PVR350 Review Comments

[rampy]

Here's the deal Pmurph,

The encoding (recording) is via hardware

The DECODING (playing back) is via hardware for the TV OUT ONLY

So if you are watching on your PC monitor using "local playback" on wintv2000 it is SOFTWARE decoding and uses more CPU (consistent with what you mentioned)

to disable "local playback" (as a test to see how encoding effects your CPU) in WinTV2000:

click on MENU->VIDEO OUT  and uncheck "PLAYBACK LOCAL"

unfortunately that'll leave you with a blank spot where the picture is, as you've disabled playback... but will let you see the effect of encoding ONLY on your machine.

Which encoding settings  you use may also effect the system load as you can select different quality recording settings (SVCD, MPEG2 12mb/s, DVD extra play, dvd regular, etc) which effect how much space and may effect playback cpu usage locally on the PC monitor...

I'm looking for (found) a thread with my first impressions of the 350 that talked about the cpu usage on a PC monitor...

hope that helps..

rampy

PS also make sure to have the latest drivers installed...  and the latest drivers for your regular video card too, as it's technically the one displaying the video to your pc monitor via video overlay anyways... that's another possible source of cpu leakage =P

[Edited on 4/4/04 by rampy]

[Homebrew]

Oh man, talk about a brain fart.  I completely forgot about the decoder only being for the tv-out.  Ironic since i'm the one that brought that up right after i bought my 350.  I somehow missed that post rampy referenced.  I must have been more tired than i though.  Glad the mystery is put to rest though.

-Kevin

[Anonymous]

Uhh, how did you get DVD playback to work through the TV output?  I'm sure there's gotta be a way, however I can't find it.

[rampy]

Uhh, how did you get DVD playback to work through the TV output?  I'm sure there's gotta be a way, however I can't find it.

I assume you are in windows?  Which DVD playing software are you using?

I found this on hauppauge's FAQ  and  you might want to check out their latest driver/support page

I don't have a DVD drive in my pc (eventually....) but will have one in the to be built PVR.

So i'm afraid i'm not of much help... but it shouldn't be an issue, BUT be advised the MPEG decoder on the 350 does NOT help/assist  with playback of DVD's (it only hardware accellerates unencrypted mpeg's through it's Tv out, DVD's are encrypted mpegs)  i.e. it will be software decoding/main cpu only.  Anyways that's how it should work, but you might hve to find a DVD player software that supports/works with teh 350... and again I haven't tried it yet...  

good luck and if you do figure it out, come back and let us know what worked/didn't...

rampy

[Edited on 4/17/04 by rampy]

[GlassVial]

Sorry that last post was from me, I forgot my password.

I wasn't talking about problems/conflicts with DVD software, my question was more geared toward getting DVD's to play through the 350's TV-out.  From what I've found so far, there is NO Windows software that can do this (prove me wrong?).  Apparently the only program that can is MythTV for Linux.  WinDVD/PowerDVD won't do it (tried em both).  Hauppauge's FAQ is useless.  Already using their latest drivers.  I already know the hardware decoder doesn't "help" with DVD and I could care less about that, again what I'm trying to do is get the DVD to play through the 350's TV-Out whether the decoder helps or not.

Also as a big fat warning to everyone, *almost* all PVR programs (MythTV included) and the PVR350 card, you need to run the PVR350's audio out to your sound card's line in and then use the sound card's speaker out/line out to get sound.  I wasn't aware of this until I did some reading and now I need to pick up some more adapters :(

[runs_with_scissors]

Can anyone tell me what the male connector on the 350 is used for? I found nothing on Hauppauge's website, and the manual is not helpful.

[rampy]

the male connector?

can you point it out in this image of what came in the box?what came in the 350's box shot

are you referring to the little grey adapter (pictured still in it's plastic bag)  It looks like an RCA/composite to SVIDEO adapter so you can dub your VHS tapes to/through the 350 (unless i'm mistaken or are talking about the wrong connector)

rampy

[GlassVial]

Yeah I'm not sure what he's talking about either.  Here's what the 350 has.  ON the card itself: Svideo in, RF In for cable/dish/ant/etc, FM in (also a screw-on F-type connector) Line in, and an IR port.  Next to the svideo in there is a 9-pin header connection.  That header cable has svideo, and yellow/red/white composite connections.  These connections are all labeled out, however they are also supposed to be inputs as well.  Hope that answers the question.

[runs_with_scissors]

Can anyone tell me what the male connector on the 350 is used for? I found nothing on Hauppauge's website, and the manual is not helpful. [quote\]

I was talking about  the one on the upper edge of the card, not the end. It is above the silvery metal box next to the TV in & FM in. It isn't one I recognize.

[rampy]

Can anyone tell me what the male connector on the 350 is used for? I found nothing on Hauppauge's website, and the manual is not helpful.

I was talking about  the one on the upper edge of the card, not the end. It is above the silvery metal box next to the TV in & FM in. It isn't one I recognize.  

Oh the header on the PCB part of the card... I dunno... could be there strictly for quality control testing of the card as it goes off the assembly line... or to interface with ????  I dunno.  I only gave it half a thought (when i noticed it)... It's not meant to be used by the consumer I bet, but that doesn't stop enterprising people from utlizing connectors like that for added funcitonlaity (only in this case, we have no idea what it's for/does...)  it looks exactly like the recieving end of a daughtercard (anyone rember putting a wave table daugher card on their soudblasters to get better midi music quality bakc in the day?))

so in short.. *shrug* a lot of times on cards/mobo's connectors like that are duplicate access points to inputs/outputs as on the actual card... but I don't really know in this case.

rampy