Dual Tuner with DirecTV

[Anchor]

I just bought Beyond TV and am in the process of building the PVR. I have bought 2 PVR 250's for dual tuner support when it becomes available. I am getting rid of digital cable and am thinking about going back to either standard cable or going to Directv (I am leaning more toward Directv). I have done some reading about controlling the receiver through a serial connection / low speed data port. My concern is that I would like to have 2 receivers connected to one PVR for the dual tunner support. I have one serial connection on the PC. Can I purchase a USB to serial converter to get an extra connection and hook up both receivers up to the PVR using the low speed data connection or would a USB-IRT / IRBlaster work better? Just trying to find out the best / easiest way to get it all up and running. Also, since dual tuner support is not available, can I record using Snapstream and watch TV using another program. Thanks!

[sloanja]

Originally Posted by Anchor

I just bought Beyond TV and am in the process of building the PVR. I have bought 2 PVR 250's for dual tuner support when it becomes available. I am getting rid of digital cable and am thinking about going back to either standard cable or going to Directv (I am leaning more toward Directv). I have done some reading about controlling the receiver through a serial connection / low speed data port. My concern is that I would like to have 2 receivers connected to one PVR for the dual tunner support. I have one serial connection on the PC. Can I purchase a USB to serial converter to get an extra connection and hook up both receivers up to the PVR using the low speed data connection or would a USB-IRT / IRBlaster work better? Just trying to find out the best / easiest way to get it all up and running. Also, since dual tuner support is not available, can I record using Snapstream and watch TV using another program. Thanks!

if you go the DirecTV route, you will need one digital receiver for each tuner. In addition, you'll need another receiver for the tv when you want to watch TV while snapstream is recording a different channel. As far as the serial connections, you can find some PCI cards that have serial ports on them, for about the same price as a USB to Serial connection. Both will do the same. Personally, I'd go the PCI route since it will be a firm connection instead of where the usb could slip out...

[Anchor]

Thanks for the response. The problem that I have is that I am using the Antec Aria case so I don't have a lot of room for extra PCI cards. I have already filled up all 3 with the 2 tuners and a wireless NIC. The motherboard only has a connection for one serial connector, so I will have to use the USB to serial connector also. I assume that when multiple tuner support is available, I will be able to use 2 Directv receivers and hook one to one PVR250 and one to the other. In theory, I should be able to record 2 shows at once or watch live TV and record one show? My main concern is trying to figure out how to control Beyond TV and the 2 receivers using only one remote. I have searched many forums and have not been able to find a clear answer. Thanks.

[Eric3a]

Multiple tuners and control of external receivers is a feature of the upcoming 3.5.
Open Beta on it should start real soon, say before the end of the month all going well.

Eric

[McGee]

I use Directv with an ATI AIW card. It has a tuner but the signal comes in on the s-video and the audio cables. The tuning is done in the directv box via a serial conection.

So why does one need a TUNER in the computer if their using directv? Doesn't one just need a A/V capture which ought to be cheaper. Do capture cards exist? I've never seen them mentioned in these forums. With 3.5 coming I might want to go to 2 input cards so the question is $$.

[Brett]

Originally Posted by McGee

So why does one need a TUNER in the computer if their using directv? Doesn't one just need a A/V capture which ought to be cheaper. Do capture cards exist?

I don't believe any standard AV capture cards exist that would work with BTV. You are correct that you would not need a tuner for DirectTV but most people still would recommend you get a PVR250 or other hardware encoder. The fact is that regardless if you are using the tuner or video inputs you still need to encode the video and the best way to do this is with a hardware encoder. Only one capture card exist that I know of that has a hardware encoder and it is not supported by Snapstream.

As for the other guys question, yes a USB->Serial connection is exactly what you would need to control the second box.

-Brett

[McGee]

Originally Posted by Brett

I don't believe any standard AV capture cards exist that would work with BTV. You are correct that you would not need a tuner for DirectTV but most people still would recommend you get a PVR250 or other hardware encoder. The fact is that regardless if you are using the tuner or video inputs you still need to encode the video and the best way to do this is with a hardware encoder. Only one capture card exist that I know of that has a hardware encoder and it is not supported by Snapstream.
-snip-
-Brett

Well that makes sense. It seems like an obvious market to hit whether it's Hauppauge or someone else. Mebbe I overestimate the cost of the tuner in the cost of the card.

A directv tuner card that doesn't need the directv box is an even better idea, but I guess directv has a lock on that and chooses to ignore us.

I doubt that the hardware encoder would help me. but I'd be willing to listen to an explaination. When I record and display in BTV I use 65-70% of the cpu and about 300MB. With BTV only recording only (most common use), I use about 25% of the cpu. It's a dedicated computer, so what would I gain with hardware encoding? The quality seems indistinguishable with the directv going directly to the TV or through BTV. I admit it's not a great TV but it's not junk either.

I've heard so many raves on these forums about the pvr250 that I'd try it if a good deal came alone. Pity snapstream's deal includes the software.