Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Anyone else using a DVR setup?

  1. #1
    Registered+
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Cornwall
    Posts
    21
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts
    • Rookie's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P5N-E SLi
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz
      • Memory:
      • 2gb Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 @ 4-4-4-12
      • Storage:
      • 2x Samsung Spinpoint 250gb SATA2
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 2x nVidia GeForce 8800GTS in SLi
      • PSU:
      • Antec TruePower Trio 650w
      • Case:
      • Antec P182
      • Monitor(s):
      • 19" Daewoo HL920W @ 1440x900
      • Internet:
      • Tiscali UK 2.2mbps ADSL

    Anyone else using a DVR setup?

    Does anyone else have a dedicated PVR/DVR HTPC? They seem to be gaining in popularity as of late - can't say I blame anyone, either, they're handy little things. I've had mine for about six weeks now, and (aside from a few teething problems) it seems to do the job just fine.

    Specs:

    • Mobo: VIA EPIA SP13000 w/ Integrated VIA C3 "Nehemiah" 1.3GHz CPU
    • 1gb RAM
    • 60gb HDD
    • FusionHDTV DVB-T Dual-Tuner Card
    • Sapphire Radeon 9250 (PCI)
    • Slimline Slot-Loading DVD+/-RW Drive
    • CaseTronic Travla C137 Mini-ITX Case
    • 120w Power Board w/ external brick
    • Windows MCE 2005
    • Samsung LE26R41B 26" HDTV


    According to MCE it has a capacity of 30 hours for recording, give or take. Which does me just fine. My only complaint is the silly Radeon DVD decoders. According to MCE, they're out of date and need to be upgraded before I can watch DVDs using the built-in MCE DVD player. However, I can't access the latest decoder upgrade package from ATI, because the installation utility can't verify my driver CD. Probably because it's an older model.

    I don't see why MCE would make such a fuss when DVDs play fine with PowerDVD. Odd.

    Anyway, anyone else care to share their setup?

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Northampton
    Posts
    319
    Thanks
    1
    Thanked
    7 times in 7 posts
    • ash_rm's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte P35-S3
      • CPU:
      • E4300@3.2GHz
      • Memory:
      • 2x 2GB Corsair
      • Storage:
      • 320GB WD & 80GB Maxtor
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 7600GT
      • PSU:
      • Seasonic S12 380W
      • Case:
      • Antec Solo
      • Monitor(s):
      • DGM 24" (1920 x 1200)
      • Internet:
      • Be (~ 3mb)
    Yeah that sounds a bit weird, I have a Nvidia 6200 AGP card on my setup. I use the Nvidia PureVideo MPEG2 Decoder which work quite nicely. I noticed slight improvement in picture quality over the powerdvd decoder. Didn't have any problems playing dvd's with only the powerdvd decoder.

    At the moment I'm running:

    • S754 MSI Neo Platinum NF3 250GB
    • Sempron 2600 64bit @ 2.4GHz
    • 512MB PC3200 RAM
    • 250GB WD IDE HDD
    • Black Gold DVB-T Freeview Tuner
    • Nvidia Geforce 6200 128MB AGP (Not the turbocache version!)
    • LG 16x DVD ROM
    • Silverstone LC17
    • Windows MCE 2005
    • Toshiba 42WH36P Rear Projection TV


    The problems I have are with the display setup since my TV can only support 480p or 576p. At the progressive resolutions I get too much overscan so I am using a 576i resolution and have just got 2 one inch black bars running on the top and bottom. Not perfect but the picture quality is miles better than through S-Video or Composite.

  3. #3
    Registered+
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Cornwall
    Posts
    21
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts
    • Rookie's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P5N-E SLi
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz
      • Memory:
      • 2gb Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 @ 4-4-4-12
      • Storage:
      • 2x Samsung Spinpoint 250gb SATA2
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 2x nVidia GeForce 8800GTS in SLi
      • PSU:
      • Antec TruePower Trio 650w
      • Case:
      • Antec P182
      • Monitor(s):
      • 19" Daewoo HL920W @ 1440x900
      • Internet:
      • Tiscali UK 2.2mbps ADSL
    Nice system you have there.

    Yeah, initially I had some issues getting the resolution for my HDTV set up, by default it cut the picture in half - nothing a bit of tweaking in Catalyst CC couldn't fix, though.

