How long did it take for you to set up BTV?

[darren_e]

Out of curiousity, I've come up with some interesting questions. I'm a newcomer to BTV and HTPC's and I'm very happy with BTV. But, that's not to say I didn't go through days of frustration getting BTV to work the way I knew it could.

I hope it's not too much to ask, but my curiosity is killing me...


1. How many days did it take before you got BTV to work to your satisfaction?


2. How many total hours (estimated) did you spend on just researching solutions before getting your system fully working to your satisfaction?


3. How much extra hardware did you buy that you didn't think you needed until after buying BTV?


4. What took you the longest in figuring out how to get BTV working?


5. On a percentage scale- how much did the snapstream forum contribute to your success?


6. How do you receive your TV programming and what kind of TV are you outputting it to (also what connection- DVI, Component, S-video, composite)?

[dremo]

1. How many days did it take before you got BTV to work to your satisfaction?
It only took me an hour or so to get things running. I already had the TV tuner card installed. I just installed Beyond TV and ran through the wizard.

2. How many total hours (estimated) did you spend on just researching solutions before getting your system fully working to your satisfaction?
I spent around a week looking at options/reading reviews/talking with others about what I needed from a scheduling program.

3. How much extra hardware did you buy that you didn't think you needed until after buying BTV?
I bought a MediaMVP made by Hauppauge. I bought this after I realized that I couldn't play Quake III while my wife watched a recorded show. This was back in the day before the Link program. For cost effectiveness, I would still go with a MediaMVP. I'm looking at getting a 802.11G network and adding an additional MediaMVP. The BeyondTV skin for the MediaMVP is also a great addition.

4. What took you the longest in figuring out how to get BTV working?
I didn't have to figure out anything. The wizard set everything up for me. I did take a look a post about qualities to make sure that I was getting the most out of my PVR-250.

5. On a percentage scale- how much did the snapstream forum contribute to your success?
100%, I never posted any questions because I didn't have any troubles. They did shed some light on the quality of recordings.

6. How do you receive your TV programming and what kind of TV are you outputting it to (also what connection- DVI, Component, S-video, composite)?
I'm receiving programming from analog cable. The output is an ethernet cable to the MediaMVP and a composite from MediaMVP to TV.

Drew

[Cal]

1. Days? Na. 3 or 4 hours total time from start to finish including installing XP. But thats due to already knowing what custom setting I wanted and stuff before I even bough any hardware or BTV.

2. Read this fourm and other fourms on PVRs for months. So I was already aware of any potential problems I might run into before I started. I've been reading the Tivo and Replay fourms for years. If either one of them had ever come to Canada I would have that now instead. I'm glad I decided not to wait any loneger and to build my own as I think this is overall much beter then either one of them.

3. None. I did my research before I started.

4. Programing my Bell remotes into BTV. BTV kept crashing when I was trying to learn the remote buttons. This is the only thing I had to lookup online after I got BTV. I read on the USB-UIRT fourms to press the button for 4-5 seconds then let go. Not to just keep pressing it till BTV told you to let go like I thought I had to do.

5. 99%. Most BTV specfic stuff I learned here before I bought it.

6. Started off with a Bell 5100 PVR feeding into a PVR250 card via S-video. (Yes, a computer PVR that controlled a Sat PVR). Now I have two 3100 bell sat boxes feeding into two PVR250 cards via S-vid.

[darren_e]

1. How many days did it take before you got BTV to work to your satisfaction?
5 days total. Keep in mind, BTV worked right from the get-go. It took 5 days for it to work to my satisfaction. The learning curve caught me by surprise.

2. How many total hours (estimated) did you spend on just researching solutions before getting your system fully working to your satisfaction?
Over 20 hours mainly because of the learning curve behind HTPC's.

3. How much extra hardware did you buy that you didn't think you needed until after buying BTV?
Hauppauge PVR-150 (just because I wanted it), DVDidle to play DVD's in 1080i or 720p resolutions using my DVDR, IR Keyboard (best purchase ever), ATI VGA to Component adapter.

4. What took you the longest in figuring out how to get BTV working?
Getting my DirecTV serial cable to work (using Sat2) and figuring out that changing my record resolutions would clean up motion blurring.

5. On a percentage scale- how much did the snapstream forum contribute to your success?
75% very good percentage considering most of my time spent was trying to find resources for powerstrip settings and learning about HD formats which has NOTHING to do with BTV's concern.

6. How do you receive your TV programming and what kind of TV are you outputting it to (also what connection- DVI, Component, S-video, composite)?
DirecTV using ATI VGA to Component adapter hooked to a Hitachi 65" RP TV.

[kanman]

1. How many days did it take before you got BTV to work to your satisfaction?
Not Days - 2-3 hours total time from start to finish. Had a pretty recent install of XP Pro already. I had run the trial and knew what settings I wanted for the most part.

2. How many total hours (estimated) did you spend on just researching solutions before getting your system fully working to your satisfaction?
Oh I think it was about 2 days to get the play back on my TV to point I wanted it at. Mainly just tweaking the settings that I had determined from the trial.

3. How much extra hardware did you buy that you didn't think you needed until after buying BTV?
None - knew what I needed before I ordered.

4. What took you the longest in figuring out how to get BTV working?
Removing the tearing on the display to the TV.

5. On a percentage scale- how much did the snapstream forum contribute to your success?
100%. Any questions that I couldn't solve on my own the fourms have answered

6. How do you receive your TV programming and what kind of TV are you outputting it to (also what connection- DVI, Component, S-video, composite)?
I have a Bell Express Vu 4500 connected via S-Video controled by a USB-UIRT.