GPVR running fine on 600MHz PIII

[bdgbill]

I may have the slowest functioning GPVR box.

IBM 300PL PIII 600MHZ 196 M Ram, PVR 150, XFX GeForce 5200, 20 GIG HD.

I originally installed GPVR with the stock generic AGP vid card. Install went smooth, everything worked. Live TV was too choppy to be watchable but recordings I made with GPVR looked fine with Windows Media Player.

Just installed the GeForce FX5200 and live TV is now very watchable. Timeshift works fine also. Channel change takes about 3 seconds, new channel has herringbone distortion for a few seconds then clears. Stuttering is worst on channels which have some kind of text crawl (CNN etc) on the screen.

Testing so far has been on the computer monitor only. I have cabling, furniture, girlfriend issues to work out this weekend in order to get the computer hooked to the TV.

This is a temporary setup for me (ordering new mobo, CPU, memory next month), but the fact that GPVR is useable on a system that is a little over half of the minimum reccomended shows the quality of the software.

[A_Brass]

Testing so far has been on the computer monitor only. I have cabling, furniture, girlfriend issues to work out this weekend in order to get the computer hooked to the TV.

Ask the girlfriend to marry you, and tell her to go buy a dress. While she's out re-arrange the furniture, hook the pc to the TV, when she gets back tell you fell down hit your head and cant remember anything that happened in the last 24 hours.

"Hey, honey, how did the PC get in the living room?"

"Wow, nice dress, what's that for??

(Get ready to duck, cause shes going to come out swinging). But it could work.

[bdgbill]

Ask the girlfriend to marry you, and tell her to go buy a dress. While she's out re-arrange the furniture, hook the pc to the TV, when she gets back tell you fell down hit your head and cant remember anything that happened in the last 24 hours.

"Hey, honey, how did the PC get in the living room?"

"Wow, nice dress, what's that for??

(Get ready to duck, cause shes going to come out swinging). But it could work.

LMAO - I was thinking more of "Look Honey, a whole weeks worth of Trading spaces, Oprah and all the other crappy shows that you love but miss while you are at work"!

"No I didn't buy another computer. Thats the old one that has been under the bed for 2 years"

"No the cable bill will not go up because of the PVR"

"UM....Yes there is another remote"

[A_Brass]

I was able to get GBPVR up and running on a laptop that had a 600mhz or 800mhz processer. I wasn't using it to record TV just playback from my GBPVR server. (Which is not very fast either). The only problem I had was trying to playback a currently recording show or Live TV. But on previously recording stuff it worked great.

I'm amazed how well GBPVR runs on lower spec'ed computers. Its a real complement to its stability, and Sub's programing skills.

[jsteele]

I wish mine would perform as well. I've got it running on a 1GB Athlon XP 3000+ and watching TV is fine. While I love GBPVR forget trying to do anything else like ripping a DVD while watching TV.

[borgs5]

[QUOTE=bdgbill]I may have the slowest functioning GPVR box.

IBM 300PL PIII 600MHZ 196 M Ram, PVR 150, XFX GeForce 5200, 20 GIG HD.

Mine is running on an EPIA 5000 (533Mhz - in real terms it's more like a 350Mhz)

Of course, at that speed I can't watch live TV or recorded TV - I have to burn the programmes to DVD and watch on my DVD player - a bit of a pain but won't be too bad once I have written some software to automate the network copy and burning.

But it plays music, records TV etc. Menu's are a bit slow but just about usable.

I'd love to see if a PVR-350 would work in it so that I coule pause live TV but unwilling to spend £100 GBP to find out.

[bdgbill]

Just an update for anyone who may be interested how well GBPVR runs on a slow system.

I only tried installing GBPVR on this system to begin to familiarize myself with the software, I did not expect it to be useful (it has little more than half the horsepower / memory that Sub reccomends as the bare minimum).

After using it everyday for two weeks I really think I could live with it the way it is. Maybe install more memory and strip XP down to the essentials.

The major limitations are:

Slow Menus - At times (usually if I have not used the remote for a while) there can be a 3-5 second delay to move focus from one button to another or to press a button.

Very slow channel changing for live tv - Takes 3-5 seconds to change from one channel to another. Not a big problem for me since I rarely use live tv. I have my digital cable box plugged straight into my tv for live tv and have another cable running into my PVR-150 giving the computer access to "basic" cable. A dedicated dig cable box for the PVR is next on my list.

Occasionaly choppy playback - Usually only happens during the first 10 seconds after starting playback or once in a while when certain types of images are on screen - very watchable. I think tweaking XP may fix this entirely.

Limited Plugin Choices - I am using "bleep bloop", "weather" and "theater" plugins with no problems but have avoided any more because I am worried about CPU / Memory usage. This is probably the biggest reason I would want to upgrade the MOBO / CPU after a while. I would really like to have the Xrecord, My Music and My Pictures Plugins installed.

This machine is a dedicated PVR and I do not need it to do anything except run GBPVR. I would not reccomend anyone try this if the slow machine is their only computer.

My next challenge is getting the hauppauge remote to work with a dedicated digital cable box for the PVR.

[Zod]

[QUOTE=bdgbill]Of course, at that speed I can't watch live TV or recorded TV - I have to burn the programmes to DVD and watch on my DVD player - a bit of a pain but won't be too bad once I have written some software to automate the network copy and burning.

Wow, that's dedication. We should start a donation or something, to get this man a cheap Ghz box capable of playing the recorded stuff back...anyone that manually burns recorded shows just to watch them, wanting to write software to automate the copy/burn process...that's just too much! Then again, UK television is probably much more worthwhile watching than our lame US reality shows and sitcoms.

[herbs]

[QUOTE=borgs5]
Then again, UK television is probably much more worthwhile watching than our lame US reality shows and sitcoms.

I'm afraid most of UK television are US imports (some of the better stuff sometimes i.e lost and House M.D) and some crappy home grown or Australian soaps. Mind you we do get some good comedy here which at least makes it bearable.

[Pioneer4x4]

2 of my favorite shows were British
Monarch of the Glen, and Lovejoy.
BBC America is starting Monarch again next Tuesday weekdays at 5.
I'd love to find all of the Lovejoy episodes.