Help a noob - PVR150 cards

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Help a noob - PVR150 cards - basic HTPC

laurasaur

42 posts

Geek

#18517 13-Jan-2008 15:14

Hi guys,

I have done a bit of research on which card to get for my HTPC that Im building up...

It seems that the PVR150 cards are kind of the standard decent one, Im just looking to record SKY digital thru my decoder at the moment, and I will worry about digital terrestial or however you spell it when it comes into play, I have enough space/slots in my case and power for another card if the PVR150 doesnt handle the terrestial signal, im really not sure what the go is there.

Anyway I just basically need to know if this is the best mid range card out there for the job. Running XP too.

Cheers
Laura

tonyhughes

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#104527 13-Jan-2008 16:11

Thats the same setup I had 1 x PVR150 with Sky fed in through RCA cables. Even had the 'blaster' unit changing the Sky channels automagically for me.

Later on, you can get an HVR3000 or whatever other DVB-T card that takes your fancy, though be aware, that for the foreseeable future, you can only use one type of card in MCE - that is, you could have 2 x PVR150s or 2 x Nova-S or 2 x HVR3000, but not a PVR150 AND an HVR3000.

laurasaur

42 posts

Geek

#104532 13-Jan-2008 16:58

thanks tony,
I wasnt aware you have to run MCE, can I not do it with XP? Im planning on getting some third party software to do all the grunt work, dont know what yet.
Yes I was planning on setting up the blaster, im sure I will be bugging you for some setup tips soon enough, hehe.

Cheers
Laura

tonyhughes

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#104535 13-Jan-2008 17:10

oh cool, you dont need MCE you could use GB-PVR or MediaPortal or other media center free software. Those ones will actually let you use multiple different tuner types.

nickrout

219 posts

Master Geek

#104540 13-Jan-2008 17:42

mythtv will give very good results with a PVR 150

maorry

19 posts

Geek

#107803 31-Jan-2008 16:30

tonyhughes: Thats the same setup I had 1 x PVR150 with Sky fed in through RCA cables. Even had the 'blaster' unit changing the Sky channels automagically for me.

Later on, you can get an HVR3000 or whatever other DVB-T card that takes your fancy, though be aware, that for the foreseeable future, you can only use one type of card in MCE - that is, you could have 2 x PVR150s or 2 x Nova-S or 2 x HVR3000, but not a PVR150 AND an HVR3000.

Could you tell me what model Sky decoder you got the blaster working with thanks? I could never get this work on my one (I'm using GB-PVR on Win XP).

mcarenz

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#107807 31-Jan-2008 16:58

See my sites listed below for info on MediaPortal TVServer

tonyhughes

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#107811 31-Jan-2008 17:40

maorry:
tonyhughes: Thats the same setup I had 1 x PVR150 with Sky fed in through RCA cables. Even had the 'blaster' unit changing the Sky channels automagically for me.

Later on, you can get an HVR3000 or whatever other DVB-T card that takes your fancy, though be aware, that for the foreseeable future, you can only use one type of card in MCE - that is, you could have 2 x PVR150s or 2 x Nova-S or 2 x HVR3000, but not a PVR150 AND an HVR3000.

Could you tell me what model Sky decoder you got the blaster working with thanks? I could never get this work on my one (I'm using GB-PVR on Win XP).

It was a Motorola DTH325-4 I still have it here, its going back to sky next week though.

I never got blasting working reliably with anything other than MCE (Yet *everything* else seemed to work better with those alternative packages - very frustrating).

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Vorbis

176 posts

Master Geek

#107820 31-Jan-2008 19:00

I get great results with Mediaportal.
What is is with Vista/mce? I only bothered 'upgrading' from XP because I thought that I could use my dvb-s card with MCE. What a joke that turned out to be!!

nickrout

219 posts

Master Geek

#107842 31-Jan-2008 20:13

Flag windows altogether if you want stability. the linux pvr150 drivers are pretty stable.

geekiegeek

2513 posts

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#107845 31-Jan-2008 20:41

tonyhughes: though be aware, that for the foreseeable future, you can only use one type of card in MCE - that is, you could have 2 x PVR150s or 2 x Nova-S or 2 x HVR3000, but not a PVR150 AND an HVR3000.

