Yet another annoying n00b thread

[omnihilo]

Hello everyone. I became clued in to Snapstream because of the recent Slashdot article. I've been looking for a PVR solution for several months. I didn't want a Tivo because it doesn't allow (or at least make it easy) to share the recorded shows to laptops over a network. I didn't choose MythTV because even though it seems to have all of the functionality I was looking for, I have never used Linux and am not eager to spend months getting something to work. I wish I'd heard about BeyondTV earlier, because it seems EXACTLY like what I'm looking for. I do have some questions though. I consider myself to be passably computer literate, but this is an area that I've never really dealt with before, so please bear with me.

I have DirectTV, and I'm not sure if I have a serial connection on the back or not (I'm at work now, can't look) so I know I might have to deal with the hassle of getting a remote to work. But what about the quality? Here is what I *want* to do: Use BTV and have it show up on our 31" television instead of a monitor. What factors determine the quality of the video that shows up? The screen shots on the Snapstream page don't look very good at all..is that a result of the screenshots, or is that how it will look on the television? I'm not expecting HDTV quality or anything, just what DirectTV normally has. 1)Is there a sacrifice of quality?

Now on to the more specific questions. I'll be using a Pentium4 1.8Ghz system for this. I'll need to throw in an extra hard-drive, 2)will it be a problem to have Snapstream installed on my current C: drive, and have the extra drive (set up as a slave) the default for all of the video to be saved on? Or do I have to have the video saved to the same drive BTV is installed on?

3)I don't have a videocard with TV-OUT, so I'll have to get one of those. This is one of those areas I know *nothing* about, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I use an RCA receiver to hook all of my stuff up to now, with the red,yellow, and white connectors. (I don't know if that's called component or what..I've always just called them A/V cables.) So nothing S-Video or optical or anything.

4)I don't have a TV-Tuner card either, and again, I'm a rookie. What's good? Is something with hardware encoding better than something without? I don't plan on using this computer for anything other than BTV, so it's not like it's going to be running all kinds of things all of the time. I think I have 384 megs of DDR (might even be SDR) RAM.

I have a 802.11b network that I hope to be able to stream videos over. I understand that that might not be a fast enough connection (WEP enabled), but I'd like to hear anyone's experience on the matter.

That's all I can think of right now, though I'm sure I'll have more questions as this goes on.

Sorry to be starting a thread as my first post. I did read several of the threads and even searched the forum for a couple of different things, but I want to make sure I get the right stuff.

As far as price goes, I'm not looking for the cheapest solution, but I can't break the bank either. I'm hoping to keep things to 300-400 dollars, for the new hard drive, video card, tv-tuner card, and remote.

[Terminal]

1) the CPU will be fine, but this also ties in with #4 get a PVR250 from Hauppauge. This is a hardware encoder and it will let you record in DVD quality with very little CPU usage. Your system may handle software encoding, but most everyone I've seen who got the hardware encoder was quite satisfied. For me there is no sacrifice in quality, the picture through BTV is just as good as direct from the TV. See my sig for details of my system.

2) This is no problem, I use three drives in my system. My live TV buffer is recorded on a 40 Gig drive, and all my videos are recorded on a 120 Gig. I have a 20 gig that is just for the OS. You can create directories anywhere and set these as folders to direct recordings to. I have folders such as SCIFI, drama, kids, etc. These are all separate directories.

3) Many people feel an Nvidia based FX-5200 is a good choice, I have a PNY FX-5200 which comes with NVDVD decoder. Using that decoder is not all that important the one that comes with the PVR250 works quite well also. If you get an Nvidia based card and want to use the Nvidia decoder then getting it with the card will save you some dough. They charge about $40.00 for it if you buy it separate. Also the FX-5200s are pretty cheap, under $100.00.


I also have a 802.11B wireless network. You can not stream DVD quality video over the that connection. You can convert your MPEGS to WMV and then stream them. I use a VHS quality for this and that seems to work well. You can not stream live TV with a PVR250, you have to showsqueeze the MPEG to WMV first , that will take about 1.5 to 2 hours on a 1 hour show. If it's important to you to stream live TV then you will need a software encoder, although the next release is supposed to have dual tuner support so you can have both.

[Eric3a]

Is there a sacrifice of quality?

I have to say yes to that one. Especially with software encoding.
Many users report that the hardware encode of the PVR250 gives very good results: I don't have one, so I can only report on software encoding.

Realistically the video has to be encoded than decoded then ouputted to the TV, so some loss of quality is unavoidable.
That's my opinion, but you need to talk to people with PVR 250s, direct connection to the TV, etc.

I personally like the quality I am getting, though it's not as good as Dish Network direct to the TV, it's quite good. Somewhere between Dish Network and analog cable TV.

ATI MMC and other software produces better quality recordings, but their interfaces are vastly inferior to BTV.

My hope (and one reason I am resisting buying a PVR 250) is that 3.5 will have vast improvements in picture quality (using overlay mode I think).

As a startup, and since you are building a dedicated machine just for BTV and outputting to the TV, you may look at getting a PVR 250 for your tuner.
Any DX9 compatible card with TV out will do.

Eric

[jnaranjo]

is 3.5 in beta now?

[Eric3a]

is 3.5 in beta now?

No.
Many are waiting as patiently as they can.

My computer has been bug free for too long!
Eric

[omnihilo]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Yeah, I think the PVR250 is my safest bet, seems to be what most people here swear by. As soon as I get the hardware (I still haven't even opened up the computer to make sure I have a free slot for the tuner) I'll download the trial and see how things work out.

[V_D_O]

...and if you don't have one, you can always try the Adaptec VideOh! USB2.

Also bear in mind that, as well as the solution Terminal mentioned for streaming live, 3.5 will also be able to stream live MPEG2 video, so you can use a 250 for that. It is, however, extremely unlikely that an 802.11b connection would be adequate for that.