vista media center vs gbpvr... again...

[BobBuilder]

I realise this question has been asked many times before but I wanted to ask it again because things change and both gbpvr and vista have probably moved on since the question was last posted...

So... Ive been using gbpvr for a good 2 years udner XP and have never quite got 100% there with my setup.
I've always had the odd issue with general playback especially after standby.. FSE was pretty good, but never quite seemed to work after returning from standby.
Ive recently tried EVR under XP but that wasnt great either.

Im not knocking GBPVR here at all, I think its a truly exceptional peice of software, Sub is great, and the community support is also excellent.

I decided recently to try gbpvr under vista on my system to see if playback was better, so today I installed it, and was surprised to find my system is pretty much fully supported.

My setup isnt that great, i have an amd sempron 2800, 1 gb ram, a radeon 9250, a nova-t-pci + nova-t usb.


So Ive installed vista got mce running, and managed to get at least the pci tuner working and mce seems to work really well, playback is great, standby seems to work well, havent tried scheduling a recording yet though...

I never used any plugins or extensions for gbpvr, just the standard setup, so id like to ask the questio again...

What are the pro's & cons of gbpvr vs vista mce?

At the moment I havent managed to get vista to work with both my tuners so I guess thats 1 thing gbpvr would probably give me, also I think the menu's of gbpvr although less slick than vista I still prefer them for borwseing recordings / pictures so thats another +...

But am I still missing something that gbpvr gives me over vista mce?

At the moment Im still intending to install gbpvr and am optimistic that since mce playback seems good I should find gbpvr playback is improved over xp.

Is there any reason gbpvr will give me problems under vista?

Sorry for putting a number of different questions in one post.. I'm 3/4 of the way through a nice bottle of wine so Im rambling somewhat

Any thoughts welcome.


Thanks

Bob

[psycik]

I think you've probably found the main con of MCE over gbpvr, the fact that you can't run either or both of your tuners.

The rest is generally personal preference.

[BobBuilder]

It also occured to me that I use an mvp, not for live tv, just watching recordings and I guess mce uses dvr-ms so Ill have to convert / transcode recordings to watch on mvp..

Another major pluss for gbpvr...

thanks

bob

[stustunz]

does microsoft have a sub?
when i last used media centre 3 years ago i still havent got a reply from my email
compard to the 10 mins sub takes ( if not less)
need i say more

[Bathman]

I've recently switched my HTPC from XP to Vista and have to say that I am very impressed with EVR playback. The picture is much better and there is absolutely no stutter something which has always troubled me in XP even in full screen exclusive mode.

Can your ATI 9250 can take full advantage of EVR?

I have found that with an ATI 3450 I am able to watch 720x576 DVB-T transmission with the resolution set to 720p. With XP I always had to match the LCD resolution to the resolution of the transmission. So with SVR/vista I can no longer have to tinker with settings when I play high definition content.

One big advantage I find with GBPVR is that it can get the TV listing from the transmission signal. Which means you can effectively run GBPVR as standalone set top box. My dad for instance does not have internet excess which means MCE would be a no go for him.

[markbb1]

I realise this question has been asked many times before but I wanted to ask it again because things change and both gbpvr and vista have probably moved on since the question was last posted...

So... Ive been using gbpvr for a good 2 years udner XP and have never quite got 100% there with my setup.
I've always had the odd issue with general playback especially after standby.. FSE was pretty good, but never quite seemed to work after returning from standby.
Ive recently tried EVR under XP but that wasnt great either.

Im not knocking GBPVR here at all, I think its a truly exceptional peice of software, Sub is great, and the community support is also excellent.

I decided recently to try gbpvr under vista on my system to see if playback was better, so today I installed it, and was surprised to find my system is pretty much fully supported.

My setup isnt that great, i have an amd sempron 2800, 1 gb ram, a radeon 9250, a nova-t-pci + nova-t usb.


So Ive installed vista got mce running, and managed to get at least the pci tuner working and mce seems to work really well, playback is great, standby seems to work well, havent tried scheduling a recording yet though...

I never used any plugins or extensions for gbpvr, just the standard setup, so id like to ask the questio again...

What are the pro's & cons of gbpvr vs vista mce?

