Folks;

I'm trying to build my first PVR. I can follow explicit instructions but can't claim to be well-oriented on Linux.

I'm not much of a videophile... basic cable, no HDTV, no digital cable, plain-jane TV with RF and composite inputs.

The R5A16 installation was a breeze, thanks to guides on this site. However, I made the mistake of buying a PVR-500MCE which I thought was a fancy name for a PVR-500. It's not, I find, due to the FM tuner which shifts the source inputs, etc.

QUESTION

Can I do a clean install of R5A16 and get the PVR-500MCE working? HOW??? Should I punt, return the PVR-500MCE and buy two PVR-250's?

Minor question... is the ATI Remote in Wonder II supported?

THANKS! I've been searching and reading for days and I'm a little disoriented. What year is this?

I'm not proud... I'll even welcome "Magic 8 Ball" responses like "All signs point to yes" or "Ask again later".

THANKS!

The MCE versions are designed to work with MS-Windows MCE and are entirely different products from the other ones that wear the same model number. I know we've had people report success with the plain PVR-500 (linuxgeek for one) but it's still kind of on the bleeding edge. If you can swap for one of those you have at least a hope of getting it working. I'd recommend the PVR-250 but a lot of folks have been struggling with the model 980 that's out there now.

Figure that either way you're going to have to install new IVTV drivers from source (it's not that hard).

BTW - The first place to look is under the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Hardware Recommendations. That is where people report success with various hardware and what they had to do to achieve it. The next place to look is the wiki, but beware of HowTo pages that are out of date.

Magic 8ball says "If you'd search the forum, you'd see the 500 currently isnt supported out the box."

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

I'm in the same boat. I am quickly finding that explicit instructions are kind of hard to come by for a lot of things. The problem seems to be that there a billion different variations of hardware setups and versions of the different software to make this all work and they are all done just a little bit differently. KnoppMyth makes it at least actually possible for us Linux newbies to get this stuff up and running, but a lot of things are still not particularly easy, and I have the feeling that by the time I am done setting everything up that I want to do, I will be far from a Linux newbie.



Well, others have weighed in on this topic already here, but from what I read before I purchased anything, the only really sure bet right now is the PVR-350. Which is why I bought that one, and I breezed right through the setup process with it.



From what I read I believe so. Check out this thread. I know that my version 1 of the Remote Wonder worked (at least partially) without having to do anything at all but plug it in and reboot, but I was very disastisfied with it's range and switched to an old Irman that I had lying around that should work much better.



Haha, I hear that. My poor printer is getting quite a workout. Since starting this project I probably have printed more pages on it than I have done in the last year.

Where is everyone finding the PVR-500 (non-MCE?) I can't find any indication of its existence other than on this forum. Anybody know where to look?

From a quick look at Hauppauge's web site it seems that all PVR-500's are MCE. Guess that's what come from believing that people are completely and accurately describing their hardware... Apparently it can be done, but it's going to some work and new bleeding edge ivtv drivers at the very least.

PVR-500MCE headed back to Amazon.com. PVR-350 in route.

If I open it and it says "PVR-350MCE" I'm probably gonna cry.

THANKS ALL!

Per linuxgeek, he is using the PVR-500MCE. There is no PVR-500 (non-MCE).

I have the PVR-500MCE, I dont think there is a non-MCE version. Following Linuxgeek's instructions, I got the PVR-500MCE working great, just make sure to use the ivtv 0.3.6o and above release.

~Matt

Accrding Hauppauge there ain't no such thing, so there's no need to worry.