2006-07-29, 10:27 PM
Hi,
A little history...
I'm fairly new (7 months) to media center PCs, PC based PVRs and recently streaming media to my TV. A few weeks ago, after weeks of study on the subject of streaming media (audio, pictures and recorded TV) to my TV from my PC, I purchased a D-Link DSM-320. At the time it was cheaper than the MediaMVP and it was wireless... cool.
I'd already done a couple weeks of homework before the purchase and found from reading around that the included D-Link media server PC application was not the best choice and even prior to the DSM-320 arrival, I'd already experimented with a number of PC side media server applications and settled on TVersity as my media server of choice. They pretty much all worked the same but there were slight nuances that made TVersity my final choice. Note, GB-PVR was one media server I read about and eliminated without even trying because it seemed to be overkill for a simple media server and it needed a MediaMVP to truly shine.
When the DSM-320 arrived, I basically hooked it up, plugged it in and it configured itself and found the TVersity server and we were quickly listening to music and viewing family pictures from my PC hard drive and everything worked generally well.
When it came to viewing recorded video, my wife was at first amazed and thinking it was really cool to be able to watch video recorded by my PC PVR on the TV with no VCR to setup and tapes to juggle. However it wasn't long before she said how do 'I record a TV show with your new toy?'
Well you guessed it... I tried to explain the DSM-320 was a 'simple viewing device only device' and that the PVR application that recorded the shows was running on the PC and to record a show, she had to learn to use the PC application to set up recordings... bla bla bla... which is all she heard I'm sure.
At that point I was back to the drawing board researching PC based PVR software that was easy to use. Bottom line, none were really easy to use and none could be 'ran from the living room' where the TV and DSM-320 were at. After a week, I was beginning to think another media center PC in the living room was the only option...
That's when I (re)discovered GB-PVR. It along with a MediaMVP seemed to promise the complete (two way) interactive experience from the TV.
After downloading and trying GB-PVR for a few hours, the very next day I sent the DSM-320 back and ordered a MediaMVP.
Now to my question.
I've read a ton of useful and a bit disconcerting info on this forum and I want to try and avoid the dongle.bin issue and any other gotchas from the get go. Since I've not had the MediaMVP hardware in house yet but I do have GB-PVR installed and working on the PC with my PVR-150, what would be the proper approach to having the best success with the total setup?
What a great tool and wonderful community this is and thanks in advance for any advice.
Rick
A little history...
I'm fairly new (7 months) to media center PCs, PC based PVRs and recently streaming media to my TV. A few weeks ago, after weeks of study on the subject of streaming media (audio, pictures and recorded TV) to my TV from my PC, I purchased a D-Link DSM-320. At the time it was cheaper than the MediaMVP and it was wireless... cool.
I'd already done a couple weeks of homework before the purchase and found from reading around that the included D-Link media server PC application was not the best choice and even prior to the DSM-320 arrival, I'd already experimented with a number of PC side media server applications and settled on TVersity as my media server of choice. They pretty much all worked the same but there were slight nuances that made TVersity my final choice. Note, GB-PVR was one media server I read about and eliminated without even trying because it seemed to be overkill for a simple media server and it needed a MediaMVP to truly shine.
When the DSM-320 arrived, I basically hooked it up, plugged it in and it configured itself and found the TVersity server and we were quickly listening to music and viewing family pictures from my PC hard drive and everything worked generally well.
When it came to viewing recorded video, my wife was at first amazed and thinking it was really cool to be able to watch video recorded by my PC PVR on the TV with no VCR to setup and tapes to juggle. However it wasn't long before she said how do 'I record a TV show with your new toy?'
Well you guessed it... I tried to explain the DSM-320 was a 'simple viewing device only device' and that the PVR application that recorded the shows was running on the PC and to record a show, she had to learn to use the PC application to set up recordings... bla bla bla... which is all she heard I'm sure.
At that point I was back to the drawing board researching PC based PVR software that was easy to use. Bottom line, none were really easy to use and none could be 'ran from the living room' where the TV and DSM-320 were at. After a week, I was beginning to think another media center PC in the living room was the only option...
That's when I (re)discovered GB-PVR. It along with a MediaMVP seemed to promise the complete (two way) interactive experience from the TV.
After downloading and trying GB-PVR for a few hours, the very next day I sent the DSM-320 back and ordered a MediaMVP.
Now to my question.
I've read a ton of useful and a bit disconcerting info on this forum and I want to try and avoid the dongle.bin issue and any other gotchas from the get go. Since I've not had the MediaMVP hardware in house yet but I do have GB-PVR installed and working on the PC with my PVR-150, what would be the proper approach to having the best success with the total setup?
What a great tool and wonderful community this is and thanks in advance for any advice.
Rick
