New Zealand New.

[Billhilly]

Hi all,
Been lurking for a while trying to get upskilled! Great Forum you have here Sub, (and ya'll!). Reason for coming in from the cold is I think it's finally time to move from my steam powered current model, to something a little more.....
present day! I have had an ATI TV tuner for about, a long time, and want to now go whole hog.
So I looked at ATI again, but decided that Hauppauge would be the way to go. So I thought a PVR 500 and a Nova S Plus would be a start, but then found the HVR 3000, and now of course read about the HVR 4000. (Would run a pair of HVR's). I was really hopeing Sub, that you would offer an opinion on the above, and also what you are using down here. I see you are useing some Twinham product as well. I thought a pair of HVRs would be good because as Freeveiw is introduced (maybe....soon....) I would be able to go Sat. for all TV. I don't know enough to see where the 4000 will shine. (I see it is S2). I haven't been able to find a 3000 down here yet, and I can only find one listing for the 4000, but it's not in stock at the moment. (http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=326953).
New computer will be built, am leaning Gigabyte M59SLI-S5, Athlon64x2 Dual Core 4200, 2GB Ram, with maybe a Gigabyte 7600GT graphics card (7950GT??). Will run home office, internet, and do all TV recording, DVD playing etc. Should say, I can get PVR and Nova S('s) at a good price in NZ. And are there really any issues running 500's with Dual Cores?
So, please feel free to comment away on tuner choice, and of course new computer spec.
Thanks!

[sub]

I have an HVR 4000. It does seem a good match to our pending freeview system given its mix of DVB-T and DVB-S. Its pretty nice, but the major downside to this device is the lack of hardware MPEG2 encoding on analog capture. All the encoding is done in software, which requires a lot of CPU and pretty much rules out the option of having two of these cards in the one PC.

This lack of MPEG2 encoder hardware means I only really use it for the occasional testing, rather than my day to day usage.

And are there really any issues running 500's with Dual Cores?

My PVR500 works fine with dual core AMD 4600+.

[Billhilly]

Just because I'm sittin' round Sunday pm, didn't expect you to be!
So that said (two HVR's not really practical, well not even one) a PVR500 and one Nova S, then if Freeview really does get going, two Novs S's is a semi practical option? (Watch TV1/2 on Sat. then all. Don't know how long it would take to get DVB-T over here....).
Any other product, that would work with Freeview in mind, worth a mention?

(HVR3000 is the same as the 4000 in respect to the analog capture deal aye? Haupaugge website is suitably vauge!)

[sub]

So that said (two HVR's not really practical, well not even one) a PVR500 and one Nova S, then if Freeview really does get going, two Novs S's is a semi practical option? (Watch TV1/2 on Sat. then all. Don't know how long it would take to get DVB-T over here....).
Any other product, that would work with Freeview in mind, worth a mention?

A PVR500 and a Nova-S should be just fine.

HVR3000 is the same as the 4000 in respect to the analog capture deal aye?

Yes. The HVR 4000 also supports DVB-S2, which isnt something used by satellites in our area yet, so not a bit factor.

[Billhilly]

Thanks alot Sub, I'll let you know how I get on.

[krypton_john]

A PVR500 and a Nova-S should be just fine.

Yes. The HVR 4000 also supports DVB-S2, which isnt something used by satellites in our area yet, so not a bit factor.

Dumb question: Doesn't the Nova-S require software encoding?

[krypton_john]

Dumb question: Doesn't the Nova-S require software encoding?

Yep, that sure was a dumb question as the transmitted stream contains MPEG encoded video already. DUH!

[sub]

Yep, that sure was a dumb question as the transmitted stream contains MPEG encoded video already. DUH!

Correct. The Nova-S is digital only, which is transmitted as MPEG2 stream.

The HVR4000 card above does digital terrestrial, digital satellite and analog - it was this analog aspect of the card that needed to use software encoding to convert the analog video to an MPEG2 stream.

[stustunz]

i know this is an old post and question i want to know has probably already been answered
my problem is one of my tuners is causing bsod cant be bothered trying to find a better driver as i think i would be wasting my time
so anyway

option 1:looking at hvr 4000 ($200nz)
has 2 usable tuners can it record from both dvb-s at the same time as dvb-t

option 2 :is a nova s is half the price but can buy 2 then only issue have to remove pvr 150 to free up pci slots

option 3 is a pcie cards but no one seems to stock them the hvr 1600 i think is a pcie card has anyone used one of these pci e cards with xp and do they work ok ? edit it would seem hauppauge do not make a pcie dvb-s card so this is not an option

what do people think of these cards good and bad ?

[sub]

option 1:looking at hvr 4000 ($200nz)
has 2 usable tuners can it record from both dvb-s at the same time as dvb-t

I think it can do either DVB-S or DVB-T , but not both at the same time.