    I did look at an older nVidia card instead of an ATI when I was planning it (the SP13000 can only support two PCI cards, no AGP), however I read on various websites that Radeons performed better with the TV tuner in question.

    A bit of digging also turned up results that indicates that the PowerDVD decoder and the new ATI decoder are one and the same. Hence why ATI requires the installation CD be verified; they can't give away commercial software unless you own ATI hardware. Doesn't look like I'll be getting MCE DVD support anytime soon then. Oh well.

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    710
    Thanks
    33
    Thanked
    5 times in 5 posts
    Quote Originally Posted by Rookie
    Does anyone else have a dedicated PVR/DVR HTPC? They seem to be gaining in popularity as of late - can't say I blame anyone, either, they're handy little things. I've had mine for about six weeks now, and (aside from a few teething problems) it seems to do the job just fine.

    Specs:

    • Mobo: VIA EPIA SP13000 w/ Integrated VIA C3 "Nehemiah" 1.3GHz CPU
    • 1gb RAM
    • 60gb HDD
    • FusionHDTV DVB-T Dual-Tuner Card
    • Sapphire Radeon 9250 (PCI)
    • Slimline Slot-Loading DVD+/-RW Drive
    • CaseTronic Travla C137 Mini-ITX Case
    • 120w Power Board w/ external brick
    • Windows MCE 2005
    • Samsung LE26R41B 26" HDTV
    Hi

    How's the FusionHDTV dual tuner card? I want a dual tuner one, PCI Express ideally, I'm just surprised there's so few options...

    DM

  5. #5
    Registered+
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Cornwall
    Posts
    21
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts
    • Rookie's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P5N-E SLi
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz
      • Memory:
      • 2gb Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 @ 4-4-4-12
      • Storage:
      • 2x Samsung Spinpoint 250gb SATA2
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 2x nVidia GeForce 8800GTS in SLi
      • PSU:
      • Antec TruePower Trio 650w
      • Case:
      • Antec P182
      • Monitor(s):
      • 19" Daewoo HL920W @ 1440x900
      • Internet:
      • Tiscali UK 2.2mbps ADSL
    I've had no problems with it whatsoever - picture quality is good (even though it uses a software encoder/decoder), recording performance is decent - the only problem I've found is that the software that comes with it doesn't take advantage of the dual tuners. (Well, if it does then I haven't found an option pertaining to it.)

    Both the tuners show up and work fine in MCE2005, though.

  6. #6
    mutantbass head Lee H's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    M28, Manchester
    Posts
    14,204
    Thanks
    337
    Thanked
    671 times in 580 posts
    • Lee H's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI Z370 Carbon Gaming
      • CPU:
      • Intel i7 8700K Unlocked CPU
      • Memory:
      • 16 GB Corsair Vengeance 3200 LPX
      • Storage:
      • 250GB 960 EVO + a few more drives
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 6GB Palit GTX 1060 Dual
      • PSU:
      • Antec Truepower 750W Modular Blue
      • Case:
      • Corsair 600T White Edition
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 PRO
      • Monitor(s):
      • 27" Asus MX279H & 24" Acer 3D GD245HQ + the 3D glasses
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media
    Yeap - I'm running a HTPC which also doubles up as my SLI gaming rig which is in my system specifications over under my name etc

    The only real thing I can complain about is the lack of updates for several things, but the main one has to be the nvidia drivers for MCE2005. A quick look at the nvidia website shows the latest driver update for the graphics platform was released on February 7, 2006.

    TV Tuner-wise I've got the hauppauge Nova-T which has been great and the picture quality superb.

    VLC360 & Transcode360 are also installed so I can watch DivX and Xvid files on the xbox 360 downstairs as well ( when it's connected to the network that is )

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. WinXP installation setup crashes / produces errors
    By davidstone28 in forum Help! Quick Relief From Tech Headaches
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 24-03-2006, 11:59 PM
  2. Network Camera and PC Setup
    By milanlad in forum Networking and Broadband
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 10-12-2005, 12:05 PM
  3. Xp system setup
    By J273 in forum Help! Quick Relief From Tech Headaches
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 16-06-2005, 12:19 AM
  4. Buy New Setup Now or....
    By Randell Floyd in forum PC Hardware and Components
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 03-06-2005, 07:54 PM
  5. Help me with a new setup...
    By TomWilko in forum Consumer Electronics
    Replies: 38
    Last Post: 10-05-2004, 07:14 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •