Multitasking and Beyond TV

[wajones]

I am using BeyondTV on my P4 2.8 with 1Gb memory and a 250Gb harddrive. I'm using a PRV-250 tuner and I have an ATI 8600 for video.

I would like to use the computer for multiple purposes, the majority of the time I am the only one using it, but occationally my wife will watch "My TV" in the family room. she's usually doing her hobbies and watching her TV in the bed room.

So here's the problem on those occations when she's watching something I recorded for her I would like to use the computer to work with my photography or check my email. It seems I'm out of luck? Your stuck, or at least I have been stuck to a single purpose machine because you see the same thing on the TV and computer monitor.

Is there a way to over come this so she can watch TV and I can check my email at the same time. Please tell me that I don't have a $2000 Tivo on my hands.

[jed91080]

if you've got a video card that allows you to do multiple monitors at once, then i believe you'll be able to do limited multi-tasking. web-surfing and photo editing doesn't sound too strenuous to me.

what i've found with using multiple displays is that once you've activated a non-BTV window, and your wife needed to pause the recording or rewind, she'd have to reactivate BTV (in my case that means pushing the TV button on my firefly remote). as long as she's not a frequent button pusher it shouldn't be too much frustration.

i'm new at this myself so there may a more complex explanation that allows you to workaround some of the difficulties of using multiple displays in conjunction with BTV.

[Eric3a]

The way I solve this for one program (not BTV, but the concept applies) is to use Girder upon a button press and if the program is running bring it back to focus and apply the command.
Eric

[romanoj]

My solution to multi-tasking is Hauppage MediaMVP. With the BTV skin, it looks and feels like BTV and it doesn't tax my PC very much. It uses ethernet. In fact, I was watching a program with MVP while the PC was recording a show with BTV (I have an AverMedia card). You can get an MVP box for $50-$80. Again, I surf, read documents, etc while BTV shows are watched on the TV using that device. It can work with BTV V3.5.

[wajones]

Originally Posted by romanoj

My solution to multi-tasking is Hauppage MediaMVP. With the BTV skin, it looks and feels like BTV and it doesn't tax my PC very much. It uses ethernet. In fact, I was watching a program with MVP while the PC was recording a show with BTV (I have an AverMedia card). You can get an MVP box for $50-$80. Again, I surf, read documents, etc while BTV shows are watched on the TV using that device. It can work with BTV V3.5.

Yea, I have one, as well as a Prismiq where I can even go on line to schedule. The problem is there are rules and those that enforce the rules and those that actually rules. You may know it as the wife who may decide to watch live TV in the middle of something I'm doing. It just doesn't work as a two person system if using it like a Tivo, it's fine for watching recorded events in the manner your talking about.

[Rich A]

I also have the Hauppauge Media MVP and echo what the others have said. It does use very little CPU. One advantage it has is that the streamed mpg playback is one of the best I have seen. In my BTV I only record in the highest DVD (proper Spec.) mpeg. 720x480 at just under 9 mb/s The MVP does an excellent job of displaying that on the TV. I bought mine on a lark just to test the technology. I don't use it very often. Instead, I feed the TV out of my "dedicated" HTPC to the whole house A/V distribution. That way I can view BTV at any TV in the house. This of course wouldn't help your situation.

Just wanted to tell you how well the MVP (with the BTV-like skin) works. It's really good.

But the down side (and the others can correct me if I'm wrong) would be that you would have to have one MVP and a CAT5 connection at every TV location. If you don't already have CAT5 wiring then other than doing some wire installs, you may be able to use wireless.

Seems like a lot of work to keep the "other half" happy. In my house .. I wear the pants in the family. NOTE .. I ONLY wear the pants .. Momma speaks and I LISTEN .. .. but at least I'm not wearing a dress. heh heh. Sometimes I think many of the posts here are from "non-married" guys or guys who are somewhat "newly weds". 35 years for me this July. I have learned to conform.

Good luck ..

[wajones]

I just wasn't wanting to spend a lot of money on this. So wanted to use one high end computer. Technology is changing so fast. Prismiq will have their media player/recorder out this fall. Plus our cable company just came out with their own dual tuner DVR for $4.95 a month.

I'm probably going to just go with the cable company DVR and use the PVR-250 where I want to save something for later storage on DVD.