Critique my dedicated GBPVR build

[King Mob]

I've been researching the components for weeks, let me know what you think of this setup. I won't be gaming much, if it at all on this rig, just using as a HDTV/digital cable PVR, CD jukebox and DVD jukebox.

CASE OrigenAE X11 HTPC CASE w/380W SEASONIC S12 PSU
CPU AMD AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Processor
COOLING Zalman 7000 CPU Cooling Fan
MOBO MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Motherboard
MEMORY Patriot Signature Series 512MG x2
HDD 250GB HDD x2
DVD-RW LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE Dual Layer DVD Burner Model SHW-160P6S
VIDEO Gigabyte GV-NX66256DP GeForce 6600 256MB
CODEC NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder Platinum
TUNER DVICO FusionHDTV 5 Lite Bundle
OS Windows XP Home

Thanks in advance for any comments!

[sub]

I won't be gaming much, if it at all on this rig, just using as a HDTV/digital cable PVR

TUNER DVICO FusionHDTV 5 Lite Bundle

Mostly looks like pretty good spects to me, but I should point out that you wont be able to use GB-PVR with the FusionHDTV for digital cable. DViCO only support 'over the air' tuning with their BDA drivers. You will probably be able to use their original software for recording QAM cable broadcasts, but no other software that I know of.

[daphatty]

Specs look great. There are only two things I would caution you against.

1) I have found the Nvidia Purevideo Decoder package to be less than adequate for the DViCO. In fact, the only Decoder that really works with the DViCO card is the one that it comes with. Everything else just doesn't perform well. Also note that this can be a bit limiting if you decide to get a second tuner from a different manufacturer since GBPVR limits you to one decoder for all of your hardware.

2) You are going to have a problem viewing Digital TV using the DViCO tuner through GBPVR, mainly because the BDA drivers that GBPVR uses only support OTA ATSC HDTV. Digital Cable (in the US) is transmitted via QAM which up until recently NO ONE could decode, encrypted or otherwise. DViCO just released version 3.3 of their video app which uses a proprietary QAM tuning mechanism which at least opens up the unencrypted side of QAM. Unless you intend to use two separate software packages in your PVR, I'd suggest you pick up a Hauppauge WinTV PVR (150, 500, or USB2) so you can at least record (analog) cable.

[King Mob]

Sorry, I should have mentioned I already have 2 PVR-250s, which I plan to use for recording digital cable via the composite inputs. I just copied and pasted my component list to that post, forgetting that it doesn't include any hardware I already have. That's why the specific hard drive isn't specified.

Eye-opening info about the PureVideo codec! So if I'm not using that codec, do I still need a geforce 6600 card for smooth HDTV playback? Theonly reason I went with it is because it supports all the purevideo features. I see you use a 6200 in your own setup...

[daphatty]

Sorry, I should have mentioned I already have 2 PVR-250s, which I plan to use for recording digital cable via the composite inputs. I just copied and pasted my component list to that post, forgetting that it doesn't include any hardware I already have. That's why the specific hard drive isn't specified.

Eye-opening info about the PureVideo codec! So if I'm not using that codec, do I still need a geforce 6600 card for smooth HDTV playback? Theonly reason I went with it is because it supports all the purevideo features. I see you use a 6200 in your own setup...

Oh Absolutely! The more horsepower you have for HDTV playback the better. I'd have more if I weren't restricted to low profile cards (damned PC case). Don't get me wrong, the Purevideo is nice but it's just not suited for the DViCO. It would probably work wonders on the 250's though. Unfortunately, sub would have to undertake a major re-write of GBPVR in order to accomodate multiple decoder support so it's just something we are going to have to put up with.

Oh - A reminder to use the largest cluster size when you format your HD. It minimizes file fragmentation.

[bgowland]

I won't be gaming much, if it at all on this rig,...

If you're gaming at all then it wouldn't be a 'dedicated' rig. My GB-PVR box is an anonymous looking matt black 19 inch rack-mount with no keyboard, mouse or monitor of its own. It runs 24/7 and does nothing but run GB-PVR and a couple of other media apps. - that's 'dedicated'.

Cheers,
Brian

[rgann]

Just a word of caution: When I got the Dvico card (Fusion 5 lite), I had a well-known issue with those cards, which is an IRQ conflict. This is on a system with only one other Hauppauge PVR250 card. If you have two tuner cards with the dvico, you may have the same problem as I did or worse. The company's official response is that you must reinstall windows as "Standard PC" without IRQ steering. As a result, you may run out of resources or have a heck of a time getting it all working, as I did.

Lots of luck

[daphatty]

Just a word of caution: When I got the Dvico card (Fusion 5 lite), I had a well-known issue with those cards, which is an IRQ conflict. This is on a system with only one other Hauppauge PVR250 card. If you have two tuner cards with the dvico, you may have the same problem as I did or worse. The company's official response is that you must reinstall windows as "Standard PC" without IRQ steering. As a result, you may run out of resources or have a heck of a time getting it all working, as I did.

Lots of luck

I'm probably the only one running dual tuners who hasn't had this problem. I'm assuming it is because my Hauppauge is USB rather than internal. I just picked up a PVR 500 (thanks Lilyoda!) so installing that should prove interesting.

[King Mob]

Well, given the IRQ conflict problem and the fact that I can't use the purevideo codec with the Fusion, would I be better off going with a VBox HDTV capture card? Will this card work well with the Purevideo codec?

[rgann]

I don't know anything about that card, so I can't speak to that. Dvico says that any PCI card can be prone to IRQ issues. However, I haven't seen one like this since around 1996. Their team purports to be attentive to customers, but according to some threads on avsforum.com, they fix issues slowly.

Just be aware that I have this card, and as of now I can't get it working in gbpvr or mediaportal. Because your cpu is beefier, it may be ok.