2008-03-10, 02:17 PM
I've been using Windows Media Center for a couple months now and have been mostly happy with it. It's very easy for the rest of my family to use which is the biggest reason I went with it in the first place. It also helps that the configuration is fairly simple. I'm looking at possibly converting over to GBPVR. Here's why.
It seems like more and more channels are using DRM over analog cable. At least that's what I think is happening. After using Media Center for about a month, I suddenly lost the ability to play a lot of my recordings. I simply got a message that said the content was restricted. I did some research and found out this was most common over the premium movie channels. I noticed that was where my problems were as well with the additional of one other channel. I accepted my loss and started making a point to check my recordings on a daily basis to make sure they still worked.
About a week ago I lost a bunch more recordings to DRM. This time I knew for sure I had not made any changes to my computer (hardware or software) which would cause the DRM to be lost. In addition, I noticed recordings from another channel started being lost that weren't having problems before. So I'm assuming the use of DRM over analog cable is spreading.
My solution to this was to find something that would record my shows in a non-DVR-MS format. GBPVR is at the top of that list. In addition to not losing my recordings to DRM, I have the added benefit of not having to watch them on my Media Center all the time. Since I usually do all the scheduling, I thought maybe I could use GBPVR just for the recording but still use Windows Media Center for the front-end. The problem I have with that is not having all the meta data from the GBPVR recordings available in Windows Media Center. Plus I don't know what will happen if GBPVR is recording two shows at the same time and Windows Media Center tried to watch Live TV (I only have two tuners).
So now I'm looking at using GBPVR completely to make things integrate easier. The first thing I've run into is finding movies to record. In Windows Media Center, I could go to My TV > Recordings and get a list of all movies that were coming up in the next couple weeks. I usually went through this list alphabetically once a week and chose what I wanted to record. Is there a similar functionality in GBPVR? I've looked but not found anything yet.
My next question is in regards to aspect ratios. I tested a DVD last night that has widescreen menus but full screen content. My setting in GBPVR is to use the 4x3 aspect ratio. However, when I put the DVD in, it was using widescreen. So the menus looked fine but the actual content did not. I was able to hit F7 to cycle through to the full screen option and everything was fine. It looked like the default option was auto. Any idea why that would not have worked? Also, I thought I read that the main green button on my MCE remote should switch aspect ratios but it did not. Instead it just brought up Windows Media Center. Would using HIP fix this?
My last question for now is about Live TV and timeshifting. I like the fact that by not using timeshifting all the time, you can channel surf quite quickly. This was always a big drawback to using a DVR. However, I'm not sure how much I like having to hit the pause button to start using timeshifting. We usually watch recorded shows so this may never come up but what if I'm watching something for a while and then want to rewind a couple minutes before activating timeshifting? As far as I can tell, I don't have that option. So I would have to pause first thing once I settle on a show.
I tried leaving timeshifting on all the time but that made channel surfing incredibly slow and tedious. I am actually surprised at how slow it is. Windows Media Center seems to handle this pretty flawlessly. Is there something going on behind the scenes that is affecting this? When I change channels in GBPVR, there's a small delay before switching. There's some weird stuff on the screen while switching. And there's some heavy stutterings for a few seconds after switching before it all calms down. Is this because it switches recording files when switching channels? Can you give the option to use a single file instead? Or maybe another option would be to automatically enable timeshifting after settling on a channel for a configurable amount of time?
It seems like more and more channels are using DRM over analog cable. At least that's what I think is happening. After using Media Center for about a month, I suddenly lost the ability to play a lot of my recordings. I simply got a message that said the content was restricted. I did some research and found out this was most common over the premium movie channels. I noticed that was where my problems were as well with the additional of one other channel. I accepted my loss and started making a point to check my recordings on a daily basis to make sure they still worked.
About a week ago I lost a bunch more recordings to DRM. This time I knew for sure I had not made any changes to my computer (hardware or software) which would cause the DRM to be lost. In addition, I noticed recordings from another channel started being lost that weren't having problems before. So I'm assuming the use of DRM over analog cable is spreading.
My solution to this was to find something that would record my shows in a non-DVR-MS format. GBPVR is at the top of that list. In addition to not losing my recordings to DRM, I have the added benefit of not having to watch them on my Media Center all the time. Since I usually do all the scheduling, I thought maybe I could use GBPVR just for the recording but still use Windows Media Center for the front-end. The problem I have with that is not having all the meta data from the GBPVR recordings available in Windows Media Center. Plus I don't know what will happen if GBPVR is recording two shows at the same time and Windows Media Center tried to watch Live TV (I only have two tuners).
So now I'm looking at using GBPVR completely to make things integrate easier. The first thing I've run into is finding movies to record. In Windows Media Center, I could go to My TV > Recordings and get a list of all movies that were coming up in the next couple weeks. I usually went through this list alphabetically once a week and chose what I wanted to record. Is there a similar functionality in GBPVR? I've looked but not found anything yet.
My next question is in regards to aspect ratios. I tested a DVD last night that has widescreen menus but full screen content. My setting in GBPVR is to use the 4x3 aspect ratio. However, when I put the DVD in, it was using widescreen. So the menus looked fine but the actual content did not. I was able to hit F7 to cycle through to the full screen option and everything was fine. It looked like the default option was auto. Any idea why that would not have worked? Also, I thought I read that the main green button on my MCE remote should switch aspect ratios but it did not. Instead it just brought up Windows Media Center. Would using HIP fix this?
My last question for now is about Live TV and timeshifting. I like the fact that by not using timeshifting all the time, you can channel surf quite quickly. This was always a big drawback to using a DVR. However, I'm not sure how much I like having to hit the pause button to start using timeshifting. We usually watch recorded shows so this may never come up but what if I'm watching something for a while and then want to rewind a couple minutes before activating timeshifting? As far as I can tell, I don't have that option. So I would have to pause first thing once I settle on a show.
I tried leaving timeshifting on all the time but that made channel surfing incredibly slow and tedious. I am actually surprised at how slow it is. Windows Media Center seems to handle this pretty flawlessly. Is there something going on behind the scenes that is affecting this? When I change channels in GBPVR, there's a small delay before switching. There's some weird stuff on the screen while switching. And there's some heavy stutterings for a few seconds after switching before it all calms down. Is this because it switches recording files when switching channels? Can you give the option to use a single file instead? Or maybe another option would be to automatically enable timeshifting after settling on a channel for a configurable amount of time?
First off welcome, second, there are pros and cons with your switch, but most of us here won't be leaving GB-PVR anytime soon, as it does everything we want, ( or with some work will)