Is it all worth it in the end?

[adamopolis]

Hi, I've been wrestling with my new Hauppage WinTV PVR USB2 and MediaMVP units, on which I am trying to get GB-PVR running, after about three weeks of updating drivers, calls to tech support, returning products, reinstalling, tweeking, twiddling and the rest of it I have finally got a TV picture to appear via GB-PVR on my TV!! I stll have the following two problems though:

1) Cant play DivX AVI files on my MVP, I can play the movie files through gbpvr played locally on my laptop but when I click on the movie file the tv goes to a black screen, and then a trans2mvp.exe error pops up on my computer, the gbpvr service restarts and the MVP reloads and comes back up to the main menu.
2) TV Quality is horrible, switching from WLAN to ethernet helps a bit but it is still not watchable, have researched this and tried many different settings with no success. The audio is stuttering and the picture is very bad quality.

I understand that this is not a Tivo, and I am up for spending some time to tweak it to get it to work, but is it worth it? Judging by the number of problems other users are having, is this as good as it gets? I suspect most problems seem to arise from the Hauppage HW, from what I can see the GB-PVR behaves well and is highly configurable - big love to Sub for building the thing and taking time to help us all out. If I get a working system I will definitely donate - and add what I've learnt to the Wiki.

If someone could point out what I may be doing wrong I would be really grateful...

My setup is:
WinXP Pro SP1, Directx 9.0c, .Net 1.1, FFDShow 20041012_SSE2, Hauppauge 2.2
GBPVR v0.91.12
Intel P4 2.0Ghz, 1GB RAM, laptop

Thanks everyone!

[cadence]

I am at the same point as yourself. Things work fine through the gb-pvr running on the server machine, but die badly on the mvp box. Looking at other threads, I get the feeling that avi files are low priority to the developer(s) at the moment. What I am looking at is converting avi to mpeg2 to see if this is more workable.

regarding television reception. I am seeing a problem with this, the quality is pretty ropey, however this is from a hauppauge 150 card, using a win2000 application. So it may well be either the hardware or local reception needing to be boosted to get this right.

Sorry I cannot definetively point a way to a solution, just to be aware you are not alone.

[bluesxman]

The trouble is the hardware on the MVP does not support playing AVI/DIVX files. When using GBPVR or the original HP software the DIVX file will be transcoded on the fly to MPEG which the MVP natively understands. This process can come a cropper in many ways which is why some users have success any others don't. The best bet is to convert to MPEG, though this isn't an option for many.

I personally think GBPVR is a great application though I have been fortunate enough to have too few problems to make me contemplate throwing in the towel!

@Adamopolis: When you say TV quality is bad is this only on the MVP or is it on the PC as well?

[UncleJohnsBand]

It is all worth it in the end. You issue with the AVI files will get better as support improves via tweaks and feedback such as this.

As for your reception.....I used the Hauppage Tweak utility to set my sharpness to 7 and my brightness to 18. The sharpness was a tip posted several mohtns by tipstir.

tipstir....if you read this thread you should repost your many tips for the MVP for the newbies.....

[adamopolis]

Thanks for the responses guys!

TV quality is OK on the PC, the picture is a bit grainy but the picture and audio are smooth, on the MVP the picture/audio stutter and break up, have tried both 802.11g and ethernet (ethernet gives some improvement but still not good)

Any tips for what codecs/drivers/SW I should install/configure to help the MPEG transcoding ?

Thanks again!

[capone]

It is, but I've said before, in my view, this is an activity for the enthusiast to some extent. Think of it like your computer on the whole. If you're happiest being able to turn it on & off, and not interested in how it works outside applying patches, then a tivo is for you. If you're someone who takes pleasure in having contrl over your machine, and especially like being able to make it work your way or better, then you'll be happier w/ GB in the long run.

[onestar]

It is, but I've said before, in my view, this is an activity for the enthusiast to some extent. Think of it like your computer on the whole. If you're happiest being able to turn it on & off, and not interested in how it works outside applying patches, then a tivo is for you. If you're someone who takes pleasure in having contrl over your machine, and especially like being able to make it work your way or better, then you'll be happier w/ GB in the long run.

Too right, but even then sometimes I wonder why

Pluses : Flexible (e.g. upgrade continously), customise to what I want

Minuses : Time to configure, raw cost, me to maintain.

MVP though on the other hand GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, I think is a waste of time grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. GBPVR is fine, its the MVP which grrrrr.

[capone]

Nod to the cost and hair pulling. I spent more than I should have on some missteps and unnecessary purchases. But, frankly, not altogether different from my early do-it-yourself days w/ PCs. It's a feast and famine hobby of spending...a splurge of cost up front, but in the long term, huge savings in enytertainment costs, which drop to almost $0 (aside from cost of catv, internet, and a newsgroup subscription).

In all, I still feel richer in the end. I learned a lot, have a new "enthsuiasm", my wife likes & uses it, and I can meet entertainment requests for my son at a push of a button w/o fumbling through a stack of DVDs.

I found the maintain costs in $ and time have become noise level once the setup was done. I didn't go MVP, but partly wish I had so I could have built a more functional/expandable system in my office, vs the presentable, effcient one under the TV (which was more expensive to build). The other part of my doesn't regret it, as it's hard to beat the flexibility of an actual PC connected directly to the TV.

[gomjabar]

if you want to take up a less rewarding hobby take up model helicopters...this one aint too bad

[bmel88]

I have two cards and an MVP running GBPVR. Total investment about $280. My computer is upstairs and the MVP is hardwired to our TV downstairs. Everything works beautifully! No more tapes, no more missed programs and an angry wife, no monthly fees, no TIVO using my viewing information. That's a lot of no's for the small amount of time it took me to set the whole thing up and get it running. And I'm no computer whiz.