First Time PVR hardware choices for Laptop

[Panthers65]

Hello everyone, I'm looking to set my laptop up as a DVR/PVR and was having trouble piecing my components together.

What I have is a MSI laptop with 110GB of free storage space on my hard drive and a HDMI output. Also have a TV with a HDMI Input. My cable is through Comcast and uses a new High Definition (assuming digital) cable box. I'm basically wanting a simple DVR-type setup that will link to my guide and record specific shows whenever they come on.

My main question is what Hauppauge device should I be looking for? Since my laptop only has an express 34 slot and I'm not finding any Hauppauge cards for that, I assume I'll use one of their USB devices. That narrows it down to 36 devices according to the "supported cards" section in the wiki.... Any actual recommendations for simplicity? I don't mind fast-forwarding my media player through the commercials or stuff like that, just as long as the tv show gets saved to my hard drive I'm happy, I can figure out the rest of that stuff later. Wanting to stay around $100 or so for setup.

My next question concerns idea of hardware mpeg-2 encode. My laptop is pretty new, 1.8 ghz dual processor with 3GB of ram and Windows 7 32 bit. Is hardware MPEG-2 encoding something I need if I still want to surf the web while watching tv, or will my laptop keep up with the software to encode the signal running along with my internet browser. More-so, since I have a digital signal is there anything to actually encode?


Sorry for the routine questions, but after several searches of 5 pages each, I couldn't find anything to help me out, Thanks!

Brent

[pBS]

well...you have digital cable, if you're lucky you can get *some* channels in hd there..
but nothing to bank on as they will soon yank them if other's experiences continue..

instead use a cable box and analog captures, and for that you'll have to have an hardware encoding analog recording source..software encoder types aren't supported and won't work as well...
so any of the hardware encoder usb2 types will be fine..not many to choose from when stuck with usb2 tho...[more like 3-6 than 36 choices]
and there's the remote consideration, try to get one that comes with a remote solution, or get a cheap mce remote+dongle for widest compatibility if separate..
you'll need one that has blasters on it...i'd make sure it has 2 on it if possible as they work better.. [to change channels on stb]

use svideo into the capture card for best picture if possible..

if you want to capture HD then only one option, HDPVR...it's usb2 and captures thru component[RGB] from cable box..it has blasters and remote..it needs a good video card, as it captures hd to h.264 .ts files...

umm, you'll need more than 110 megs of space if you wish to record *anything*
[if that's all you have free i'd re-install windows from scratch to clean it out]
and if using vista or win7, install gbpvr into a dir other than program files\, you'll thank me later..

[whurlston]

umm,and you'll need more than 110 megs of space if you wish to record *anything*

You read that wrong

What I have is a MSI laptop with 110GB of free storage space on my hard

[pBS]

got me...
certainly enough to record the odd show here and there..
still not enough to me as i am nearing 2 terabytes...
but i started with about that much..

[Graham]

For the avoidance of doubt ...

GBPVR does not do any encoding. The TV signal into GBPVR can be digital (from a rooftop antenna or from cable plugged into the TV device without a set top box) and the received broadcast is already in MPEG format. The TV signal into your 'puter can be analog (from a svideo or component connection to a set top box or from a direct connection to cable ... rare and getting rarer and possible already extinct). GBPVR requires that the analog card that receives the signal from the set top box has a hardware encoder and that the card outputs a MPEG stream.

In summary, the CPU load during recording is low because the CPU does no encoding.

The CPU will only be loaded during playback if the playback decoder and graphics hardware are unable to co-operate to achieve video acceleration.

[Jim_]

Hello everyone, I'm looking to set my laptop up as a DVR/PVR and was having trouble piecing my components together.

What I have is a MSI laptop with 110GB of free storage space on my hard drive and a HDMI output. Also have a TV with a HDMI Input. My cable is through Comcast and uses a new High Definition (assuming digital) cable box. I'm basically wanting a simple DVR-type setup that will link to my guide and record specific shows whenever they come on.

My main question is what Hauppauge device should I be looking for? Since my laptop only has an express 34 slot and I'm not finding any Hauppauge cards for that, I assume I'll use one of their USB devices. That narrows it down to 36 devices according to the "supported cards" section in the wiki.... Any actual recommendations for simplicity? I don't mind fast-forwarding my media player through the commercials or stuff like that, just as long as the tv show gets saved to my hard drive I'm happy, I can figure out the rest of that stuff later. Wanting to stay around $100 or so for setup.

My next question concerns idea of hardware mpeg-2 encode. My laptop is pretty new, 1.8 ghz dual processor with 3GB of ram and Windows 7 32 bit. Is hardware MPEG-2 encoding something I need if I still want to surf the web while watching tv, or will my laptop keep up with the software to encode the signal running along with my internet browser. More-so, since I have a digital signal is there anything to actually encode?


Sorry for the routine questions, but after several searches of 5 pages each, I couldn't find anything to help me out, Thanks!

Brent

Hauppauge WinTV PVR-USB2, the MCE version with the MCE remote and blaster. It will let you record from your cable box in very nice SD quality and will not tax your system if you choose to use comskip. The last one I picked up was about $50.00 brand new on eBay.
Adding a HVR-950Q for your second tuner will let you record all those OTA or QAM HD shows in their full HD/surround sound glory.
With some auction hunting you should be able to get both for around $100.00 total

But the first thing you should do is install GBPVR, configure the capture cards above (even though you don’t have them connected yet) and go looking for a reliable EPG.
Without a reliable and accurate EPG, you have nothing.

Hope this helps.
Jim