Just a few questions from a beginner

[chr]

this is my first experience with a real pvr program, and i am very happy with it. great job sub. i just have a few simple questions, as i am not very familiar with some of the features on this program.

1) whenever i turn on live tv, it automatically starts recording and creating a file. is there a way to just watch and not record? it shows a recording bar towards the top of the tv window.

2) scan lines. i have many scan lines and it does bother me a little bit. i have the cyberlink mpeg2 decoder installed, and in the configuration, i have live preview mode disabled. i have tried using the microsoft program which allows you to choose your mpeg2 decoder, and the one i was using was the cyberlink sp. any other ideas? i tried installing dscaler, but it wouldn't show up in the list to choose from.

here is some information about my hardware:
ati tv wonder elite
bfg geforce 7800 gtx oc
amd athlon 64 3700+
1gb ocz pc3200 gold
74gb western digital 10,000rpm 8mb hd

thanks for any help.

[reboot]

1.) this is not a permanent recording. It's the nature of the pvr, to timeshift, so you can rewind and pause live TV. It's designed to do this. The temp recording it makes, is usually deleted a few minutes after you exit the live TV portion.

2) This is visible on a computer monitor, because the signal is interlaced. You can use the dscaler de-interlacer if you like (look in config/playback). These lines do not show up on recordings, or shouldn't on the TV, at least.
Dscaler is just a deinterlacer, not a decoder. It's an addon that should work with whatever decoder you are using (cyberlink, mainconcept, intervideo, etc.)

[sub]

1) live preview just watches TV, and creates no files.

[chr]

You can use the dscaler de-interlacer if you like (look in config/playback). These lines do not show up on recordings, or shouldn't on the TV, at least.
Dscaler is just a deinterlacer, not a decoder. It's an addon that should work with whatever decoder you are using (cyberlink, mainconcept, intervideo, etc.)

Awesome, thanks for the great help reboot/sub. Are there any special installation instructions as far as using dscaler de-interlacer? i do have it installed on my computer, just not sure what to do with it from there. thanks.

and you were right, the lines dont show up on recordings.

[reboot]

I should have clarified.
If you have "use live preview if possible" enabled, it creates no files.
If you have it disabled, everything you watch is timeshifted 500ms (half a second).
I don't bother with dscaler, because it only applies to stuff you watch on the computer. I'm sure someone else will be along to help though.