New and playing with software

[randym431]

I only have a mediamvp. I installed the latest ver of gbpvr, to see what it could do. The menu screen is a bit off on the tv screen. Too far to the upper left, cutting some or it off. The movies I have in mpeg play, but are much more grainy than the mediamvp software. Before I buy a tv card, the 250, I want to make sure this software is worth it (getting a 250 tv card, that is). Also, does the gbpvr software let you list mpeg files in a list, no thumbs?
thx

[HTPCSkins.com]

Welcome!
I can vouch for the PVR-250. It is a truly amazing hardware encoding card. Most agree that it is the best on the market for capturing a stanard TV signal.
As far as GBPVR, I am new with it also, but it is important to understand that it is still a very young piece of software and may not do everything you need it to.....yet.
The main competition for the HTPC/PVR market right now is:

SageTV*
MyHTPC/GotTV
GotTVPVR
GBPVR
BeyondTV/Snapstream*

*Cost $$

If you are willing to invest some time in any or all of the above you will surely find a suitable solution to YOUR HTPC needs.
Each peice of software has its strong points and each have its' weak points. One thing that all of them do have is a strong network of fellow users to help you through the often tedious process of configuring an HTPC.

Good Luck
Jason Elwell
HTPCSkins
http://www.htpcskins.com

[sub]

Hi randym431,

You can control the position and size of the menus etc on the mvp by modifying the config.xml. Specifically look for the fields called MVPWidth, MVPHeight, MVPOffsetX, MVPOffsetY.

I can assure you file playback is no more grainy than the original hauppauge software. Infact, its exactly the same. The MVP effectively asks GB-PVR for bits of the mpeg file, and it handles all the decoding and displaying in hardware on the MVP. If you're playing the same file with both software, the picture will be exactly the same.

In the config app (misc tab), you can uncheck the 'Use Icon View' to get GB-PVR to show movies as a list of filenames.

[randym431]

Hello back, and thanks for the replys. Glad to hear I can adjust things. I'm still messing with it, with no card, but leaning strongly to getting the card. I now use ati all in wonder 8500dv, which is a very good capture card. It uses hardware encode also. But the 250's software looks far more advanced than the so so ati's. Then again, will the 250 and the ati be happy together in one system? I'll have to see for myself. I figure they will, but only will be able to use one at a time. Well see about that too.
thanks again!

[gplasky]

The ATI doesn't truly have hardware encode-it is hardware assist. The PVR250/350 actually has a mpeg2 chip on board that does all the mpeg2 encoding. (encoding & decoding on the 350) Much better than the ATI. You can use a PVR250/250 as your cpature and the ATI QIW 8500dv as your video card.

Gerry

[gplasky]

For your MVP settings here are the settings I use from the config.xml file.

<!-- MVP Settings -->
&lt;MVPWidth&gt;700&lt;/MVPWidth&gt;
&lt;MVPHeight&gt;520&lt;/MVPHeight&gt;
&lt;MVPOffsetX&gt;0&lt;/MVPOffsetX&gt;
&lt;MVPOffsetY&gt;0&lt;/MVPOffsetY
Fills my TV screen almost completely. (15&quot; Sharp Aquous LCD TV)

Gerry