This limitation has now been hacked and it is now possible to use 2 different cards with different lineups on each i.e. Freeview on a HVR3000 and Sky on a PVR150 - there is a large post on the Australian media center site and I also found some instructions on the Green button site - also more info in this thread - http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=34&topicid=18907&page_no=1#107591

basic instructions are below but there is more detail out there - I'm planning on implementing it this weekend as Media Portal is a buggy piece of @#$% and I cant be bothered fixing it all the time.

1) Make sure both DVB-T and DVB-C/A tuner cards work.

2) Run Setup in Media Center and configure the DVB-T tuner(s ) and setup guides (everything) for that specific card as though it's the only tuner in your system.

3) Exit VMC and go to c:\programdata\microsoft\ehome\epg and copy the SDF file as mentioned here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\EPG\currentEpgVersion (via regedit -> Winkey-R and type regedit and Enter) to a safe place (I recommend the desktop in a folder called DVBT setup). The EPG consists of TWO files with the same name but different extentions.
4) Download the MCE Tuner Extender fix utility and run it.
5) within MCE tuner ext. you can see that your DVB-T cards is enabled and your analog/cable tuners are disabled within VMC - You can see this when you press "Get Tuners".
6) Mark each Analog tuner and Give it a name, Save and Enable for MCE
7) Now all should be in black text and none in red.
8) Run VMC and now you run the TV config again FROM THE BEGINNING as though you only have Cable. Select cable, scan, configure, guide for each and every analog channel on your analog tuner.
9) Exit VMC and run MCE Tuner Ext. - enable DVB-T cards (as above mentioned)
10) Run regedit and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\EPG\currentEpgVersion and change the name to the first EPG that you saved and copy the EPG back to the programdata\microsoft\ehome\epg folder.
11) start VMC and press Guide on your Remote - you should only have your DVB-T channels now - and they should work (test them).
12) go into the Settings -> TV -> Program Guide -> scan for more channels and now you have both DVB-T and DVB-C channels to reorder.

Vorbis

176 posts

Master Geek

#107854 31-Jan-2008 20:58

geekiegeek:
tonyhughes: though be aware, that for the foreseeable future, you can only use one type of card in MCE - that is, you could have 2 x PVR150s or 2 x Nova-S or 2 x HVR3000, but not a PVR150 AND an HVR3000.

This limitation has now been hacked and it is now possible to use 2 different cards with different lineups on each i.e. Freeview on a HVR3000 and Sky on a PVR150 - there is a large post on the Australian media center site and I also found some instructions on the Green button site - also more info in this thread - http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=34&topicid=18907&page_no=1#107591

basic instructions are below but there is more detail out there - I'm planning on implementing it this weekend as Media Portal is a buggy piece of @#$% and I cant be bothered fixing it all the time.

1) Make sure both DVB-T and DVB-C/A tuner cards work.
2) Run Setup in Media Center and configure the DVB-T tuner(s ) and setup guides (everything) for that specific card as though it's the only tuner in your system.
3) Exit VMC and go to c:\programdata\microsoft\ehome\epg and copy the SDF file as mentioned here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\EPG\currentEpgVersion (via regedit -> Winkey-R and type regedit and Enter) to a safe place (I recommend the desktop in a folder called DVBT setup). The EPG consists of TWO files with the same name but different extentions.
4) Download the MCE Tuner Extender fix utility and run it.
5) within MCE tuner ext. you can see that your DVB-T cards is enabled and your analog/cable tuners are disabled within VMC - You can see this when you press "Get Tuners".
6) Mark each Analog tuner and Give it a name, Save and Enable for MCE
7) Now all should be in black text and none in red.
8) Run VMC and now you run the TV config again FROM THE BEGINNING as though you only have Cable. Select cable, scan, configure, guide for each and every analog channel on your analog tuner.
9) Exit VMC and run MCE Tuner Ext. - enable DVB-T cards (as above mentioned)
10) Run regedit and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\EPG\currentEpgVersion and change the name to the first EPG that you saved and copy the EPG back to the programdata\microsoft\ehome\epg folder.
11) start VMC and press Guide on your Remote - you should only have your DVB-T channels now - and they should work (test them).
12) go into the Settings -> TV -> Program Guide -> scan for more channels and now you have both DVB-T and DVB-C channels to reorder.

And they say Linux can be tricky to configure...

mcarenz

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#107904 1-Feb-2008 08:23

Media Portal is a buggy piece of @#$% and I cant be bothered fixing it all the time.

Yeah the builds lately have been pretty buggy, but that's what happens when you keep upgrading to the latest development snapshot ;-)

You'll be back, you'll see ;-)