Recording From DISH PVR - Saved Video

[Gbuc2112]

I have 2 things in mind....1st one is priority and 2nd one is Long Term cheapest solution.

1. Get my recorded Video off my Rented DISH PVR System (moving soon and want to hand it over to them, but take my recorded shows). I assume the WinTV-250 will do that using Sage Recorder software.....Right..?

a. Please note that my PC is 1.3 ghz pentium and has built in Video Card (Nvidia Riva TNT2 Model 64) and has NO OutPuts.

b. I have XP using FAT32 (not sure block size...how do I find out..?). For the Above NEED (#1) do I have to Re-Format to NTFS (64K Blocks)...?

c. I would like to copy these Video Shows to CD or DVD after I get them on PC Hard Drive (will battle that issue later in the year..smile). 1st things 1st...getting the Best Quality DVD recordable file to my local XP Computer.


#2. In about 2 months after I accomplish #1 above (and record to DVD), I would then want to make this PC into my PVR System as well. So with my PC NOT having any Video Output Ports (other than the standard VGA), I assume I will have to buy a New Video Card...right..?

a. If so I don't want to pay a lot...any suggestions on models with costs..?

b. Would it make sense to get the WinTV 350 up front, thus not having to purchase another Video Card, since 350 has S-Video Output (and 250 Doesn't right..?)...? I wonder the issues with this though...will I have to always be watching TV on the PC while I work on it...? Is that the issue..? Please explain some downfalls to this.

So much to know and understand....for such a simple little taks..? HELP..!

thanks
Gbuc

[malore]

1. I'm pretty sure you can use the WinTV software to encode your programs from the dish player to your PC. I don't know any advantage Sage Recorder would give you in doing this.

b. You don't need to reformat, but 64K blocks and NTFS should give you better performance, less file fragmentation. It is best to have a separate hard drive for SageTV or at least to have a separate partition. You wouldn't want 64K blocks on the partition that Windows is installed on. I can't think of where it tells you the block size, but if you just look at the properties of a 1KB file and it says size on disk: 4.00 KB, it means you have a 4K block size.

2. Unless you can find a pvr-250 cheap somewhere I would buy the SageTV and pvr-250 bundle. You get the card direct from Hauppauge, so you should get a new model pvr-250 that runs cooler, the box didn't change so there is no way of knowing what you'll get from a store. Video cards with TV out usually have the option of either showing the same things as you PC or acting as a second monitor, so you could still use you PC while watching a show. The PVR-350 offers hardware mpeg-2 decoding, which may be superior to software decoding and uses less CPU, but currently (maybe not ever) doesn't show the On-Screen-Display from SageTV.

[Gbuc2112]

So I am still a little confused on which WinTV Card to get...the 250 or 350. I learned (correct me if I am wrong), that both cards can Grab my Video off my existing Dish PVR System by using the S-Video In (on each WinTV Card)..right.?

So moving into my additional (future) need, I currently Don't have a video card with S-Video out, so I was thinking to get the WinTV 350 card, so I can send my Satellite TV Signal back to the TV (assume the Win350 is in between Satellite Receiver (Dish or DirectTV...have not decided which to get yet) and my TV (thus being able to use PC as PVR in the Future.

So should I get the 350 or 250....noting my video card today doesn't have S-Video out.

Thanks
Gbuc

[malore]

I would get the pvr-250 and a video card that uses either ATI or nvidia chips that has TV out.