A bunch of questions

[brooklynlou]

Hi all,

My Situation.

At present I am using a Scientific American 8000 series DVR provided to me by Time Warner Cable of NY. Though the box does alot of what I need, as I try to watch stuff on my PSP during my commute, the fact that I cant get direct access to the vid files is starting to irk me. Switching to Tivo would take care of that issue, but the extra cost over the long term is prohibitive as well as annoying. I also have a satelite dish (GlobecastV) that I would love to record but cant.

1. Hardware - I have an old PC with the following specs:

1.8 Ghrtz - Full Intel
1 Gig Ram
nVide 5200 (256 MB) video card
Windows XP

Will the SnapStream bundle work with this setup? Are there any know issues with the video card I should be aware of.

2. Cable - I take it that the card connects to the cable box. I have digital cable from Time Warner of NY and a digital tuner box. Will the card be able to access all the channels I have subscriptions to from Time Warner (my HBO, Starz, etc) or will it only handle a limited subset?

3. Recording - Will the card trigger the cable box in order to initiate the recording (as my DVR does now)? Are there certain limitations with how it handles digital feeds?

4. Satellite Dish - Will I need to add another tuner card or can i get a switchbox to switch between the two? Since Globecast is a bit off the beaten path, does Beyond TV handle timed recordings or dos it need the schedule (ala Tivo) in order to initiate a record?

Thanks in advance

[btvfreak]

I'm looking to pick up a Beyond TV bundle from SnapStream. Will it work with this setup? Are there any know issues with the video card I should be aware of.

What TV will you connect this to? If it's a regular SDTV, then that card should be fine.

2. Cable - I take it that the card connects to the cable box. I have digital cable from Time Warner of NY and a digital tuner box. Will the card be able to access all the channels I have subscriptions to from Time Warner (my HBO, Starz, etc) or will it only handle a limited subset?

Yes, it will be able to access all those channels. At least I can.

3. Recording - Will the card trigger the cable box in order to initiate the recording (as my DVR does now)? Are there certain limitations with how it handles digital feeds?

BeyondTV can change the channels on your cable box as it needs to either via IR blaster (ex. USB-UIRT or one that comes with Hauppauge retail packages) or a serial cable (if your cable box has an active serial port).

4. Satellite Dish - Will I need to add another tuner card or can i get a switchbox to switch between the two? Since Globecast is a bit off the beaten path, does Beyond TV handle timed recordings or dos it need the schedule (ala Tivo) in order to initiate a record?

If you want to timeshift and record programming from your satellite box, then you will need another tuner. You could get a PVR-500MCE since it's a dual tuner card. BeyondTV can handle manual recordings. You can also pad your recordings to start earlier and/or end later than scheduled.

[merrypig]

#1; I use a AMD XP 2100 with a 5200 card under windows 2k and this works just fine for SD video. I haven't tried HDTV but it doesnt' sound like that is your need right now. so your box should work just fine.

#2; Some tuner cards can take cable directly, but at present will only decode analog channels; usually 1-99. Most people feed the cable to their set top box and the video output (not the cable signal) is fed to the capture card. The tuner card is then set to one channel and instead BTV issues a command to change the channel on the stb box. In this fashion you get access to all your channels that you can normally see via the stb. BTV is basically just a 'television plugged into your stb' .

#3/ You will need to use either an IR blaster (the usb-uirt etc) or a serial cable. only certain boxes support direct serial control and I'm not familiar with your box to know whether it is or isn't.. however I suspect others use SA boxes via IR so I think this probably the way you may end up going. BTV will automatically issue the channel change sequence to control your box. Most people find it works best if the stb can be left on and without any power saving/screen savers active.

#4/ BTV can do manual recordings with or without any guide data. You can also create a 'manual ' channel list without a program guide. Additionally you can switch BTV to use XMLTV imports (via a plugin available from the forums here) and grab a guide for your satellite feed from elsewhere.

All you would need to support your other satellite is a method to change channels via IR or serial control. It is possible to develop a custom 'tuning' dll that will let btv drive other hardware directly if you're a programmer or know someone who is

To support both satellites - you can take one of two paths; One is to use a second video input into the same capture card. That is, let oyur cable input use the SVideo and the other satellite use the RF composite input. BTV understands that these two inputs share the same hardware and thus will handle conflicts trying to record from both at the same time (and let you pick one or the other). The downside to this is that the rf feed is lower quality. If you want two high quality recordings, the better option is to use two tuners, or a dual tuner card such as the PVR500.

In the case of the PVR500 , you should get the extra 'svideo input' adapter - then you can plug in both your set tob boxes via svideo for the best quality.

I would definitely recommend hardware tuners, personally I'm still a pvr250 user as I want the caption support (I had to say it, it's my favourite bee-in-the-bonnet statement).