Hi,
I need a recommendation for a PVR card with dual high quality hardware MPEG-2 encoders (2GB per hour) that works perfectly with Linux and MythTV.
The PVR card has to be connected to a set-top box and a VCR, for the following puposes:
1. Recording the channel that I'm currently watching, including pause and resume from the point I stopped while the recording is continued in the background. The output should be on the TV screen, with option to a window or full screen on the 17" monitor.
2. Converting VHS cassettes to MPEG-2 format.
I'd like to record from the set-top box and from the vcr simultaneously with one PVR card that occupies only one PCI slot.
I've dual core AMD64 3800+ processor and 6600GT 256MB 128bit video card with TV out (including support for HDTV).
Which PVR card best suits my needs?

pvr-500 is the only card I know of wtih dual tuners...you'll need updated drivers.

search here for pvr500

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R5F1 - Dell P4 2.4Ghz 500MB - PVR250 x 2 - GeForce FX 5200 - Onboard sound/NIC 80GB ATA/250GB ATA/400GB SATA

Are you talking about Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE?
This PVR card has dual hardware MPEG-2 encoders (no hardware MPEG-2 decoders), and it has both s-video and composite inputs. However, as I understand, if you want to use two devices at once, then you have to connect to this card another board that has s-video and composite connectors, which can be purchased separately. This board blocks another PCI slot, and I want to avid this.
I want to use just one PCI slot.
I don't understand the logic in dual hardware MPEG-2 encoders PVR card that occupies two PCI slots. It may be cheaper to buy two WinTV-PVR-150 cards. However, I want to use only one PCI slot.
Does anyone know for fact that it is possible to connect and use simultaneously two A/V sources with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE without the extension board? If not, is there another card that fits my needs?

If the 500 doesn't fit your need then you are SOL it is the only 2 tuner board I have heard of. Yes it is only an encoding card, but you can always use cpu or xvmc for the decode. that's what most people do anyways since the only hardware decode card the pvr350 is such a PITA to setup.

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Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

I know that the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE is the only dual harware MPEG-2 encoders card that Hauppauge has to offer, as well as the WinTV-PVR-350 is their only card that has hardware MPEG-2 decoder.
I thought that maybe there is another company that offers dual hardware MPEG-2 encoders PVR card.
If someone can assure me that the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE card can record from two different A/V sources (set-top box and vcr) simultaneously without the extension board, then it would be great. Otherwise, I'll have to sacrifice another PCI slot for the extension board of the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE.
Does the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE is fully supported by Linux and MythTV, or there is something special that I need to know about its configuration?
Can someone please explain me how can I configure MythTV to work in the background (in the systray), record, pause, resume and stop recordings using an IR remote control, and playback the recordings (from pause mode) on the TV screen using the GeForce 6600GT TV-out connector? Or, maybe MythTV does it automatically?
Moreover, how can I record from the VCR, while recording from the set-top box with the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE?

Boy does that sound like Microsoft! Knoppmyth is a distrobution that will overwrite the entire disk and does not provide a particuarlly useful desktop env. the mythbackend runs in the background andthe mythfrontend takes over the desktop.

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R5F1 - Dell P4 2.4Ghz 500MB - PVR250 x 2 - GeForce FX 5200 - Onboard sound/NIC 80GB ATA/250GB ATA/400GB SATA

^^^
I didn't quite understand what you had said.
I'm pretty new to Linux, so please explain yourself like talking to a n00b.
After reviewing several distros, I chose Debian. I understand that KnoppMyth is based on Debian. So, my options are either Debian with MythTV (my favorite option) or KnoppMyth.
The OS is intended for HTPC that runs only Linux (no dual-boot).

You can install MythTV itself on whatever distro you want to use. The most popular (and most documented) are either Fedora (using Jarrods Fedora guide), a new distro that I am not familiar with called MythDora (that is similar to knoppmyth but on fedora). Using Jarrods guide you have to do ALOT of compiling and fiddling and tweak this, tweak that. Alot of work. And if you are new, you will probably install ALOT of programs that you dont need, thus taking up drive space.
Knoppmyth is the easiest because everything has already been compiled and tweaked (for the most part), and it only includes what is needed for myth to run.
Best of all it is very well documented and has a help system (forums and wiki) that are much more helpful than anything on the mythtv gossamer forum because it is geared directly toward one distro and "standardized" setup.

