Newbie: dual PVR-150

[mshah]

Hi. I'm a newbie to all the PVR stuff and have been trying to research about the best setup for me. I believe the best setup for me is a dual TV card setup that will allow me to watch one channel whilst record another or record 2 channels at the same time. I want the two cards to be the same as this seems like the simple and logical solution. However it is likely I'll buy the 2nd card at a later stage. I'll be running on Windows XP. Anyway, I have a few questions which I have not been able to find out.

1. Are the PVR-150 and PVR-150MCE different products?
2. Looking at MicroDirect, it doesn't seem to come with a remote or support Windows XP which makes me believe the two products are different.
3. How does GBPVR work with 2 tuners?
4. When I set a program to record, do I have to explicitly state which card it will record on?
5. Or is it clever enough to know that card 1 is already recording and so it will use card 2?
6. What happens if they are two different cards and one card picks up more channels than the other?
7. If I set to record on a channel that is only picked up by one card then will it always pick the right tuner card?
8. What happens if that tuner card is busy recording another program which is common to both cards?
9. How good is the quality of the cards with portable aerials attached to them?

Sorry for all the questions but hope I can get someone to help.

[sub]

1) yes, they are different. PVR-150 has remote and IR Blaster, MCE doesnt. MCE does have FM Radio.
2) see 1)
3) Quite well
4) No, it chooses automatically
5) see 4)
6) see 4)
7) yes
8) It'll try its best to resolve any scheduling issues
9) It depends how strong your signal is.

[reboot]

1) Get the retail with remote now, and get the MCE later, so you get the best of both!

3) LOL Sub...yes, it works splendidly, no user intervention needed, once it's initially set up.

5) Exactly! Clever is a very good choice of words.

I can't add more than that!

[mshah]

1) Get the retail with remote now, and get the MCE later, so you get the best of both!

3) LOL Sub...yes, it works splendidly, no user intervention needed, once it's initially set up.

5) Exactly! Clever is a very good choice of words.

I can't add more than that!

Thanks for all the answers. A few more:

1. So is the difference between the PVR-150 and the PVR-150MCE (apart from the remote and radio) that the non-MCE one is the retail and the MCE one is the OEM?

2. Does the MCE variant work in Windows XP?

3. If I get the non-MCE with the remote and then get the MCE variant later, can I use the same remote on the MCE one as well?

4. Does GBPVR provide listings and scheduled recordings of Radio schedules too?

Thanks for the help again.

[reboot]

1.) Yes.
2.) Yes.
3.) Yes.
4.) Not that I'm aware of...I don't have a card with FM, so I can't really say what it does.
You DO get listings for internet radio, by station and genre, but not song selection.

[bgowland]

4. Does GBPVR provide listings and scheduled recordings of Radio schedules too?

GB-PVR doesn't 'provide' any listings. You have to find those yourself and import them. Recording radio (FM or Net) isn't supported natively or in any plug-in that I know of (one project I've thought about but I'll probably never get around to starting).