I'm a newbie to this whole PVR thing and I've had trouble getting answers on my own concerning some small details about building a PVR.
I've pretty much decided to go with a 350 tuner card and either SageTV or GP-PVR becaise they support the 350 TV out fully. I'm running XP Pro on an old 900Mhz PC that should be suitable.
Cool, welcome.... just for clarifcation the pvr350 tv out works in lots of applications, BUT SageTV2/GB-PVR/mythtv have support for pushing OSD/.menus' through the 350's tv out...
Now for my questions:
1. Will I need a video card for anything other than setting the PC up? IOW, will the 350 card function as the only necessary video output once it's up and running as a PVR? If a vid card is needed, doesn it need any special features and why?
I think your motherboard won't boot if you don't have *Something* in there... pvr350's et al are not video display cards... they are tuners/encoders... you probably won't have to hook up a PC monitor once you get the bugs worked out (and you could always use a remote desktop tool once in a while if needed)... but you'll still need a video card in there.
2. Same questions but for sound cards instead. Sound is the big puzzler for me. I'm trying to decide if I need to be upgrading or just using old soundblaster comps. and vid cards I have around.
well... how old are these soundblasters? like sb16's isa ones... or sblive...? As long as you can get drivers for whatever you have laying around, AND it doesn't seem to cause other problems (more than it's worth when you can get a good generic supported sb live card for 20 beans) ... in short, can't hurt to try it.
3. How does sound get from the cable box to the PVR? I noticed the audio in on the PDF docs for the 350 but can't tell what kind of port it is and what cable I would need.
we'll have to look at the config you are contemplating later/further down... there are RCA audio inputs (left and right) on the pvr350's/250's breakout input cable... the other input is a 1/8th " stereo line in passthrough so you can route your system/PC sounds through the PVR350 ...
4. How does sound get from the PVR to the TV? I know the 350 sends audio out of its output adapter but what if I want Dolby 5.1 or DTS sound to come out to my surround system? Can the PVR even record surround audio?
I don't know... is your digital cable surround sound? I don't think mine is... so i'm not sure how you'd capture that... I haven't looked too much into this aspect of homebrew pvr's and since I don't have a 5.1 setup, it's hard for me to test =)
As you can see my questions are basically ones that attempt to fill out a mental picture of a connection diagram. I can't seem to find any discussions or images that lay out the complete connection picture like you often find in the manuals for audio/video equipment.
i'm tired and will look at the connection diagram tomorow... =) (anyone else want totake a crack at it?)
--- good luck Rampy
This is what I understand so far and what I don't
Video In: [Cable/Sat Box]<--------S-Video------->[350 Card]
Audio In: [Cable/Sat Box]<-------Some audio cable???------->[350 card?]
Video Out: [350 Card]<---------S-Video via TV OUT adapter---------->[TV]
Audio Out:[350 Card?]<--------L/R via TV OUT adapter------>[TV or Amp]
Digital Audio Out: ??????????
Control: [IR Blaster]<-------------->[Cab/Sat Box]
So can someone please explain the parts that have ? on them and tell me what I may be leaving out? Where does a sound card or video card fit into the picture? Will I ever need to interact with the OS on a normal basis or will SageTV et al. simply run full screen most of the time?
I know it's a lot but these answers will help SO much.
Thanks
