Some last minute advice for my HTPC build?

youcancallmeal

Was just hoping somebody could have quick look at this HTPC build for me and offer some advise in relation to my TV card
So far what I hope to get is:

Antec Fusion HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU link
Asrock 939NF6G-VSTA Micro ATX (S939) link
Samsung SpinPoint T HD401LJ 400GB SATA-II 16MB Cache link
Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Windows XP MCE link
Zalman CNPS7000B-AICu CPU-Cooler link
D-Link DWL-G510 PCI 54Mbps Wireless 802.11g link

I have an AMD X2 3800+ and 2 GB g.skill ram left over from a previous rig. I also have a copy of MCE 2005 and the remote.

The only thing that is confusing me is what card I'll need to record off NTL digital and also what cables I'll need? In my main rig I have a Hauppauge PVR-150 which I was thinking of putting into it but I'm not sure if this will work for a few different reasons.
First of all I was told this wont work because its not the MCE edition? I was under the impression the MCE edition just comes with the MCE remote(Which I already got separately) and secondly I not sure if its compatible with the digital signal?

I don't mind forking out for another card but I don't want to be going wild and purchasing something like the PVR-500, just something simple that'll let me record?

Any and all advice is appreciated

8T8

The TV tuner you have wont work unless it is the MCE edition it is a slightly different card to the non-MCE ones as it uses different drivers which tie into MCE.

So yes that means new tuner time.

To connect the NTL set top box you need to convert the scart output into composite video by using a scart adapter set the switch to output and then plug the composite cables in between the adapter and then input on the tuner.

If your wondering about s-video that wont work properly unless you get a special s-video to scart RGB converter Maplins used to sell them but not sure now.

youcancallmeal

8T8 wrote:

The TV tuner you have wont work unless it is the MCE edition it is a slightly different card to the non-MCE ones as it uses different drivers which tie into MCE.

So yes that means new tuner time.

To connect the NTL set top box you need to convert the scart output into composite video by using a scart adapter set the switch to output and then plug the composite cables in between the adapter and then input on the tuner.

If your wondering about s-video that wont work properly unless you get a special s-video to scart RGB converter Maplins used to sell them but not sure now.

Cheers for the reply, its starting to make sense now
So If I had it hooked up the way you describe then I would have to watch NTL tv via the MCE player or whatever player I'm using and I could only record exactly what I'm watching? Also is there much difference in the picture quality between the s-video input and the composite input?

8T8

Correct you can only record what your watching.

There will be a hit in picture quality over composite vs s-video though it's generally not too bad.

subway

ehmm, you can use any pvr-150 in your mce box.
the only difference is the packagin, ie, you get a remote and thr drivers on cd.

ive purchased 3 and they all worked

youcancallmeal

subway wrote:

ehmm, you can use any pvr-150 in your mce box.
the only difference is the packagin, ie, you get a remote and thr drivers on cd.

ive purchased 3 and they all worked

Yeah that kind of makes sense cos I was looking at my card last night and then at the pictures of the PVR-150 MCE on the hauppauge site and they both have the exact same ports on the back, these

I reckon I'm just going to go ahead and order my parts and if the PVR-150 I have doesnt work with it then I can always just order one that will.

Just one more thing though somebody told me that it is a very good idea to have a card that has built in MPEG encoder like the PVR-350, what are the advanatges of this over a card which doesnt have it? Is there more strain on the CPU or something?

subway

for mce you have to have a card with a hardware encoder
no choice about it.
some tuners use the cpu for processing and this can cause freezing along woth dropped frames and loss of synch.

both 150 and 350 are hardware encoders
the 350 is an older tuner

some other forum wrote:

The 350 is an OLD design (when hardware was much slower) and they sport hardware encoding AND decoding. Sounds like a good idea, but most of the new PVR software doesn't support the 350 and EVERY PC built nowdays doesn't really need the hardware decoder... The PVR-150 is a MUCH newer design and you'll probably find it's MUCH better supported by the latest software.

It may depend on what you're using it for and the rest of your hardware, but for 99.9% of users, the PVR-350 won't be the choice.

Ghost Train

the 350 has a hardware decoder, with the speed of a new pc these days and video cards with tv-out, and video acceleration, and limited software supporting the 350, its really not much of an advantage to have this feature.

the 150 has hardware encoding, an will be fine for what you want, doesn't matter that its not the mce edition.

these cards wont decode ntl digital though, they'll tune in ntl analog channels. If you have a digital box you can feed the video output from that to the card, but you'll have to change channel on the digital box or setup some sort of remote ir blaster thing(i think thats what its called)

opps i see that was said above

youcancallmeal

eolhc wrote:

these cards wont decode ntl digital though, they'll tune in ntl analog channels. If you have a digital box you can feed the video output from that to the card, but you'll have to change channel on the digital box or setup some sort of remote ir blaster thing(i think thats what its called)

Excellent info this is what I looking to hear. Cheers everyone else. Gonna go order this now.