PVR350 vs video/audio card setup

[jgwallace3]

I'm building my 1st PVR from an old computer (Intel 1Gz, 256Mb RAM, Windows XP) and chose the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-350 TV card hoping it would work for me. I really liked the idea of being able to offload encoding -and- decoding from my CPU; plus the fact there was a straight-forward TV output connection from the 350.

I set up the HW decoding to the 350 in GBPVR and am generally able to use the GBPVR software to output to my TV. BUT, the 350 seems to lock frequently on playback -- a condition I now see echoed on these forums, so I'm exploring other options.

I'm stuck on some basic concepts here, though. While I understand the concept of the 350's TV output -- splitting the TV signal via the (Hauppauge) dongle into separate A/V pieces (red, white, yellow cables) and feeding them to my (basic) TV; I'm a little fuzzy on how to do this with a separate video and audio card.

The video card in this PC is old (voodoo3 pci). The audio card, likewise, is fairly old (a soundblaster variant, I think). I'm willing to upgrade either, if needed (hopefully cheaply), but need a better understanding on what I've got and what I need to supply an adequate TV signal.

The video card has a VGA output and an s-video-like output (that works with an adapter supplied with the 350 card) to feed the yellow video TV input. I tried to hook this up to the TV but was unable to get any video signal on the TV from it. Is there a special setup (a video software decoding setting, perhaps?) within GBPVR to tell it to route the output video to the video card?

Likewise, the use of the audio card (an older sound blaster) to connect to the TV audio is confusing. It has a single line-out port that I'm at a loss as to how I'd hook it to my TV stereo input. Do I split the line with a Y-splitter and just connect it? As this line-out previously fed a simple set of stereo PC speakers, I'm concerned there's more involved here.

I know this seems pretty basic, but I'm just looking for some simple direction on PC --> TV connections for a video/audio card setup.

I appreciate any advice.

[sub]

The video card has a VGA output and an s-video-like output (that works with an adapter supplied with the 350 card) to feed the yellow video TV input. I tried to hook this up to the TV but was unable to get any video signal on the TV from it. Is there a special setup (a video software decoding setting, perhaps?) within GBPVR to tell it to route the output video to the video card?

If you set the hardware decoder setting to 'none - use software decoding', then the video goes through your software decoders and video card. Whether you videocard can be hooked to the TV depends on the videocard - many of them come with an svideo or composite or componnet video output. Your old card may not.

[pastro]

Once you switch over to the software decoder, you can't always just plug in the yellow cable and get any output. You will probably have an application that switches the output to the tv output. Some cards check at powerup what is connected and switch that way. Basically plug in the yellow cable and connect to your tv and when you see your windows screen on it you are good to go. Your audio card should be fine. If your video is choppy, try using VMR7 or overlay. VMR9 will likely be too much for your system.

[jgwallace3]

Thx for the advice! Made some progress. Was able to locate s/w tools for my old voodoo3 card and use it's control panel to enable TV out. (It wasn't auto at power-on). Not real happy with the display though (while passible, there were interspersed small vertical lines and an overlapping band of video on one side -- using VMR7), so I'll probably upgrade to a newer PCI video card (mulling over a Diamond Stealth ATI 9250 PCI 256MB card -- cheap at $46).

The audio setup was as easy as pie. Found some more info (at http://www.teamcombooks.com/mp3handbook/10.htm) about connecting PC audio to stereo. Simply used a splitter on my single audio line-out port and fed to my TV with good results.

[gEd]

try overlay mode - the voodoo3 is very old!

[jgwallace3]

I've decided to try a video upgrade. Got a "Diamond Stealth ATI 9550 AGP 128MB" video card on order. I'll post my results later.