WDM Recorder using Software Compression

[normanr]

I'll have to see about upgrading GB-PVR to test the patch.

Edit: That patch works great! Testing now shows both the un-shimmed, and shimmed plugin :-)

[topperdude]

Hi,

I'm new to GB-PVR and looks like it provides all the features (and then some) that I am looking for. Main features I'm looking for are pretty schedule recording, commercial skip, streaming recorded shows over internal network. Other nice to have features are too many to list here and GB-PVR seems to provide almost all of them.

Anyways, coming to my qs, the only thing preventing me from using GB-PVR is my card. Going through several posts on this form, I understand GB-PVR supports only analog tuner cards with hardware encoding. I have the original All-in-Wonder Radeon card which is a is software encoder card.

Rest of my hardware: PC - Athlon XP2200+ with 768MB RAM (works fine to schedule/record/playback TV with ATI's MMC software, so assuming it should be OK with GB-PVR?).

My qs:
1) From reading various posts in this thread, it sounds like the SoftwareEncoder plugin MAY allow me to use the AIW Radeon with GB-PVR, is this correct?

2) Is the SoftwareEncoder the ONLY way there's a chance I can hope to use GB-PVR with my card? I'd rather not spend money on a new tuner card as we don't watch too much TV - just a couple shows a week that we would like to record and watch when we get time.

3) Do I need to install one of the encoders on the first post of this thread to make it work? If so, will those drivers overwrite any of my current drivers? I have currently installed the AIW drivers for MMC 9.02 from ATI's website.

4) I understand from one of the posts that the original developer of the software encoder plugin may be looking for owners of different software encoder cards to test the plugin with GB-PVR. I can give it a shot, but am no expert in GB-PVR (or any PVR software for that matter), so will probably need help/guidance in testing things out.

Thanks,
-Topper

[sub]

1) From reading various posts in this thread, it sounds like the SoftwareEncoder plugin MAY allow me to use the AIW Radeon with GB-PVR, is this correct?

Yes

2) Is the SoftwareEncoder the ONLY way there's a chance I can hope to use GB-PVR with my card?

Yes.

Sorry, I cant answer the other question.

[normanr]

3) Do I need to install one of the encoders on the first post of this thread to make it work? If so, will those drivers overwrite any of my current drivers? I have currently installed the AIW drivers for MMC 9.02 from ATI's website.

Only to record or Timeshift. It shouldn't override any existing drivers (after all it's a encoder, not a driver)

4) I understand from one of the posts that the original developer of the software encoder plugin may be looking for owners of different software encoder cards to test the plugin with GB-PVR. I can give it a shot, but am no expert in GB-PVR (or any PVR software for that matter), so will probably need help/guidance in testing things out.

I am, but I'm not supporting the plugin as much as I have in the past. It seems to work with most cards, that have newer drivers. There's a lot of help in the form of previous posts, and I think someone is working on a FAQ too.

[topperdude]

Great! Thanks for the replies, sub and normanr.

Norman - I was referring to whether the encoders might overwrite any encoders that may have been installed by the ATI MMC package or can both encoders co-exits?

Anyways, I will try installing GB-PVR + SoftwareEncoder without the encoders and see if I can atleast watch TV without timeshift or recording capablity. If so, next step would be the encoders. I'm guessing the ATI Encoder might have a better chance since the card is an ATI card, is this correct?

BTW, some posts on this thread mention some problems with newer versions of GB-PVR. Is there a (previous) version of GB-PVR that may be most stable with this plugin (possibly the version this plugin was developed with?)?

Thanks,
-Topper

[normanr]

ATI MMC may already have installed the encoders you require. Check to see which encoders are listed in the configuration window. I'm using the plugin with the 0.99.12 now, and I'm not seeing any issues. (The initial config is a bit tricky, because you need to click, configure, ignore the warning, click save, save, save, restart config, then you can actually configure the plugin properly)

[carpeVideo]

topper -

If the software recorder doesn't work and you can build a graph that will play to a file (using the GBPVR writer) - you should be able to record and play (even timeshifted) with my graph recorder

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=25283

Which is essentially a derivative of the software recorder / external recorder so same comments on the install process apply.

It should tune as long as you are not doing ATSC - I'll probably get it to tune ATSC some time.

CV

[topperdude]

OK, I installed the plugin along with GBPVR and configured the plugin, but may be missing something. I get audio just fine, but no video. Also, when GB-PVR is playing audio, the GB-PVR window is "Not Responding" in "Task Manager" and I can't kill it in Task Manager - have to shutdown and restart computer to fix it.

Any suggestions?

Also, I'm not familiar with using GBPVR Writer to try out carpeVideo's suggestion. Would appreciate any pointers to get me started and I can try it. I looked at http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utility/Utility but could not find any utility there called GBPVR writer

Thanks,
-Topper

[topperdude]

Have attached the logs. Havent run GB-PVR since my last post. Hope someone can help/suggest something about why I don't see any video or why it may be hanging GB-PVR on my system.

Thanks,
-Topper

[topperdude]

As mentioned by fightdapopo (also using AIW Radeon) in an earlier post (http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...ount=1117), if I uncheck "Use Live Preview Mode if Possible", it gives an error saying no tuners found. If I check the above option, I get audio, but no video and it simply hangs GBPVR.

Also noticed that in either case, when I go into the configure the WDM recorder plugin -> Recording Source, under Recording Source section of the Software Recorder Configuration dialog box, it always shows "Video:Composite". The dropdown has option for "Video:Tuner", which is what I think should be selected. But even if I select that, save it and then relaunch the Config, the Recording Source still shows Video:Composite and not Video:Tuner. Could this have something to do with the reason it says "No Tuner found"? Is there a way to ensure the Recording Source dropdown says "Video:Tuner"?

Thanks,
-Topper