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Hardware Support Discussions related to using various hardware setups with SageTV products. Anything relating to capture cards, remotes, infrared receivers/transmitters, system compatibility or other hardware related problems or suggestions should be posted here. |
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#1
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X-card or Plextor?? Already have a 350
First and foremost, I want to add a second tuner, mainly because when recording from my STB (digital cable) I can no longer watch live TV (basic cable) on the TV as you might expect from the old days of having your VCR record. Anyways.
So, I have a 350, I like the video out, I like low cpu usage etc. What I am kindof interested in though is divx recording (my dvd player supports divx/xvid) and playback. Im not sure how this would work in sage (350 and xcard play together??? presumably I'd have to switch to x-card for tv-out) Does anyone have any thoughts on this? What about this plextor stuff.. worthwhile? EDIT: oops. if I go with a PVR 150 just to add a tuner, can I use a MCE version (description says ONLY MCE) but that seems kinda stupid right? I run XP pro. Can anyone tell me? thx Cory |
#2
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Yes you can use the 150MCE not with MCE. I have a 150 Retail and 150MCE in my XP system.
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#3
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Note that if you are looking for a 2nd tuner, the Xcard won't provide one for you, nor will it play DivX videos from within SageTV.
You can use the mce version of the 150, but its lack of remote can interfere with trying to use the Hauppauge remote with the 350. So, if you use the H. remote, you may want to make things easier & just get a full 150. - Andy
__________________
SageTV Open Source v9 is available. - Read the SageTV FAQ. Older PDF User's Guides mostly still apply: SageTV V7.0 & SageTV Studio v7.1. - Hauppauge remote help: 1) Basics/Extending it 2) Replace it 3) Use it w/o needing focus - HD Extenders: A) FAQs B) URC MX-700 remote setup Note: This is a users' forum; see the Rules. For official tech support fill out a Support Request. |
#4
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Wow opus, thanks, you saved me from making a big mistake.
AMG: thanks for the MCE info Do you have a suggestion for "all-through" Divx to tv-out support in Sage? How are people using the X-card currently? Maybe Im not understanding its feature set properly. Any comments on the plextor? thanks! Cory |
#5
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The Plextor is the only encoder I know of that can record in DivX; I don't know of a hardware-based DivX decoder that SageTV can use.
The Xcard can play more than MPEG2, but for various reasons, that is all SageTV can use it for. I use its provided XMedia Player to play DVDs. - Andy
__________________
SageTV Open Source v9 is available. - Read the SageTV FAQ. Older PDF User's Guides mostly still apply: SageTV V7.0 & SageTV Studio v7.1. - Hauppauge remote help: 1) Basics/Extending it 2) Replace it 3) Use it w/o needing focus - HD Extenders: A) FAQs B) URC MX-700 remote setup Note: This is a users' forum; see the Rules. For official tech support fill out a Support Request. |
#6
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Thanks Opus, I guess I'll just get a 150 or a 500 (seems like retail stock is a little bit persnickety where I am, and I'd like to pick something up today). Seems like Im feeling the pain of liking tv-out solutions
![]() Anyways, thanks for the education. Seems like if I got a plextor, and a X-card, maybe there'd be some hope for Sage being able to operate it with a little hacking around but I wont get my hopes up. thanks a bunch Cory |
#7
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I have a Plextor and use my 9800 Pro with a DVI-to-Component out. Both Divx and MPEG-2 Best (through Nvidia MPEG-2 decoder) recordings look really good.. no hassle playback, it would take an expert eye to tell that they are recorded shows.
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SageTV server & client: Win 10 Pro x64, Intel DH67CF, Core i5 2405s, 8 GB ram, Intel HD 3000, 40GB SSD system, 4TB storage, 2x HD PVR component + optical audio, USB-UIRT 2 zones + remote hack, Logitech Harmony One, HDMI output to Sony receiver with native Intel bitstreaming |
#8
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Unfortunately I am so invested in the tv-out of the 350 (you should see all of the wrong-length cables I bought and didn't return because they were piecemeal from different stores scattered everywhere) and so forth (and emotionally invested in hardware decode also) that it pains me to switch. Just thinking about rebuilding and going through all the hassles again brings a tear to my eye. (Not to mention, I now have a dedicated HTPC for it, but I removed my FX5600 from it (onboard video) ... I'd have to buy a new video card with a tv-out or find a DVI converter for my card to TV ... sigh
But I'll let the idea kindof simmer and get used to it for a while, who knows it may be the way I end up going ![]() thanks for the comments guys Cory EDIT: Can I just say that I would purchase a "350-like" device that supported divx in a heartbeat? ![]() |
#9
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Quote:
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#10
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Hi Stanger
No, I just have a regular SDTV. I haven't setup my video card for tv-out before though, and the onboard video doesn't have any kind of output except the VGA. my FX5600 which is gathering dust at the moment has a DVI (I think? the lots of pins white connector.. and, oh, looking at it seems to have SVID so I guess I could use that although I'd still have to re-install it and re-tweak ... I bought a 500 yesterday, but stupidly even though the website said it was in stock it wasn't, so I'm picking it up later today. I'm still interested in recompressing to Xvid though and using my DVD player which supports it. I hate to lose Sage info and control though ![]() As a side note, from some reading I have done, it seems like GBPVR supports everything necessary -- Xcard, Plextor .. which could be combined I think to do what I do with my 350 .. |
#11
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Korben might or might not agree with this, but I own a Plextor and I hate it.
The divx recordings only look as good as the mpeg-2 recordings of alomst equal size. It is limited to 6mbits/sec. No remote & higher price. I have one sitting and doing nothing. I replaced it with another PVR-USB2. I record using the Hauppauge devices at 12mbits/sec which equals at 5.6GB/hour. I then use AutoGK to shrink them to 300MB and the results are FAR better then what the Plextor does at over 1GB. IMHO. Korben, flame away if I am wrong...
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If this doesn't work right, Then: "I'm going to blow up the Earth!" |
#12
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I don't remember whether we talked about this: did you ever try creating a custom DivX recording quality and set ipb to either 0 or 1 instead of 2?
- Andy
__________________
SageTV Open Source v9 is available. - Read the SageTV FAQ. