so, I'm making my first media center...

[flyswatta]

ok I *think* I understand what you have now. Cant wait to get all the parts and put this thing together and play with it.

BTW ATSC antenna meaning an HD antenna?

Yes. UHF/VHF.

[flyswatta]

one more question, would an sempron 64 3000 be fine, or should I stick with athlon?

That would be fine. If you're playing back HD, then you'll want to get a video card that offloads some of the processing. There's a sticky thread about ATSC w/ less horsepower (or something along those lines).

Good luck!

[csmaster2005]

thanks for the geeks.com headsup.
Just curious, you're using yours for the HDTV antenna etc.

Could I just buy 2 of these and use 1 as analog for cable/satellite, and use the other one as digital? Instead of buying a pvr-150 (they arnt easy to find)

or should I just grab 1 for hd-tv and try to get a pvr-150 for the other?

Also, on the list of supported cards, the DTV one isnt listed (which is the one you got and the one on geeks) only DVB ones are listed... any idea?
thanks again!

[Ted the Penguin]

the HVR1600 is supported, specifically, because sub works with hauppauge.

and actually, the version that supports QAM is supported as well, meaning you could pull the HD stuff from cable as opposed to over the air (if your cable company leaves them "in the clear"). also I am pretty sure it supports using the analog and digital sides of the card at the same time, but unless you need to record 2 HD streams at the same time, you should be fine with one HVR1600 and one PVR150

EDIT... I fail, I seem to have missed a bit of the thread, I know at one point the HVR1600 was suggested, but I am not sure that is what you were talking about getting now... sorry, but what I said above still applies to the cards I am thinking about :p

[flyswatta]

I haven't personally used the analog side of the HD card, since it uses software encoding, I would highly doubt that it would be supported. Someone made a plugin that may work called GraphRecorder (check the wiki), but it may not be easy to set up.

The wiki list isn't always up to date - someone got a TwinHan and tried it out. Basically most cards that use BDA drivers (which the TwinHan does) are supported. We had a thread going where people had tried it out so that's how I found out about it.

[csmaster2005]

ah ok didnt realize the analog side uses software encoding. But the digital side does use hardware encoding, and you've had no problems with it from the digital side correct?
I think I may grab it as my hd card, and scoop around for a pvr-150 or so for the analog part.

Also ted, thanks for that info anyways

[flyswatta]

ah ok didnt realize the analog side uses software encoding. But the digital side does use hardware encoding, and you've had no problems with it from the digital side correct?
I think I may grab it as my hd card, and scoop around for a pvr-150 or so for the analog part.

Also ted, thanks for that info anyways

The digital side doesn't encode anything, it just records the transport stream but does use some processor. About 11% CPU on my system (in my sig) while recording.

[csmaster2005]

hmm I'm a bit confused.

Hardware encoding just means it changes the signal to basically be read by the computer to send the output signal correct? I'm a bit confused why one type would need encoding and the other wouldnt.

Also, I'm trying to make a decision... should I go with an ATI HDTV wonder that comes with an antenna like this - http://www.systemcooling.com/images/revi...ge2big.jpg

or should I grab this antenna http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6882125057 with this card http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=32500 ?

(This is for the HDTV part of the system, I think I'm going to get a pvr 150 or 250 for the analog)

[flyswatta]

Someone else will have to explain the finer points of capturing an analog signal and why hardware encoding is important - it's out of my depth. From other postings, I gathered that it doesn't actually encode the digital transmission, it just records it. Again, I could be wrong on that.

As far as an antenna goes, here's a post of mine from another thread:

I have an arial antenna on the roof that I set up a while back - I've been using a directv box that I bought off of craigslist that does OTA standalone. Getting the antenna set up was kinda tricky though - go to antennaweb.org and key in your address and it will tell you where the broadcast towers are and what "rating" your antenna needs to be (based on your distance from the towers).

I fiddled around with trying to get the "best" signal before I just finally caved in bought a $5 compass at walmart and set the antenna at the exact direction. IIRC, the broadcast towers were at 182 & 184 degrees from me so I split the difference and pointed it to 183. That was this winter and then the trees between me and the towers "leafed in" this spring and my reception went to crap. I ended up relocating the antenna on the other side of my house with nothing but clear skies to the towers.

Another good site for OTA HD is satelliteguys.us - they're more into OTA with STBs, but have a good forum section on OTA HD if you're wanting to figure out about antennas and how to get the best OTA reception.

[csmaster2005]

so you watch hdtv channels via your htpc without any issues, despite not having the encoding?
By your comment, I take it you meant that digital signals don't need encoding, which is why you have no issues with it?

Also, your antenna appears to be a bigger one, the 2 I posted above are small antennas that go indoors. I guess I'll ask about it in another thread.
thanks