hey everyone had a quick question...im kinda new to the pvr scene..but not new to modding or anything like that..

ive been planning this system out for awhile now...and have most the parts except my video card...i plan on using the knoppmyth install with the auto-run cd...can you guys let me know if this sounds good??

p4 1.8... 512mb ram....pvr-500...

i also want to use this system for both the front end and the back end, im pretty sure its powerful enough, but i dunno...hopefully you can let me know that...otherwise my other option is to use my modded xbox...maybe thats a better option so i can hide my computer elsewhere...

i want this system to be able to watch live tv while having the ability to pause and rewind and fast foward as well as record a show at the same time.....if you need more information about the system ill be happy to let you know...thank you for any information...

Fast enough CPU. Enough memory. Good capture card. Lots and lots of missing details. Seriously, NOBODY is a bad enough typist to be that terse for a good reason. I could type a more detailed description with my nose in under 5 minutes.

Start here. I try to keep this info fairly current.
http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... areConfigs

See this thread on 'Hardware to avoid - Read this BEFORE making a mistake!'
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6321

Spend some time browsing in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Hardware Recommendations. These contain lots of examples of working configurations and what tweaks if any it takes to make them work.

We're still waiting for the support for the Nvidia 6100 based motherboards to mature, so those are not currently recommended.

Ok, that took me 7 minutes and three mousing "cheats", one to click the signature check box, and two to cut and paste the URLs.

tjc - no need to be rude about the information however, upon further inspection of the computer at hand that i will be using..

it is a Gateway computer that I had lying around not getting much use...the comp as i said before is a p4 1.8 processor that appears that everything on the motherboard is an intel chipset not via or any other strange companies...

the video card that the computer will be using will be a nvidia chipset probably 64 meg card with s-video output...i read thats supposed to have good compatibility....

the hdd's are a 120gig maxtor and 80gig maxtor....

other than that...ive still up in the air whether i should buy the pvr-350 or the pvr-500...after reading around some more, im leaning to the 350 but maybe someone could steer me in the right directions knowing a little but more about the system im going to use...any other information needed?

just in case my description wasnt good enough..the computer specifically is a Gateway MFATXSTL ELP Performance 1500

Is it rude for the doctor to tell you you're going to have to describe your symptoms in more detail or you're just wasting everyones time? Around here we think it's rude for newbies to waste our time playing "Doctor it hurts". You want something from us. We're volunteers doing our best to be helpful and provide the information. It would behoove you to make it as easy as possible for us to continue putting out that effort. Forcing us to drag the information out of you painfully, fact by fact, over a long drawn out thread, until we give up in disgust, is against your best interests.

As for 350 versus 500, the machine is fast enough for a YUV card so, there's nothing to pick on that basis. The rest is up to you. You'll have to decide whether the advantages of two tuners, out weigh the TV output and the remote control.

BTW - That's still a really lousy hardware summary. I included my signature block on purpose to show what a good level of detail looks like. You wave your hands at "an Nvidia card" without providing the critical GFX chip information, you say "an Intel chipset" without providing enough detail for me to look it up and see if there are any known issues.

hence part of the reason why my topic was "need some advice"...i asking for help, not looking for snot nose answers...i started the thread off stating that i was a newbie to this part of the world...i provided all the information that i knew at the time..

after that, i go back and check all my information and give you as much more as i can to have another childish answer replied....

it gets frustrating as a new person to this forum to be attacked by someone who is supposedly a leader amongst us...set the example and dont be rude..if you dont want to reply to a newbie and his questions, then dont...i appreciate your effort in handing me out the links and your knowledge in this area, but the attitude could use a readjustment

as for still attacking me on my "terrible" hardware summary...maybe if you asked me a specific question or told me what to look for it wouldnt be like pulling teeth...

Hi bwilly12,

These guys are only trying to assist, they spend a lot of time helping old bees and noo bee's a like. Don't take things so personnel. There are almost 50,000 entries on this forum, go through and just count who helps ...

To try and answer your question, p4 1.8... 512mb ram.... should work just fine. I personnally prefer the pvr-350 as it allows me to experiment using various hardware for 266 mhz up to 1.6ghz (ya, old and slow but I am well over 21 too) Later if you really find a need for the second tuner, get a white boxed pvr-150 or stick in a 500 for three tuners. You will need a drive of about 20 gig to really be able to "test" the waters, larger just gives more shows that you probably won't have a chance to view.

Hope this is helpful.
Mike

ok, here's a little trick to get more info on that pc.. 2 options

- either go for the linux approach (you'll be installing it anyway)
just put a live cd in the box, start it up and use following command in a shell:
lspci
if that command isn't available
cat /proc/pci
will do the trick.

- if there's still a windows installed you can allways go for craig hart's pci.exe, it even comes with a dos version so you can use a bootdisk.
http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/downloads.htm

this will give you a detailed list of every device on the pci and agp bus.

there's no such thing as too much information..

mjl + bonarez -

thank you guys for being patient with me and helping me out thus far...i'm a little backed up with work at the moment, however ill be getting to work on this as soon as i order my capture card..

so a pvr-350 will give me the ability to watch/pause live tv and record another show at the same time? i was under the impression that only a 500 would do that..maybe i just mis-read the information...

as for giving out the rest of my comp info...ill be getting on that in the next day or 2 when i get linux up and going...

thanks again for the help! ill be in touch!

Hi bwilly12,

The 350 will give the ability to record while watching a prerecord. It is a single tuner so in order to watch LIVE tv and RECORD at the same time would require a second tuner (150) or a dual tuner (500).

The 350 does give you hardware decoder for real tv signals out to a modulator or a direct composite into a tv/monitor. It also lifts the processing load away from the cpu during play back. All three have hardware encoding to again relieve the cpu duties.

Again, the 350 is my preference even though it is a single tuner. One of these days I may spring for a white box 150 for those rare times I would like to record two shows at once.

Mike