At the moment I havent managed to get vista to work with both my tuners so I guess thats 1 thing gbpvr would probably give me, also I think the menu's of gbpvr although less slick than vista I still prefer them for borwseing recordings / pictures so thats another +...

But am I still missing something that gbpvr gives me over vista mce?

At the moment Im still intending to install gbpvr and am optimistic that since mce playback seems good I should find gbpvr playback is improved over xp.

Is there any reason gbpvr will give me problems under vista?

Sorry for putting a number of different questions in one post.. I'm 3/4 of the way through a nice bottle of wine so Im rambling somewhat

Any thoughts welcome.


Thanks

Bob

Even if you get MCE to be able to use both tuners, you will be stuck with only one lineup. The only way that MCE can deal with two tuners is if both are connected to the same make/model/brand of the same provider's set top box. So if you want to record two programs at the same time, MCE will "arbitrarily" pick one tuner for one program, and the other tuner for the other program, but they both need to be in the same lineup.

If you are like me, you have one tuner for one provider (such as a satellite provider, Dish or DirectTV, I have AFN) with one lineup and the other tuner for another provider (such as cable, I have Virging Media in the UK) with another lineup, or maybe one tuner is over-the-air stuff and the other is cable or satellite. Both of mine have different IR code sets to change channels on the set top boxes. And I have two lineups.

Microsoft is completely clueless about a setup that has more than one lineup with more than one set top box type and more than one IR remote code set. GBPVR can handle it.

You said you have two tuners. If they are both on the same service provider with the same lineup, then you could probably get MCE to work for you. I can't get MCE to work for me.

[Deusxmachina]

MCE has DRM that can cause half of your recordings to be a blank screen when you view them even if the show should not have DRM turned on, or you may have trouble exporting those files out of MCE. That alone is enough reason not to use MCE.

Last I heard, you're stuck with the thumbnail mode for file listings.

Go read the overall sadness and heads banging against walls over at the thegreenbutton MCE forums and then go from there.

It used to be other software could say they looked prettier than GBPVR, but they can't even say that anymore. The main decent use for MCE or some of the other (not free) programs is they have a built-in EPG for TV listings, and GBPVR needs to get that info in a separate way. Which isn't really a big deal and can still be done for free, but just sayin'.

I play around with MCE XP once in awhile just because it's there, but I always feel like I have big brother standing behind me when using it. But, if MCE is currently working for you or you just want to play around, why not go with it for awhile and let everyone here know later how things went. Maybe you'll notice something great and then add it in the Wishlist forum here.

edit: oh yeah, your computer might be able to convert DMR-MS recordings on-the-fly to your MVP. I can watch any kind of file on my MVP. avi, DVR-MS, h.264, mkv, 1080HD, doesn't matter. The only thing that might hold yours back is if that Sempron isn't powerful enough.

[BobBuilder]

Bathman, the 9250 seems fine, i have the resoultion set to 1280 760 i think, though it seems to switch in mce when going between front end and playback as the tv shows 1080p i the menu, and 720 p in playback.

I dont have any hd content though so done know hot it would handle that.

The main issue I have with the 9250 is that i have to use the generic drivers vista installs, ati dont supply any catalyst drivers for this card under vista.
I used to run a custom resolution under xp becuase I get some "overscan", ie a small band of the screen is missing on all 4 edges with the defualt res and my tv dosent allow me to resize it.
This problem will still be there with gbpvr so I am now going to look for a new gfx card.

I really liked the 9250 though as its fanless... though i dont need to run the machine silent as its in a cupboard on the otherside of a wall so can use a fan i suppose...

Does anyone have any recomendations for a good card under vista?... I should probably post that in a seperate thread actuallly.


Markbb1... both my tuners are just freeview so have the same lineup so I guess mce wont be a problem for me in this respect but thanks for posting that I hadnt realised it was an issue...seems odd that MS would go to the trouble of writing media center and yet not provide something that fits a large sector of peoples needs... then again their agenda is always a mystery...

I will setup gbpvr tonight, I always intended to anyway.. its just nice to hafve the option... I also have an xbox and wanted to play with that as an extender as well.. dont really need it and dont see it as a practical extender anyway but its nice to be able to play with it.

Vista definatly seems like a better os for me though so whatever happens I think Ill stik with that.. just need to find a new gfx card...

Thanks everyone for your thoughts etc.

Bob