Media Centre..... Tabula Rasa and start again........

McAlban

Right, What I want to do is....

Record TV if I'm not at home. From the NTL Digital (No analogue Aerial)


I had a run of the Mill Dell Dimension 8300. 3.2ghz HT P4, 1024mb of Ram. 128 mb Geforce FX. and an Hauppage analogue Win PVR Express Card. Which Recorded Aul RTE /TV3 /TNaG Analogue no problem (only in Mono!) but this Card is going....Or Maybe not...

I Upgraded with two Hard drives to 600gb space, (with Vista Home Premium) Got Myself and Extra Gig of Ram, an 256mb Gfx Card. and got an MCE remote. while doing this I got NTL Digital (the Pace 1000 STB) right down on top of the PC.

Now I'm looking at setting the system up as a decent PVR/Media Centre. What would you recommend as a TV IN Card, How do I hook the STB up to that Card? and what do I need to buy to make it happen, I can't afford a HD ready GFX Card, or TV, so I'm using the TV out on the GFX card.

Will the TV signal be availible on Media Centre? Because the DVB-T doesn't work on my brothers New Laptop, (No EPG, or Signal). Or can I set up a Composite / S-Video Connection? Can I use the Card thats in it for anything or Just Bin it? (Some programmes will be wathched once then removed!)

I am fairly technically minded, however, PVR and TV Cards are new to me.... and I made some errors with the First one I bought,

8T8

Be aware MCE requires specific MCE supporting cards any old regular card wont work in MCE.

Connect the STB by converting the scart output into composite or s-video.

All graphics cards are capable of outputting a HD signal 720p is nothing more than 1280x720 and 1080p is 1920x1080 pixels. There are also DVI-HDMI cables that allow use of those inputs as well.

The DTT trial is only available to those within range of the test broadcast, MCE does support DVB-T be aware tuners that do analogue, digital and composite/s-video input all in one are not too common as most MCE DVB-T tuners that are hybrids with an analogue portion only work in MCE with the digital side.

However luckily for you Hauppauge do make such a card the MCE supports on all inputs the WinTV HVR 1300 which you can get on Komplett it is also supported in Vista.

Also MCE only supports one guide so you would only be able to support one service at a time.

kaisersose77

do any pci x1 tv cards exist which accept composite input?

Krusty_Clown

kaisersose77 wrote:

do any pci x1 tv cards exist which accept composite input?

If I'm not mis-reading your question, then yes, the Hauppauge range of cards take up one PCI slot and accept composite signals, e.g. the Hauppauge PVR 150MCE, or the dual tuner PVR 500MCE card, etc..

They accept composite as well as co-ax etc..

kaisersose77

No I mean PCI Express x1 (graphics card are pci x16 i think) or whatever there called, the slots dell seem to put in pc's even though there doesnt seem to be any use for them. My two normal pci slots are in use with a skystar hd card and ide controller so only free slot is the pci x1. Ah it doesnt matter, it'll save me buying something i dont really need ( was gonna get a tv card to connect to my dreambox sat receiver through mce)

Krusty_Clown

Ahh, right... Was thinking the question was a bit easy...

McAlban

Cheers for the Info 8T8, But is there not hauppage software that records on a Scheduler? I can set the NTL to Autotune and use that? The Old Card did.

Will pick one up later today and see how I get on.

McAlban

Whats the Differance between the HVR 1100 and HVR 1300?? Komplett don't have the 1300 at €75 anymore,

I already have the OEM Microsoft remote so I don't nees the Hauppage one.

8T8

The HVR-1300 has a hardware MPEG-2 encoder for analogue TV whereas the HVR-1100 does not if you have a decent CPU in the system (which yours is) then you don't need the hardware encoder.

Also unless you can source it elsewhere Komplett do not sell the MCE version of the WinTV HVR-1100 only the HVR-1300 now.