Which card/cards to use?

[Jovid]

I'm sure you guys have been asked this question about a thousand times, and I did seem to notice the pvr150 was a popular suggestion.....but! being a newbie and needing to learn the ropes, I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

Here are a few requirements....

I do not need an HDTV tuner, etc... at this time. I have a decent AMD box, with plenty of Ram but haven't picked out a video card yet since I'm not sure what I need to buy. I am going to use it with my 36" Tv and I do have a nice surround sound system.

I would like to have an FM Tuner as well as be able to record two shows at once or watch one and record another. Also, I would like to be able to upload my DVDs onto my PC and be able to view them. How many video cards/TV Tuner cards do I need? I'm pretty sure I would need two TV Tuner cards for PVR functions, but need some suggestions on that also. Also, do I need a good audio card to output signal to my receiver? Also, what about analog and digital, I do have digital audio inputs on my receiver, but what about output from the PC. Also, same with video....is it analog or digital from the PC to the TV? I have digital cable with built in pvr functionality at this moment, but will I still need it or do I just plug the cable from the wall right into the PC/Tuner card?

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated. If there is a forum that lists this obvious info, please let me know.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions....Joe

[reboot]

First, you would do best with two PVR-150's.
One retail version, comes with remote control, IR blaster, and one MCE version, which has FM (no remote/IR).
This gives you the ability to control the PVR with the remote, and still get FM and all the other stuff, using gbpvr.

Second, you will need some sort of video card, with TV out. The low end Geforce FX5200 would be considered bare minimum (on a 36" TV). It has S-Video out, which can go directly to S-video in, if your TV has it, or S-Video to SCART or Composite (RCA), whichever you need/want.

You cannot just plug the cable from the wall to the card. If you currently use an STB (set top box) plugged into the TV, then you will continue to use it, otherwise you don't get any channels, other than the regular cable ones. The IR blaster can (usually) be set up to control the STB from gbpvr, so your remote controls gbpvr, and gbpvr controls the STB.

If you want digital audio, then you'll need a sound card capable of decoding it from the source, and reproducing it, to send out to your reciever.
I know there are one or two around that do this.
Most sound cards do NOT decode from the source, (inputs are severly limited) but can output Dolby 6 chan. Finding one that can do both is difficult.

Viewing DVD's on a PC (via PVR to the TV) is simply a matter of having a DVD-ROM in the PC. GBPVR has (multiple) DVD player abilities.

[Jovid]

Wow, that makes things much clearer. Thanks for all of the help. I now understand what I need to do to get my PVR up and running.

Quick question on the sound card.....what do you normally do? Do you just use the audio from the STB and go right to the receiver like most setups? Or do you go through the PC? I'm still kind of confused on the audio. I know if the cable is going from the STB to the Tuner cards, then the audio is there, but if my STB has digital out (which is does) what do you recommend doing with the audio? Should I leave it going through my receiver or do I need to have a digital input into the PC to record digital audio on the PVR? Then if I do have digital going in to my PVR from what I understand of your post, it is hard to find a card with both inputs and outputs.

Thanks again for all of the info, it definitely painted a better picture for me....Joe

[gomjabar]

get the Nvidia 6200...the HDTV out makes big difference even if your using s-video or composite. You can get one at http://www.newegg.com for 75 bucks...which is 30 or 40 cheaper than the store. Plus when you do upgrade to HDTV you already have a card that works for it. AND you can use the purevideo decoder from nvidia which is nice.

[reboot]

You have to run the audio through the PVR, otherwise it will just tune whatever's on the STB, which is not exactly the same as what's on the PVR.

[Jovid]

Thanks everyone for all of the info. Well, I guess it's time to do some ordering.

Thanks again, Joe

[Jovid]

Ok, I got my hardware in and I'm getting ready to set it up. I have the box up and running and have a few questions.

1. Still a bit confused on the audio... I have a digital STB that I use a fiberoptic cable to my receiver. I also use the same from my DVD player to the receiver. How do I accomplish this task using my PVR? Or what is the best route to take to make sure I take full advantage of the digital audio on from my STB? I'm using a Soyo KT600 Dragon Plus ver 2.0 MB with an AMD XP 2600+ processor and 512 PC2700 ddr. This MB has built in audio, but I want full digital audio from the PVR to my receiver. I purchased an El' Cheapo sound card with an fiber out on it, but I'm not sure if that is all I need. How will I get the digital audio signal into my PVR? Does it come in through the Coax cable from the STB to the PVR? or do I need to make sure I use the fiber out on the STB? Any help in the audio department would be greatly appreciated.

2. Do I need to install all of the WinTV software for my PVR-150 card or do I just install the remote control software, and a few other items since I will be using GBPVR software?

3. Once I install the first PVR150 when I add the second PVR150....does the remote work for both tuners?

4. Virus software, spyware software....I usually use Norton IS and AntiSpy....is it ok to run these in the background or will they interfere with recording, etc???

I guess that's it for now unless anyone has any other tips.

Thanks again in advance for your help and support....Joe

[reboot]

Does it come in through the Coax cable from the STB to the PVR? or do I need to make sure I use the fiber out on the STB?

Generally, cable is simple stereo. For DD5.1 you'll need the fibre out of the STB to the sound card, then back out to the reciever.

2) No.

3) Yes. The remote controls gbpvr, and gbpvr controls the cards.

4) They should be fine, but you should turn OFF scanning of your recording folders, or drive. Keep active scanning on everything else. You don't need to scan recordings you're making.

[Jovid]

You rock Reboot!!! and hopefully I'll be rocking here shortly.

I though that was the case with the audio, but I wasn't exactly sure. I'm going to give the Turtle Beach Catalina a shot. Hopefully it will work decently.

Thanks again...Joe

[reboot]

Thanks Jovid. Post back, and let us know how it goes.
I don't think you can go wrong with the Catalina.