Capabilities of GB-PVR with a PVR350

[MrCarl]

Im just after a bit of advice, what I want is a media centre pc which does the following:

1) Plays videos, dvds, mp3s off the pc and displays on my TV
2) Takes a video input from my digital freeview reciever
3) Can output using one of theose usb IR transmiters to change the channel of my digital reciever
4) Full PVR capabilities and playback to TV

My main concearn is getting as much as possible working on the TV and though the remote control that comes with the PVR-350. SO a couple more questions should narrow things down:

5) Does the TV-Out on the PVR-350 allow you to use the full GB-PVR interface on my TV with dvd, video, mp3 & picture playback etc??
6) Does the remote with the PVR-350 allow you to control the GB-PVR interface ok??

Im really looking forward to getting my first media centre pc working but want to get things right and will definately be making a donation when its all working as this software looks great!!

Thanks

Carl

[nkh]

5 - No DVD on the PVR350 (only on Xcard and a regular gfx), MP3 only with a cable loop between the PVR350 and your soundcard (easy). Everything else should work nicely.

6 - Of course, I never use anything else.

edit: and, the PVR350 will only show MPEG files, so no DiVX, xvid, mov and so on.

[MrCarl]

Quote[/b] (nkh @ Sep. 01 2004,09:22)]5 - No DVD on the PVR350 (only on Xcard and a regular gfx), MP3 only with a cable loop between the PVR350 and your soundcard (easy). Everything else should work nicely.

6 - Of course, I never use anything else.

edit: and, the PVR350 will only show MPEG files, so no DiVX, xvid, mov and so on.

Do I take it the ultimate option is a PVR250 with a XCard for the output...

Would that do everything I wanted all from within the GB-PVR interface??

The reason I want everything from the interfaceand remote is because the actual pc running this is in the next room but cables chanelled though the wall...

Thanks for the advice by the way

- Carl S

[rampy]

Quote[/b] (MrCarl @ Sep. 01 2004,09:41)]

Quote[/b] (nkh @ Sep. 01 2004,09:22)]5 - No DVD on the PVR350 (only on Xcard and a regular gfx), MP3 only with a cable loop between the PVR350 and your soundcard (easy). Everything else should work nicely.

6 - Of course, I never use anything else.

edit: and, the PVR350 will only show MPEG files, so no DiVX, xvid, mov and so on.

Do I take it the ultimate option is a PVR250 with a XCard for the output...

Would that do everything I wanted all from within the GB-PVR interface??

The reason I want everything from the interfaceand remote is because the actual pc running this is in the next room but cables chanelled though the wall...

Thanks for the advice by the way

- Carl S

I think what he said was using xcard WITH a regular graphics card...

So it seems your choices would be pvr250 and regular graphics card with Tv out

or

Xcard with regular graphics card with tv out...

(assuming based on the clarifications of what the pvr350 can and can't display you've ruled it out)

Unless I'm mistaken the xcard doesn't have any TV out (?) I haven't looked to closely at it... (someone correct me if I'm wrong, or misinterpreted nkh's post)

rampy

[tankd0g]

Quote[/b] (MrCarl @ Sep. 01 2004,05:00)]Im just after a bit of advice, what I want is a media centre pc which does the following:

1) Plays videos, dvds, mp3s off the pc and displays on my TV
2) Takes a video input from my digital freeview reciever
3) Can output using one of theose usb IR transmiters to change the channel of my digital reciever
4) Full PVR capabilities and playback to TV

My main concearn is getting as much as possible working on the TV and though the remote control that comes with the PVR-350. SO a couple more questions should narrow things down:

5) Does the TV-Out on the PVR-350 allow you to use the full GB-PVR interface on my TV with dvd, video, mp3 & picture playback etc??
6) Does the remote with the PVR-350 allow you to control the GB-PVR interface ok??

Im really looking forward to getting my first media centre pc working but want to get things right and will definately be making a donation when its all working as this software looks great!!

Thanks

Carl

If you haven't purchased anyhing yet, get a PVR-250 and an ATI Radeon 9200SE. Those two together are about the cost of a PVR-350 but will work better and be more versitile with GBPVR. If you already have a 350 it works the same as a 250 when you don't use it's TV output.

[nkh]

Quote[/b] (rampy @ Sep. 01 2004,20:24)]Unless I'm mistaken the xcard doesn't have any TV out (?) I haven't looked to closely at it... (someone correct me if I'm wrong, or misinterpreted nkh's post)

hehe, what I ment was that DVD is only possible with the tv-out on the Xcard or a normal graphics card, sorry

The Xcard has a tv-out like on the PVR350, but the Xcard'll show more formats (divx).

[dottore]

so the xcard seems to be the best solution... where can it be purchased? i cannot find one in germany, even ebay doesn't offer one.

a few questions: do all of the gbpvr-features work on the xcard? pause, ffwd and rew in live-tv and so on...

what about the included dvd-player: easy to use? via remote? picture quality?

thanks in advance!

[MrCarl]

Quote[/b] (tankd0g @ Sep. 01 2004,14:35)]If you haven't purchased anyhing yet, get a PVR-250 and an ATI Radeon 9200SE.  Those two together are about the cost of a PVR-350 but will work better and be more versitile with GBPVR.  If you already have a 350 it works the same as a 250 when you don't use it's TV output.

Well after struggling to find XCards available anywhere in the UK in going to go for a PVR250 and gfx card with good TV-Out...

However after researching around ive been seeing lots of people saying that ATI's tvout is a not as good as the GeForce's... So I was thinking of going for a GeForce FX5200 card with TV-Out...

Do you think this is a good idea?? A thread on a discussion about this can be seen here:

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/archive/...17685.html

Thanks

Carl

[dottore]

i heard it the other way: geforce tv-out bad, raedon good. i used a geforce-tv-out a few months ago and it was very bad. i don't know about the quality of the radeon tv-out since i use the matrox g400 which has the best tv-out i've ever seen. on the other hand, the matrox-card has poor 3d-capability.

[MrCarl]

Quote[/b] (dottore @ Sep. 02 2004,04:47)]i heard it the other way: geforce tv-out bad, raedon good. i used a geforce-tv-out a few months ago and it was very bad. i don't know about the quality of the radeon tv-out since i use the matrox g400 which has the best tv-out i've ever seen. on the other hand, the matrox-card has poor 3d-capability.

I was thinking about going for a matrox but im worried because the system is a 1gig Athlon which I was thinking about underclocking as well... and the Matrox doesnt have any hardware DVD encoding help so it would all have to be done in software Im not bothered about 3d support as its purely a media/PVR machine im building...

- Carl S