New User, I have some questions

[kaydigi]

I'm a PVR noob. I almost ordered Direct TV/Tivo until I came across SageTV. I'm going to pickup the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 on Friday and download the SageTV EPG software also. I just have some questions about hooking up my digital cable to the card.


1- I understand I need 2 WinTV PVR 250's to record 2 shows at once, but do I also have to lease another cable box from Comcast? So would I need one digital cable box per Win-TV card?

2- I do not plan on watching TV on my PC but i'll use the S-Video out on on my Geoforce 64 MB MX 4 420 and watch it on my TV. MY specs run

PIII 450
320 MB RAM
2 40 GIG HD's
Geoforce 64 MB MX 4 420

My question is, will the sageTV software work on my rig? I don't plan on watching shows on my PC but i'll have the S-Video out plugged directly into my TV.

3- Do I buy the remote from this website or does it come with the Win-TV card?

I'm so excited, I hope you can answer these questions for me please. Thanks.

[Mark Lamutt]

1. If you want to record 2 programs at the same time from 2 differnet digital channels, then yes, you will need 2 digital cable boxes. If you don't need to record 2 digital channels at once, and your basic analog system is unencrypted, you could hook your digital box to one tuner as one souirce in SageTV, and connect another cable line directly to your other tuner, and set that up as a second source in SageTV. You'd only be able to record the analog channels on the second tuner.

2. You're getting pretty close to the edge of not having enough computer. It should work, as long as you're not doing a lot of other stuff at the same time, and there's just about no way you'll be able to use any of the dscaler plugins - just not enough computing power. But, it should work for basic use, but just barely.

3. I believe remotes come with the PVR-250 cards.

[jmeeks]

1. If you want the ability to record 2 digital* channels at once you will need another cable box. If you can live with 1 tuner card only able to get the analog cable channels that aren't scrambled and don't need the cable box, and the other using your existing cable box you don't need another cable box. Just split the cable and hook up each tuner card. Set the tuner in SageTV for the analog signal to the appropriate channel set for Comcast analog in your area.

*I don't think these channels are truly digital format, just the decode box to enable more channels on the system makes it "digital"

2. Your setup should work, but I don't know how the quality will be for your planned S-video output. You can check this thread right here for others comments on a similar card (440). http://www.freytechnologies.com/foru...=6358#post6358

If it's feasible to upgrae your CPU to a higher PIII, ($85 - Pentium III 750 @ price watch) if you have problems with your playback. As I recall 400-450 MHZ was right on the edge of acceptable MPEG2 DVD playback.

3. The remote that comes with the PVR250 works fine. But to control your cable box, I think you'll need to get a an Actisys IR-200L which are available from Frey. http://www.freytechnologies.com/buy.html

[jmeeks]

I guess we answered this about the same time. (I sure am glad we said the same thing.)

[kaydigi]

1. If you want the ability to record 2 digital* channels at once you will need another cable box. If you can live with 1 tuner card only able to get the analog cable channels that aren't scrambled and don't need the cable box, and the other using your existing cable box you don't need another cable box. Just split the cable and hook up each tuner card. Set the tuner in SageTV for the analog signal to the appropriate channel set for Comcast analog in your area.

Would this just be my local channels (IE FOX, UPN, NBC) or may some channels like FX be broadcast in analog signal?

If it's feasible to upgrae your CPU to a higher PIII, ($85 - Pentium III 750 @ price watch) if you have problems with your playback. As I recall 400-450 MHZ was right on the edge of acceptable MPEG2 DVD playback.

I do watch DVD's on this rig and I also watch a lot of MPEG videos which play in fullscreen without skipping, so I may be good. I am going to get the PIII 800 this weekend also.

you'll be able to use any of the dscaler plugins - just not enough computing power.

What are these plugins and what do they do?


I appreciate the help you guys provided. I'm going to get the PVR 250 today, i'm so excited.

[Mark Lamutt]

What channels are analog and what channels are digital on your cable system - I have no idea. I imagine they are different for all providers. I would imagine, though, that all of your local channels are on the analog side.

I know you'll have good success with a P3-800.

Dscaler plugins working with the Elcard decoder provide superior deinterlacing of the television signal over what you can do with the other basic decoders (WinDVD, Ravisent, Cyberlink, etc.), but they also require significantly more processing power. I get dropouts on my celeron 1 ghz htpc with Dscaler, because my box isn't fast enough.

(If you don't understand that answer, don't worry - you will when you start playing with the software. )

[salsbst]

My guess, don't hold me to this, is that you will probably receive all channels numbered below 100 via analog cable.