Reccomended Hardware

[theman]

I've been trying to find what the recommended hardware to run this program is, and have had to break down and ask a really noob-like question. I understand the hardware recommendations as far as the video encoding card go but I was wondering in terms of CPU and Memory horse power of the computer being used what would be the recommended minimum to run GB-PVR? Also I would like to be able to record as well as watch live TV at the same time. Tia, theman.

[sub]

The minimum would probably be 1GHz+ PIII class CPU and 512MB memory. It'd work with less, but probably badly.

The faster the CPU the better when it comes to video applications.

[kayleigh]

I opted for the "more is better" philosophy. I tested the program originally on a Shuttle SK43 running an Athalon 1500+ (about 1GHz) with 512MB of memory. It ran OK with the Hauppauge PVR-350 (hardware encode/decode), but it bogged down with the plugins I wanted to run, and it took 30-45 seconds to change screens. I'm really satisfied with the P4 2.0GHz (Northwood 400MHz FSB, I think) and 1GB RAM. Even with all the plugins I use, The program loads in 15-20 seconds (which is acceptible to me, since the computer is dedicated to doing nothing else) and screen change response is 2-7 seconds.

[reven]

Not bad, I've tested it with 512MB, 768MB and 1GB of RAM on P4 2.603GHz Prescott on Windows XP Pro Media Center 2005 SP2. To test out XMEDIA - SKIN since it supports with Version 11 / 40 plugins 18 XTOOLs (36 with Version 10 with 15 XTools) my RAM drops from 700MB to 333MB. With GBPVR not running I am at 836MB out of 1GB.

tipstir you sure love advertising your skins


i say go with a p4 3.4ghz, 2gb ram, 256mb PCI-E 6800 gfx card, 400gb sata hdd + 200gb sata for system, pvr 150 * 1, pvr 500* 3, ht-400 accent case, silent psu, silent cooler... and if you have any money left, a big donation to sub, cause if you can afford that dream machine you must be rich

[kayleigh]

i say go with a p4 3.4ghz, 2gb ram, 256mb PCI-E 6800 gfx card, 400gb sata hdd + 200gb sata for system, pvr 150 * 1, pvr 500* 3, ht-400 accent case, silent psu, silent cooler... and if you have any money left, a big donation to sub, cause if you can afford that dream machine you must be rich

Or a *HUGE* TV junkie. Or very indecisive, so you need to record seven channels at once. :eek:

[stefan]

There was this article in the newspaper a while back (a month or two?) about a machine sold in Japan. It had six dvb-t cards (or the japanese equivalent) so you can record all six FTA channels at the same time. It had enough hard drive space to record all six channels 24/7 for an entire week :-)

[reven]

that would be about 10gb an hour for 6 channels (at minimum, dvb-t is mpeg2 right?) so 24 hours 240gbs, one week 1680gb, or 1.6TBs, thats a lot of space.... have to get like 5 400gb (they did that on g4tv) you get about 1.8tb after format....

[stefan]

Yes, I seem to recall it was somewhere in that proximity, ~2TB. I'm not saying it was a small unit ;-)

[stefan]

It's called Vaio... there's an article here:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118050,00.asp

[Torque]

I'm running the config in my sig and it's plenty fast with the base install of GB-PVR (running older unsupported version) and a few of the simple plugins (my music, weather, my pictures, etc.)

I don't use any of the post processing crap or any special video filters and it works fine.

If you're going to go with a top-o-line CPU, then go with AMD... you'll have a fast system that is also cool and quiet. I have an A64 3700+ (san diego core) with 2GB of RAM and a 6800GT as my game/home office machine that is whisper quiet and runs around 35C in temp. The perfect CPU for a PVR if you need that kind of power.