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ASUS A7N266 Micro-ATX Motherboard
Athlon 2200 processor
512K Kingston PC2100 Memory
MicroAtx Case
2 PVR250's w/remote
eVGA e-GeForce mx4000 (64 Ram with Tv/Out (Svideo))
Lite-on DVD cd-rw combo
120 GB Western Digital

khrusher and elgordo123, I see that both of you are using two WinTV-PVR250 cards.
What is the difference between WinTV-PVR150 and WinTV-PVR250?
I prefer to buy the WinTV-PVR500MCE with A/V header cable than two WinTV-PVR250 cards, because of the passive cooler of my Gigabyte 6600GT.
The WinTV-PVR500MCE doesn't come with a remote control, and it is customized to match the specifications of Windows XP MCE 2005. Do you know if it's also compatible with MythTV?
Can you recommend me on an IR remote control that is compatible with Hauppauge WinTV-PVR500MCE and the USB-VFD (with IR reciever) of Ahanix HTPC cases?

See the wiki: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=TVCards

Thanks for the Link of the Wiki.
Finally, I get a straight forward explaination of the differences between the different Hauppauge PVR cards, which even Hauppauge support didn't give me.
As I understand, WinTV-PVR-250 is a common card that works well with MythTV.
WinTV-PVR-350 is the same as WinTV-PVR-250, just with FM radio, hardware MPEG-2 decoder and S-Video out, which is difficult to configure.
WinTV-PVR-150 is a newer and cheaper version of the WinTV-PVR-250, that has a disadvantage of loosing certain resolutions.
WinTV-PVR-500MCE is based on two WinTV-PVR-150MCE cards in one slot (two slots with the A/V header cable).
All Hauppauge PVR cards come with IR remote control, except for the MCE models. The MCE models support all the remote controls that are MCE certified (supported also by Ahanix USB-VFD-IR), as well as Hauppauge IR remote control that can be purchased separately for $14.95.

Can anyone tell me what exactly are differences in the resolutions between the WinTV-PVR-250MCE and the WinTV-PVR-150MCE/WinTV-PVR-500MCE?

Hauppauge support told me that I can use the video out of my GeForce 6600GT with the WinTV-PVR-500MCE, provided that MythTV supports video out.
Basically, I want to be able to watch TV on the computer screen (CRT) using WinTV-PVR-500MCE and MythTV. However, most of the time I want to watch TV on the TV set, and use MythTV to record, pause and resume recordings back on the TV set with the remote control, without using the computer or the computer screen. Is it easy to configure this in MythTV? Can you please direct me to relevant tutorials?
In addition, I would like to also record from the VCR, while recording from the set-top box using the A/V header cable of the WinTV-PVR-500MCE. Is it possible to do this in MythTV? Do I have to launch two instances of MythTV? I also need an explanation of how to do this.

Try the Hauppauge website. http://hauppauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html http://hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr150.html http://hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr250.html

Here is one other issue...I have not gotten great results using the TV-out of any built-in svideo port on a mobo. Not sure if the tv-out on an add-in video card is better.

I have found that the pvr-350 tv-out is great quality...but like you said, it's a pain to configure. In my book, it's really worth the extra cost and hassle. But, you may want to see if others have gotten good results using any other output method to a tv set...

I'm working on updating my script to make this happen on the pvr-350 and the newer releases of KnoppMyth.

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MythRig: Shuttle SN41G2 + PVR-350->TV + KnoppMyth R5Beta7

My experience was that MoBo TV-out (Nforce2-IGP "MX4" in a Shuttle SN41G2) wasn't very good even after many, many tuning attempts (colors and dynamic range) but a decent FX5200 based card was worlds better.

I'm not sure if the difference was in was the chips themselves, the line drivers, the quality of the "passive components" used, or just better output voltage levels. Whatever the reason, I will say that if your MoBo video doesn't satisfy an add in video card can help markedly.

In the following page http://hauppauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html, it says that all Hauppage PVR cards support 1 to 12Mbits/sec hardware MPEG-2 encoding. However, in this page http://hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr150mce.html, it says that WinTV-PVR-150MCE supports only 2 to 8Mbits/sec. Which is true?
I'm interested in the quality options of the WinTV-PVR-500MCE.
In the following page http://hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr250.html, it says that WinTV-PVR-250 supports both hardware MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoder. What is the difference between MPEG-1 and MPEG-2?

My video card is GeForce 6600GT with HDTV-out, so I assume that its S-Video out is high quality.
Does MythTV automatically configure the integration of the WinTV-PVR-500MCE S-Video in and the GeForce 6600GT S-Video out?
What about recording from a set-top box and a VCR simultaneously with the WinTV-PVR-500MCE and MythTV?