Few specs of my HTPC (Works very well with showshifter 3):
Pentium 4 cel. 2.4 mhz, 256mb ram, 120gb 8mb WD HD, TV card - no Hardware mpeg support. Nvidia 440mx TV out 64mb (connected only to my TV), Actisys ir transmitter (to my satelite set top box).
I've tried all the default mpeg modes - fair, good etc... CPU usage is about 90% - in lowest mode about 70-80% cpu usage.
I must say that the picture quality is realy uneceptable and the cpu usage is much too high.
BTW, the CPU usage is very high even with NO show shifting!
As for the manual recording - I hoped I could make it using the main GUI of the BTV - as I'm using a regular ir tv remote. Going into the WEB interface is not a solution...for me...
Thanks,
OS.