Computer based PVR review, group buy.

[GoChris]

http://www.snapstream.com/Community/Articles/medusa/

Ok, read that link, that is DAMN cool. I am going to get myself probably 2 cards, they take almost no cpu usage since the encoding is on board. 6 card on an average p4 only 25% usage! And you dont need a super fast hard drive.

First, thats neat so just wanted to share for everyone, as there has been talk in the past about people interested in that type of setup.

Second, I am going to get a couple, so is my friend who is going to order from his supplier out in Toronto so we are trying to get a good price with a bulk purchase, and save on shipping. They come with a remote also, so technically as they state, you can have 2 cards and run the cable out to 2 TV in 2 rooms, both with pause live tv capabilities.

You dont even have to build another computer to do this, just put it in your current one, run the cable and use the remote.

If anyone wants one, please let me know, Memory Express doesnt sell the card, nor ncix.com or tigerdirect.ca. I dont know where to look.

They are about $140USD so not alot but we hope to get them much cheaper with a group buy, so I just need to gauge interest for how many we might ask to order.

send me a pm, or email me.

[sml]

People still watch analog cable???:eek:

[GoChris]

bah...ok not as good of plan as i thought, because the card doenst have tv out...i thought it did but its an fm tuner also.

you can get software to watch the recording on any tv or laptop without needing a card, so basically streaming over the network.

so you would need a tv out card on your main vid card or a separate one.

scratch the whole group buy thing, its still a cool article to read. im still probably gonna get one.

[lint]

They sell the Hauppauge 250 at FS for $199, but you can get it for less on sale or with pm

[Xtrema]

PVR-250 was $150 + free USB web cam last month @ FS. Sometimes you can PM with Staples to get it for $125.

But snapstream now support PVR-150. Basically $125 ($84-$100USD) or less all the time with almost the same features as 250.

Snapstream support 2 tuners out of the box but beyond 2 requires extra licenses. I ran with 1 250 for the past year and upgrade to 2 tuners last month when BTV 3.5 was released. It's great but since it's analog, you're limited to the 54 channel universe under Shaw.

I don't seem the need for more than 3 tuners since conflict of 4 or more show almost never happens. If it does, you probably need to get a life, you watch TOO much TV. :D

As for video card, if you don't have an HDTV and relies on S-Video, any low end DX8 card will do.

If you DO have a HDTV and want 1:1 pixel mapping on dispaly, you should stay with ATI/Nvidia chipset as they can accept custom timing.

EDIT: All price mentioned above are in $CDN.

[GoChris]

Originally posted by Xtrema
PVR-250 was $150 + free USB web cam last month @ FS. Sometimes you can PM with Staples to get it for $125.

But snapstream now support PVR-150. Basically $125 ($84-$100USD) or less all the time with almost the same features as 250.

Snapstream support 2 tuners out of the box but beyond 2 requires extra licenses. I ran with 1 250 for the past year and upgrade to 2 tuners last month when BTV 3.5 was released. It's great but since it's analog, you're limited to the 54 channel universe under Shaw.

I don't seem the need for more than 3 tuners since conflict of 4 or more show almost never happens. If it does, you probably need to get a life, you watch TOO much TV. :D

As for video card, if you don't have an HDTV and relies on S-Video, any low end DX8 card will do.

If you DO have a HDTV and want 1:1 pixel mapping on dispaly, you should stay with ATI/Nvidia chipset as they can accept custom timing.

EDIT: All price mentioned above are in $CDN.

Wow great info thanks. I might pick up a 150 if I can... I have HDTV right now and the HDTV PVR so I can record the digital channels and HD channels with that, but I need to record two things at once sometimes so one card would do me good.

But the problem is, I was going to run it in my main pc but I dont think that will work, so I will have to put it in a spare tv or build a new one ($$$).

Think it will run on a p3 450? the 150 has on board hardware mpeg encode right? what about decode to export it on the tv out on a vid card (gonna have to get one of those too, my 9200 radeon doesnt have tv out) :(

[GoChris]

hey do you know the difference between the beyond tv 3.4 and 3.5 software?

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by rlde.us
hey do you know the difference between the beyond tv 3.4 and 3.5 software?

You can't buy 3.4 anymore, only 3.5. Major improvement is dual tuner support, better search function and screen adjustment (big + for people with HDTV since there'll always be overscan issues no matter what video card you use).

Yes, 150 has hardware encoding, just go to Hauppauge's site to do a side by side comparison. But I have yet to find it in any canadian retail channels yet, may be it's too new. But if FS ever drop 250 back to 150, you should pick one up ASAP.

As for PC selection a 450Mhz system may not cut it. Even tho encoding is done on tuner, decoding is still being handled by CPU when you watch what you recorded. So I'll still recommend at least P3 1Ghz. And if you turn on the automatic showsqueeze function in BTV, you'll need at least 2Ghz+ because the WMV conversion process is VERY CPU intensive.

Here's the WinTV-PVR comparsion list:
http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/compare_pvr.html

PVR-350 does have hardware decoder as well as TV out. But I'm not sure how that works and the card is over $200 and also hard to find.