Hardware help, Please

[spapesh]

I attempted to setup GBPVR about 1yr ago on a Dell computer with a 2.8GHZ P4 HT with 512 ram. It had an ATI 9550 graphics card w/256mb Ram and a Hauppauge 150 and a Avermedia M150 for the capture cards. I was using Svideo for my output from the ATI. I was using the latest Nvideo Purevideo decoder. The HD had 80GB for recording content. I still have the machine.

This was through straight analog cable...no cable box. The video would get choppy and the picture was not as good as if I connected the TV directly. My spouse hated it. Although, she liked the ability to record shows. I got a cable box with DVR. We liked it.

So, I am back because the cable company's box is malfunctioning and I don't want to pay $15 a month anymore.

Here is my situation: I want to set something up that will work. I have a cable box with "digital" cable...but no HDTV. Can anyone provide some suggestions? Here is what I want to do....


Record one show and watch another...so two tuners. What capture cards..If I stick just to analog? If I want to be proactive for HD?

Be able to use one remote to change the channel on my cable box and manage my on screen menu.

Have the ability to do HD(eventually)...Video AGP cards? PCI express cards???
What are some video cards that work well for just analog? I may not make the leap yet to HD depending on the cost of the computer equipment.

I want it to run smoothly.... If that means I need to buy a different computer...I will consider it.


THANKS!!!

[spapesh]

Any Processor suggestions would be helpful, too... Thanks

[JimF]

If your digital channels are unencrypted, then you could use a digital tuner. You might ask on your ISP's forum. I use an HDHomeRun dual digital tuner, which is external to the PC and communicates via Ethernet off of a port on my router to my PC. The dual tuners allow you to watch one show and record another, at least on your PC, but I am not quite sure how you would get it to work through your video card to your TV in real time. I am sure there is some way to do it by recording to the hard drive first, but have not tried it myself.

Either tuner works with off the air (8VSB in the US) and cable (QAM) channels, so you could use both tuners on cable, or one on cable and another on an antenna, for example. It is a little tricky to set up the first time, but there are instructions (not entirely complete) on the Silicondust forum for GB-PVR users. And once set up, it has been entirely stable for me, which is somewhat better than the PCI card I was using before. The size of the video files is smaller than what I was getting on my ATI Theater 550 Pro card also, typically around 1.3 GB rather than 1.8 GB for a one hour show, after editing out the commercials. And it does both standard definition and HD, since it merely records the digital signals, but does not compress or alter them in any way.

[spapesh]

I plan to keep the cable box and use something like IR blaster to change the channels. Therefore, it will be unencypted when it comes out of the box.

[kayleigh]

If you want to watch one channel & record another, you'll need two cable boxes (one for each card).

The CPU is definitely good enough, and the memory is at minimum, but increasing it to 1GB would help performance. If your OS is on the same drive as your recordings, that'll affect playback, too. It's better to have them on a separate drive.

The ATI 95xx should be enough for SD playback. For HD, Sub has recommended the Hauppauge cards (HD1600 or HD1800), and a number of people have recommended different video-out cards in threads (ATI and nVidia) - they each seem to have their own quirks. If you spring for a new system board, I'd definitely go with PCIe or PCI2.0 for the video.

Oh, I haven't played with my IR blaster yet, so I'm sorry, I can't give much input on that yet.

[spapesh]

So, I would need to have a card that can decrypt channels. Are there any that do?

[-Oz-]

So, I would need to have a card that can decrypt channels. Are there any that do?

Not exactly. You would have to get a Dell system, run windows vista, never use GB-PVR, and have about 20hrs and 3 super tech's to get it working (there was a huge article on engadget about the cablecard system).

[pcostanza]

Not exactly. You would have to get a Dell system, run windows vista, never use GB-PVR, and have about 20hrs and 3 super tech's to get it working (there was a huge article on engadget about the cablecard system).

I'm testing that exact system and though it's running well at the moment, the part about the tech help is no exaggeration. Most cable companies in the US have very little knowledge of what is needed even though MS has gone out of their way to give them all the info they need.
Then, once it's working, try copying the files to a dvd! DRM lives!