularly for the non-techie technology users. I'm still guilty of it myself occasionally - I put in simplistic search terms instead of thinking about the key words I should be using.

Kinda like THHGTTG - the answer is 42 - but are you sure you know what the question is?

Cheers,
Brian

bgowland Wrote:I was thinking the other day that he might have a 'Special Edition' vBulletin client with buttons for 'Post your logs...', 'No', 'Never going to happen', 'Maybe in a future release', 'This is fixed for the next release'.

lol - that'd about cover it.

Btw, out of curiousity why doesn't GBPVR natively support any software encoders? I would think the same sort of filter architectures would be present. Are there too many variants, or would the user experience with a software encoder not be satisfactory?
To me, I like the fact that sub doesn't spend his time supporting all of the software encoders out there because we get the benefit of his time spent on improving the features and reliability on each new release.

Mainly because I dont want to, but there are other reasons also.