Thinking about adding a new PVR-500

[AWS]

Need another tuner. Thinking of going with the H. PVR-500. Does Sage somehow support tuner preference for playback? I currently have 2 X PVR-350 (no, I don't use the TV-out option) in there and I want to have the hardware do all the decoding - which the 500 does not have. So does Sage automatically try to use the hardware decoder first and if it's busy fall back to the software decoder?

Or is this an issue that I don't even need to worry about? My system specs are pretty beefy for an HTPC but I always like to use as less CPU as possible.

[jptaz]

I think you are confused about how the PVR350 works. If you do not have the Svideo or Composite out connector on the PVR 350 connected to your TV you are not using the Hardware Decoder at all. All MPEG2 playback on your PC display is software decoding.

The PVR 500, PVR 150, PVR 250, PVR 350, etc. all have HARDWARE ENCODERS. This means that when you are recording it uses next to no CPU power at all, which is the most important part of the process.

So unless you are using the SVideo or Composite out on the PVR 350 you have wasted money on features you will never use. In fact if at all possible try to exchange them for with either a couple of PVR 250MCEs or PVR 150MCEs. Better yet buy 2 PVR 500MCEs and gain a PCI slot.

John

[AWS]

No one's ever explained that to me! HA! THANKS. Funny. Ok, so that is an easy choice then.

Ok, so how do I delete this thread so no one ever sees that I asked this question?