Epia users

[malgernon]

Hi,

I've been using Gb-pvr as a DVD, Div-X and Music Centre and its been a good system for these on my mini-itx board (an Epia-M10000 'Nehemia' in a Morex Venus case running W2K SP4).

Now I'd like to complete this set up with an analog-capture TV PCI-card that will work well with gb-pvr to watch live-tv and record it.

Has anyone got a similar Epia-M system with a TV-card working to their satisfaction? If anyone can vouch for a particular card for these Epia boards, then I'd be interested to hear about it. My input would be Scart to s-video from a Telewest cable box.

I appreciate that the Epia-M Nehemia is close to the minimum spec for running a PVR. I've been playing with a £25 PC-World-brand TV card which is adequate for viewing Live TV using its own software but produces a poor-quality recording, so I'm hoping that by purchasing a decent, supported card from a major brand I can get something acceptable.

Any advice?

Regards,

Malgernon

[malgernon]

Any satisfied Epia-users out there at all?
I would consider upgrading the motherboard to a better mini-itx board if the M10000 is hopeless as a PVR. Shame because its adequate in all other respects as a media center.

[Chris.Day]

It's fine. I've recently picked up a cheap VIA C3 based laptop (VIA C3 1.2A Nehemia + VIA CLE266) which is to all intents and purposes an EPIA-MII-1200 and as long as you use a decoder which can utilise the CastleRock/Unichrome MPEG2 acceleration (e.g. Cyberlink PowerDVD 5.0) it can serve well as a PVR.

If it handles DVD playback fine now, it will certainly cope with PVR too, since cards like Hauppauge PVR-150 have minimal CPU overhead. Don't waste your time with the PVR-350 - the PVR-150 is more than adequate. If you are in a Freeview area, then you might want to look into a DVB-t card such as the Nova-t PCI or Nova-t-Stick (both around £40).

[nkh]

Get a Hauppauge pvr-150 or pvr-500, either should do the job well. If you have tied up the pci slot with a graphics card and doesn't want to use the pci-raiser card, then you could try a pvr-usb2. You can see my system specs in my signature, and it works great!

[malgernon]

Thanks for the feedback - that's reassuring.

I did have the hauppage nova-t but since moving my digital reception is too poor so have gone back to terrestrial via cable.

I'll look into the cards you've listed then - though I'm tending towards the PVR150.

Cheers,

Malgernon

[sub]

Sorry to be negative sounding, but having initially had an M10000 when I was developing GB-PVR, I find them way too slow. If every goes your way, and the wind is at your back, and you've got the all the right decoders etc, it'll give "acceptable" performance, but the menus will be a bit sluggish.

I recommend the minimum spec CPU for GB-PVR is a 1GHz PIII class CPU. The M10000 is about the equivalent of a celeron 600MHz.

[malgernon]

Thanks for the warning sub.

The truth is that I'm actually satisfied using the epia-m with gb-pvr for playing div-x/x-vid, music and dvds and my family is getting a lot of mileage out of it.

Attaining even adequate recording will be a bonus.

Having said that, if using a tv-out card is a viable option for easing the load on the processor, then I'd like to go that route. Again, if anyone has that kind of set-up with an epia then any advice would be much appreciated. It would involve using a PCI extension gadget.

Regards,

Malgernon

[nkh]

Having said that, if using a tv-out card is a viable option for easing the load on the processor, then I'd like to go that route. Again, if anyone has that kind of set-up with an epia then any advice would be much appreciated. It would involve using a PCI extension gadget.

The tv-out on the pvr-350 looks great, but it doesn't really agree with my VIA M10000... it freezes the computer after a while when I'm using the tv-out. And it only works with mpeg files, so it's not worth it.

As Sub said, it's a bit on the slow side just using a regular gfx's tv-out, but you'll get the best compatability that way. And it's really "just" a matter of getting the codecs and gfx drivers just right

When you already have the VIA M10000, I think the obvious choice is a PVR-150 or PVR-500. Even if you later on deside that the motherboard is too slow, you'll still have a fine tv-tuner that you can use on the next one.

[stefan]

I can confirm that the tv-out on the pvr-350 in combination with the epia nehemiah 10000 does not work for more than a little while. Recordings are perfect, though. I do find the tv out on the epia to be a bit less than adequate, but getting used to it. That said, if you get a 150 or 500 (which is exactly the same; just two 150's on the same board), you can still use that card on any other computer the day you decide to switch computers. You don't need a "special" card for the Epia, the 150 will do just fine. What I'm trying to say is that the recordings made by a 150 will not be worse just because you are using an Epiah rather than any other computer It's possibly the playback that would suffer, but that wouldn't help using any other tv-card.

[elite]

The tv-out on the pvr-350 looks great, but it doesn't really agree with my VIA M10000... it freezes the computer after a while when I'm using the tv-out. And it only works with mpeg files, so it's not worth it.

Just a heads up to anyone reading this thread that I believe sub no longer actively supports the tv out on the 350 so it may not work on future releases - <StartRant>Not that I could get the b*stard hauppauge tv out to work anyway, even after trying every driver under the sun :mad: </EndRant>