Beyond TV 3 and Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE Kit

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://store.snapstream.com/btvandpvr500.html' target='_blank'>http://store.snapstream.com/btvandpvr500.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"No more having to choose between your favorite TV shows. This kit transforms your PC into a dual-tuner PVR. The WinTV-PVR-500MCE is a single PCI card with two complete TV tuners, each with its own hardware MPEG encoder. Contents include Beyond TV 3 and a Hauppauge Win-TV-PVR-500MCE. Turn your PC into a dual-tuner PVR with Beyond TV 3.5 and the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE kit. The WinTV-PVR-500MCE makes it easy for you to have more than one TV tuner on your PC. It streamlines the setup process by giving you two tuners on a single PCI card. Together, Beyond TV 3.5 and the WinTV-PVR-500MCE give you the power to record two shows at the same time or watch one show while simultaneously recording another."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/snapstreamtest_1830_759426.jpg" /><br /><br />I have the 500MCE (yes, if finally showed up!), and it's an excellent card - BeyondTV is superb software, so if you've been looking for an excuse to get your own PVR set up, this is it.

[Schade]

Jason, from all the pictures I've seen of this card there doesn't seem to be two set of headers for input of 2 s-video signals from set-top boxes. (With two STB's there's no need for two tuners, just 2 encoders.) Is there any sort of dongle in this special kit to allow this?

Also, the two analog F-type connectors pictured on the card, are those both inputs? Could I just feed analog output from the STBs into these two inputs? Or is only one of these an input?

Thanks for any help!

[jeffd]

yea looks like bad design work here.

#1 2 F-type inputes for each tunner. This means I need to SPLIT the signal, degrading video quality. Also It dosnt look like it handels digital cable, which alot of not most cable systems are using now. I know many channels are still analog (unfortunatly) but then you can have the option of using set top boxs..but...

#2 only one svideo input? Or worse, is that just an output for a tv? The card dosnt seem to let you "fix" its short comings.

Anyways imo.. if you want to record your shows.. check the tv torrent sites and see if someone is allready capturing them and download it. Heck this thing couldnt make a dent in the HDTV captured (but not the same resolution of course) videos of shows you can download.

[Jason Dunn]

You're both misunderstanding what this is: it's an analog TV tuner for recording TV, nothing more. The ports on the back are mostly for input (their product page is vague on this point). It's not designed to interface with digital cable signals or HD.

[jeffd]

Jason, I didn't mis understand at all. I said it was a bad design. If you wanna say tv as in "what you pull off VHF", well who needs a dual pvr for that? Besides if you can't afford cable, you arn't affording this. ;)

PVR is generally useless without alot of channels.. therefor it should work with current cable systems, that means digital.

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, I didn't mis understand at all. I said it was a bad design. If you wanna say tv as in "what you pull off VHF", well who needs a dual pvr for that? Besides if you can't afford cable, you arn't affording this. ;) PVR is generally useless without alot of channels.. therefor it should work with current cable systems, that means digital.

8O I have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe if I explain how I'm using this you'll understand. I have my Windows Media Center Edition 2005 unit in my office, with dual tuners, hooked up to my analog cable system on which I get 80 channels or so. It records most of the TV shows that I watch. Upstairs I have a digital cable box + PVR combo and it records the few shows that are actually broadcast in HD. I have an Xbox with a Media Center Extender that allows us to watch the TV shows from downstairs. For the HD shows, we watch them on the PVR from our cable company.

Ultimately on my HD TV set, non-HD digital cable looks every bit as crappy as non-HD analog cable, so it's a moot point (is that what you were trying to get at?). Once all my TV shows are being broadcast in HD I'll want a PC-based system that can record HD, but until that happens this solution works out great for me.

Besides which, the cable/sattelite companies don't WANT to allow you to hook up computers to their boxes and record the content, especially not in HD! They want you to buy their decoder + PVR boxes that make it very difficult to pull content off of...so far the only HD recorder for a PC that I've seen is the ATI card, and that's only "over the air" HD, which doesn't exist in Canada.

