To PCH or not...that is the question

[huck]

I currently have an old jalopy computer in the basement running gbpvr and an MVP up by a 19" tv my wife got at a pawn shop in college. But the move to HD is upon us and I need to start thinking of what to do. I'll be buying a new TV and probably a new PC and hardware.

My main question is this...if I have room to put a PC up by the TV is there any reason NOT to do it? Is there any reason to keep the same use-model I have now and go with a PCH and hope that comskip will someday work?

We almost always watch recorded stuff and only occasionally watch live TV.

[elite]

I currently have an old jalopy computer in the basement running gbpvr and an MVP up by a 19" tv my wife got at a pawn shop in college. But the move to HD is upon us and I need to start thinking of what to do. I'll be buying a new TV and probably a new PC and hardware.

My main question is this...if I have room to put a PC up by the TV is there any reason NOT to do it? Is there any reason to keep the same use-model I have now and go with a PCH and hope that comskip will someday work?

We almost always watch recorded stuff and only occasionally watch live TV.

I guess the main reason not to go with a PC would be the appearance (most PC cases don't match your average living room!) and probably more annoying noisy fans - Finally I can't speak for the PCH, but I've never managed to get 'quite' the same quality picture from my PC as from the MVP...

[zed]

If you're going to go HD, my vote would be for the PCH. Otherwise you'll (potentially) have lots of hassles getting the right combination of processor, video card, interface, drivers, decoders, etc., etc., etc. to get it all to work well. With the PCH, it's basically plug & play, and for about the price of a decent video card. And your 'old jalopy' PC may still be sufficient for recording...it's usually the playback that kills it, not the recording.

Been there, done that (and now have a PCH).

My $0.02, anyway...

[mikeh49]

To pull this thread a little longer... I have been wrestling with the same PCH or PC question, but the lack of Comskip has been a significant negative for the PCH. For PCH users, how well does the skip function work to jump over the commercials? My wife and I have become addicted to the automagic commercial-free TV that Comskip produces, so returning to manual skipping seems a regression. Is there any hope of getting Comskip working on the PCH? Does it work on the MVP?

OTOH, the superior picture quality of the PCH is an extremely significant positive. Our GBPVR use is almost exclusively for recorded analog TV, no downloaded movies, etc. Then again, maybe I just need to tweak more on the PVR 150 drivers since DVDs look good.

[psycik]

I think you get over not having comskip. And use the skipping function of the PCH - using the left/right arrows of the PCH gives you 30 secs, 1 min, 1:30, 2:00 skip and so it's pretty easy to skip your 4 mins or whatever your ads are.

I ended up killing comskip since the MVP didn't like it for my digital tuners, so moving to the pch it stopped being an issue.

And the advantage of HD based recordings, downloaded avi files etc more than made up for the fact that commercial skipping became a manual activity.

But your mileage may vary. My MVP and now my PCH are bedroom systems. Not my primary lounge system, so this means i can get away with a few things, like very infrequently using live tv, very infrequently using chase play (timeshift) and mostly just watching recorded content.

[Jaggy]

I ended up killing comskip since the MVP didn't like it for my digital tuners, so moving to the pch it stopped being an issue.

What were the symptoms you were getting with digital & comskip on the MVP??

I have been/am asking my self the same question "To PCH or not...that is the question" at the moment. While I'm sure I can live without comskip as long as skip works rapidly (BTW are the skip intervals configurable for the PCH, at the moment I have mine set to something like 60sec's forward 29sec's back?) I really won't be able to live without resume....I believe the next PCH update is likely to fix that though so that is probably when I will be asking myself this question again

[huck]

Zed...so its your opinion that I could get the WinTV HVR1600 (I only have PCI, not PCIe), put that in my P4 2.8GHz jalopy in the basement, then get a PCH A110 and hoook that up to my TV (probably a vizio 32"...lcd vs plasma still deciding) and have a working system? The weak link being the PC? If its the killer I can upgrade that but all the rest of the components are enough?

Psycik...sorry to be dense but what does this mean..."the advantage of HD based recordings, downloaded avi files etc"

Sub or others...is the PCH hardware the limitation to comskip or is it firmware? That is, if the PCH folks ever help resolve this issue will I have to buy another box or will it just be an update to firmware...so I can buy in at least a little bit of confidence?

Thanks to all you experts!!

[psycik]

What were the symptoms you were getting with digital & comskip on the MVP??

I have been/am asking my self the same question "To PCH or not...that is the question" at the moment. While I'm sure I can live without comskip as long as skip works rapidly (BTW are the skip intervals configurable for the PCH, at the moment I have mine set to something like 60sec's forward 29sec's back?) I really won't be able to live without resume....I believe the next PCH update is likely to fix that though so that is probably when I will be asking myself this question again

They're not currently configurable, but if you hold your finger on the right button it gets t0 4 mins in about 2-3 secs

Um, on the MVP I was getting missed timecodes - i.e. it would skip further/less than it needed to, and then skipping manually would sometimes go backwards etc. So moving to the pch was a lot better in that respect as it's more tolerant of some of my digital formats.....but in saying that the MVP was great when I was on the analogue hauppauge cards - it worked perfectly then...

[huck]

Psycik...my question wasn't clear for you...with PCH or with PC by the TV I get these advnatages correct? Or does the PCH have these advantages and the PC-by-the-TV not capable of that?

[psycik]

both the PC and the PCH can play HD recordings. The PCH has the advantage that you don't have to worry about codecs, video drivers etc. And it's small and comes with a remote.

The PC obviously has other advantages but they can be noisy, hot etc. But if there's something you can't play on the PC, you can probably add the software to make it play, whereas that isn't possible on the pch.

Also at the moment, if you want music, I think the PC is a much better option. But for straight video playing I find the PCH quite a good compromise, and generally find the PCH video quality better than the video out on my PC....