Is GB-PVR for me? (ability to use pc as extender?)

[Armatron]

I'll try to make this short - I tend to end up typing long winded posts..

I've used media center for about 3 years - I've been running it on my 'main' pc in my computer room with an xbox 360 in the living room as an extender. My girlfriend lives with me, and while she's fairly tech-saavy I do not want to have to come in and fix crashed PVR programs or anything. MCE was perfect in that aspect - she knows how to schedule recordings, etc etc.

However, my 360 recently started giving the infamous "red rings of death" - no big deal since I have the best buy replacement plan and want blu-ray anyway. So, I setup an extra pc just to find out that you can't use a PC as an extender!

Therefore, my options are: 1) use the extra pc as the main DVR and lose the ability to schedule recordings or use the guide on my computer room pc - unacceptable 2) pay the extra $10 a month for a comcast dvr box w/ ondemand, HD, and all that jazz for the living room 3) find a different DVR solution

I decided to look at what else is out there before breaking down and going with comcast and after perusing the various forums I decided to give GB-PVR a try.

However, I'm having issues with the EPG source - I've signed up for a trial with SchedulesDirect but get a "The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized." I assume my account isn't active yet w/ SD..


So... while waiting for my SD account to start working... any suggestions? What made you go with GB-PVR now that MCE is so easily obtainable? Is it possible to "set it and forget it" like with MCE? (i.e. ever have crashing issues and such?)

[Armatron]

Oh and also - I have a hauppauge pvr500 (single pci dual tuner card) but am planning on getting some sort of digital card soon..

[dvasco]

Crashing is extremely uncommon in my case. I haven't tried the latest GBPVR software yet though. I have two MVPs and use and promote GBPVR for that and other reasons such as comskip, CC, network video playback, etc. I don't think you lose any special features by going from MCE to GBPVR.

[Armatron]

Hmmm... I now have the guide and tuners working..


I'm really disappointed at how... bad.. it looks. It may be functional, but not very visually impressive. I'd say it's worse than the first iteration of MCE.


Have you seen how good Vista MCE looks?

[dvasco]

No, I haven't. Are you running PVRX2.exe or GBPVR.exe? They both come with GBPVR, but GBPVR.exe is the old interface and PVRX2.exe is the new interface.
Pics of PVRX2.exe are at http://www.gbpvr.com/index.php?option=co...&Itemid=37

[Armatron]

Defintetely running pvrx2 - and the latest version of gbpvr.. It looks like the pic you linked to.


The latest version of MCE (Comes with Vista) has a lot of nice looking transparencies and motion - it also just seems to 'flow' better. GB-PVR might be faster going through the menus, but it's not as though MCE was lagging per se, it just had nice transitions.

[Armatron]

I was hoping their might be a better skin.. I've gotta run by Costco and then I'm going to give mediaportal a try. If it doesn't look any better I may end up just getting another 360 just to use as an MCE extender... bleh.

...If only there was a way to schedule shows for MCE using some third party app...

[Mattyb3806]

Have you checked out the community skin?

http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Skin/CommunitySkin

Hairys reflect skins are my personal favorite.

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...ht=reflect

[dark_half]

delete ....

I agree with Mattyb3806 give Reflect a try