Before I dive too deep into this, I have a couple of questions. How is the music section set up, IE does it play off a local drive, play from streaming or both?
Now before I jump (TIME and money constraints) into buying a 250 pr 350 card, I have an old Haupage WinTV card with the connextant (spelled wrong) chipset, that they much later came out with softpvr software for. Two questions about this card, 1. can it be used to test with, and 2. after I get a 250 or 350 can this be used as a tuner to watch live tv or listen to radio

Thanks

1. Local drive=yes
2. Streaming=yes (if you mean media files are stored on another networked PC)
3. Internet Streaming=yes using MythStream addon (if you mean media files are streamed from an internet host such as a Podcast or internet radio)

Can also use a combo, I keep some media files local to Myth, but have symbolic links to my local network media. The way Linux and MythTV work they see local and network shares as 1 file system.


Find more specifics on the card and search the forums, WIKI, google etc.



Not sure what you are asking.
Yes the 250/350 can be used as live tuners.
Can you use the old Haupage WinTV card as a 2nd tuner after a 250/350 purchase? If you can get it working, sure.

If you have the hardware lying around anyway may as well give it a shot. R5A26 is very stable and easy to use. You can always search the forums for specific problems you run into, a lot of problems have been addressed and resolved and ppl in the forums are very helpful. Knoppmyth is addictive and I think you will be impressed when you give it a shot.

Not sure what you are asking.
Yes the 250/350 can be used as live tuners.
Can you use the old Haupage WinTV card as a 2nd tuner after a 250/350 purchase? If you can get it working, sure.

If you have the hardware lying around anyway may as well give it a shot. R5A26 is very stable and easy to use. You can always search the forums for specific problems you run into, a lot of problems have been addressed and resolved and ppl in the forums are very helpful. Knoppmyth is addictive and I think you will be impressed when you give it a shot.[/quote]


Thanks,
What I was trying to say was, I have heard that the 250 or 350 take some of the processing requirement and put it on the card. So It could encode, while I use the other one for the "live feed" to the tube.

The pvr-250 or 350 both have hardware mpeg encoding. Like you said this releaves the CPU from the task of compressing the video.

What do you mean when you say "use the other one for the 'live feed' to the tube"? Do you want to record one show while watching a second show on your TV? Or do you want to connect a cable from a hauppauge pvr card to your TV?

The pvr350 is the only hauppauge card with TV-out. It produces a very nice picture and removes almost all of the processing load from the CPU.

If you just want to record one show and watch a second, that is very easy to do with knoppmyth. As long as you have enough tuner cards in your system you can record/watch any number of shows all at the same time. (e.g. my setup has 3 hauppauge tuners so I can record 2 shows and watch a 3rd all at once.)

I have an old hauppauge WinTV PVR that I have used from years. I tried to get it working when I first started with mythtv. I got it half working with the IvyTV driver. The video worked but no sound. My card has an external sound loopback cable to use the line-in on a soundcard or motherboard AC'97 sound chip. If your old card is like mine the short answer is no it wont work. The long answer is it might be worth playing arround with it and the knoppmythtv software before you go out and spend money on new hardware.

Exactly



My old Wintv appears to have S video out



Two should be more then enough for me, this will end up being a music jukebox more then a tivo, as there is almost nothing on tv. But I like learning things.




Thanks, that's why I posted here first, I don't have money to go blow, to try to learn something that will be more fun then usefull. TV can be a real time waster, but then again so can computers, woodshop, vehicles, and the most expensive and dangerous hobby, Women (duck and cover). [

Humm, that is news to me. Though Hauppauge has made many WinTV/pvr cards over the years. Many being 95% identical. I'd say go ahead and give it a try. The worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work. I learned a lot fooling arround with my old WinTV card.

Women as a hobby? That is insulting to women everywhere! (But funny at the same time, hehehe)