[gry]

Thanks Jason,

I'm getting this and upgrading from my Radeon All-in-Wonder card because it seems to be all self-contained. I had to fool around with the Radeon to get consistent and stable recordings. This looks pretty close to plug-n-play. Let me know if it just works.

BTW, there are HD-ready tuner cards. I was considering buying 2 cards before the March ban but I think I'm going to wait because most of the content I want to record is on the digital channels--HBO, Showtime, Cinemax--not the 1-100 analog cable channels.

I only wish there was a cable ready version to work with the Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta settops instead. There's a lot of good digital (not HD) content that I've been capturing using S-Video from my settop, but I have to be there to ensure it's recording the correct channel.

[jeffd]

jason, what im saying is.. your using the card on anlog onlys stations.You even admit you still need to use another pvr to watch the digital stations. Thats what I call "The card isn't doing what it needs to". Especialy since most of what I watch (well did watch, untill I stoped paying $80 for watching 2 channels) are digital channels.

[Jason Dunn]

BTW, there are HD-ready tuner cards.

But none of them work with Windows Media Center Edition 2005 - the OS doesn't yet allow full control/decoding of digital cable boxes. Nor can HDTV be streamed by the Xbox Extender. Guys, look, I did a lot of research before putting my rig together and trust me, what you're suggesting simply isn't possible today. Maybe in a few months or a year, but not today.

[Jason Dunn]

jason, what im saying is.. your using the card on anlog onlys stations.You even admit you still need to use another pvr to watch the digital stations. Thats what I call "The card isn't doing what it needs to". Especialy since most of what I watch (well did watch, untill I stoped paying $80 for watching 2 channels) are digital channels.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree - I've explained exactly how I use the card, and it does exactly what I need. If I COULD record HDTV via MCE 2005 and stream it upstairs, hell yes I'd like that, but I can't - it's simply not possible today. So I find your criticism a bit silly because nothing on the market today will do what you're describing.

Anyway, no more from me on this - I'm happy with the MCE500, you wouldn't be, but I bought it and you didn't, so no worries. :wink:

[Schade]

Jason, calm down man. I've got MCE2005 also, and absolutely love it. I don't think I'm missing the point at all, I was simply asking a question. I was only asking about this specific kit. (Word around thegreenbutton and xpmce is that Hauppauge was only supplying the card, the OEMs were going to have to supply headers for breakout purposes.)

MCE2005 was upgraded over MCE2004 to support dual tuners. As you probably know, you have to have identical channel lineups for each tuner. That means you can't run the cable into one input and the STB into the other. Right now, I have the e-home Wonder working beautifully. I could pop another one of those in there and hook up my second STB, but then I would have no PCI slots available. I was just waiting for a dual capture card that had 2 s-video inputs available. I don't care about HD or whatever, I just want access to the regular SD digital channels. Plain and simple.

I don't know what you're talking about 'not possible today', but my setup most assuredly is using a set top box. (Just ask my wife about the 3 second delay while the IR blaster does it's thing!) Isn't the next version of MCE reportedly going to work with CableCard?

I'm sorry you've shut yourself off from this thread because I really wanted to know if both of those F-type connectors are inputs and what your impressions of the card were. Guess I'll ask somewhere else.

All that being said, maybe it is a good idea to think about trading my 2 STBs in for a single PVR STB. I could record all the IFC and stuff I want on that, and do other PVR stuff with the analog channels on the MCE Box. Or I could buy another e-home wonder and have what I want, just without any PCI slots remaining.

[gry]

Jason,

What you pointed out was great! I'm getting one.

I have a friend that is running MythTV and an HD tuner, similar to this:
http://wendy.seltzer.org/mythtv/

http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/hdtv-introHY.php

The MythTV UI looks a lot like TiVo and it runs on Linux.

[Jason Dunn]

...I really wanted to know if both of those F-type connectors are inputs and what your impressions of the card were.

The top one is an FM radio input, the bottom one is the cable TV input.

[Schade]

The top one is an FM radio input, the bottom one is the cable TV input.

Thank you