Newbie Starting

[jjaw]

I realise this is probably covered somewhere, but wher does a Newbie start??

[Opus4]

That depends... what are you wondering first? There is a FAQ thread & I would suggest reading the info on the main http://www.freytechnologies.com/ site.

- Andy

[jjaw]

Opus4
I've browsed through those links already. First questions come concerning hardware. ie. Recommendations or benefits of the PVR-250, PVR350 & PVR-USB2.

[kny3twalker]

the pvr 250 is cheapest of all of those cards
if you need it to be usb then go with the usb2
if you are intending to connect your computer with the pvr card to a standard definition TV then the pvr 350 will give you the best quality picture since it has a hardware decoder built in for TV out
but it has issues were it does not like to work very well with some motherboards and runs hot
there is also a roslyn blackbird card now being sold by frey's technologies which is very close to the ovr 250 but its drivers are not mature since it is a new card
some people have no problems but other have some (an auto brightness issue)

I would look at http://www.pcalchemy.com/index.php/cPath/43 for good deals on bundles of sage and pvr 250 s or 250 MCE (has radio built in)

[Opus4]

My opinion of the pros & cons (they all do hardware encoding):

250
Pros: Internal/out of sight; fairly inexpensive
Con: Uses a PCI slot, which might be in short supply.

350
Pros: Internal; hardware decoder for SD TV.
Cons: Uses a PCI slot, which might be in short supply; costs more; may run into problems using decoder/TV out; cannot be used for DVD playback. If you really want a 350, check out some of the thread about what motherboard it might work best with.

PVR-USB2
Pros: Very easy to install; does not use PCI slot
Cons: Costs more

The 350 & USB2 both have FM tuners, but SageTV does not use them. I see no point in using their FM tuners, since you can use the TV tuner or FM tuner, not both at the same time. So, if the radio is on, you will get no TV recording if one were to start.

If a hardware decoder is really needed/desired, say for an older/slower computer, the Xcard is very good except that it cannot display the SageTV UI... so you would need to view that on a separate monitor. The Xcard can be used for DVD playback -- not from within SageTV, but it can play DVDs.

- Andy

[jjaw]

Andy
Thanks!That's a starting point. Will check out other links.
Joe