Recommendations - tuner card, etc

[86atc250r]

Hello,

I just found GBPVR recently and thought I'd build myself up a dedicated PVR system.

Currently I have an old 450mhz system running as a music server and tied into my home theater system. I wrote some remote control software and it works pretty slick. That's about all it currently is though - a digital music player.

I thought I'd make the leap and further integrate -- so, I'm planning on replacing that 450mhz machine with a 3ghz, 533 FSB Intel based box with a 200gb drive dedicated to video, music, and image storage and a half gig of ram. This PC will not have a monitor and probably won't have a keyb or mouse for that matter -- will be managed via Remote Desktop.

I have an old school tube TV that I probably won't replace for a while. It has composite and S-video in's.

I would like to be able to play DVDs, MP3 music, internet music, (fm tuner would be cool too), watch my analog cable, and do the PVR thing with this system.

First question, I'd like to only buy a TV / en/decoder card once - I think I'd like it to have as much hardware encoding/decoding as available as to keep system resources as free as possible. What's the recommended card in this dept? I've been looking at the PVR-350 so far.

I've read some are having problems with the PVR-350 cards locking up when using the composite out function -- have any of these problems been had by those using Intel chipset based MB's? I'll be using an ASUS P4PE.

Next, in the past, I had been considering upgrading my sound card to an M-Audio 2496 card (with RCA ins and outs). Will I still want to go this route, or will I be able to send MP3 and internet based music out the RCA jacks on the TV card to the receiver/amp? If so, will they offer reasonable quality?

Any other caveats I should be aware of? I'm looking to build a very slick, well integrated, and easy to use/operate system that even my wife will enjoy taking advantage of.

What would some of you that have a good bit of experience do if you were building up a system like this, with those goals in mind?

[ejeffers]

If you really want to keep most of that 3ghz unused (which seems like a waste to me), then the 350 is for you. However, keep in mind that this card only displays GBPVR, and other mpeg-2 videoes, and not the desktop and does get frequent lochups. Personally thogh, I would build a dual tuner system witha Hauppage pvr-500 and a Nvidia 6200 with TV-out. Depending on brand, the 6200 will typically have a hardware Mpeg-2 decoder and will also display other items as well. This seems like the logical choice to me, becuase what is the point of 3ghz if it wont be used?

[reboot]

The PVR-350 only plays mpeg-2 output, so if you have any video that's avi or wmv, it won't work. You're much better off with a good software decoder (on a 3ghz machine, it's a moot point how much CPU it may use), and a good video card with TV outputs.
Look at the PVR-500 for a dedicated PVR. It really helps to have multiple tuners (and FM), then add a nice remote. The Firefly works well (especially if you need RF and not IR).
Audio out depends on your ears. As PVR cards generally only record in stereo, you only need stereo out of your sound card. It's all digital, so there's no degradation in quality.
One thing you can say about gbpvr, it has a great WAF (wife acceptance factor)

We posted at the same time, and I just wanted to add, the GF6200 has hardware assisted decoding. It still relies on a software decoder driver on the system, or it wouldn't be able to play avi or wmv or mov (just like the 350).

[ejeffers]

Thanks for catching me reboot. I must have been thinking of DVD decoding, because I am pretty sure thta PNY offers this.

[kayleigh]

I've been using the 350 for about a year or so (with the TV-out) and I haven't had any issues with lockups or missed recordings. I'm using the latest drivers available from shspvr.com; my full setup is listed below. I've found I get excellent DVD-quality video and frequently burn my recordings over to DVD for archiving.

Full disclosure: I use my computer as a dedicated PVR only - I don't use it for live TV or a digital jukebox.

[wannabepvr]

On the topic of which card -

I have just got a friend interested in the whole PVR thing and GBPVR. He is asking my advice on what tuner card to get for digital free to air. (Australia)

I went down the path of the twinhan and MCE remote more as an accidental evolution than a plan. It wasn't (isn't) exactly trouble free but generally does what I want....... Actually, thinking back it was more than a little traumatic to get to where I am.

Now I could recommend the same set up which means I could my friend through the issues I found......Or do we try another (hopefully) less painful path?

Most the discussion in this thread has Hauppauge been PVR150/350/500 which are all analogue (?) and the WinTV (nova) are the digital - true?

Are these the most trouble free cards or should we look at others?

Any comments appreciated.

[sub]

I went down the path of the twinhan and MCE remote more as an accidental evolution than a plan. It wasn't (isn't) exactly trouble free but generally does what I want....... Actually, thinking back it was more than a little traumatic to get to where I am.

Now I could recommend the same set up which means I could my friend through the issues I found......Or do we try another (hopefully) less painful path?

Most the discussion in this thread has Hauppauge been PVR150/350/500 which are all analogue (?) and the WinTV (nova) are the digital - true?

Are these the most trouble free cards or should we look at others?

The analog cards are more trouble free in general.

On the digital side I usually recommend either the Nova-T or Twinhan devices since these are the most widely used here, and always helps to have had others around that have experienced the same issues and resolved them. Digital can work pretty well in GB-PVR, but its more complex to setup and depends on more third party components (muxes etc), so can be more fragile. Once you've got a working set up, it usually works pretty well.

[wannabepvr]

I was a little surprised that you say analogue is less troublesome, particularly with the digital broadcast is a already Mpeg2 stream.

But I suppose it makes sense in that the analogue cards use hardware encoding so all the tricky stuff is contained within the card and its drivers.

But as you say with digital it is being re-multiplexed by 3rd party Muxs and commonly this seems to be where the 'fun' starts.

I might stick with the devil I know - Twinhan.

Thanks as always.

[86atc250r]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Initially I had thought about the PVR500, but got off on the 350 and thought it might be a better option with maybe a 150 as my 2nd tuner.

So - if I get a PVR500 & a decent video card with composite out -- will I be able to feed all my video out through a single composite out or will I need to feed the TV tuner out the one on the PVR card, and DVD out the vid card?

[kayleigh]

Everything should just feed out through the video card; the 500 doesn't have TV-out. You should be able to just send the TV and DVD program display to the composite display on the video card. Be aware also that the 500 also doesn't come with a remote or software DVD decoder per their specs posted here.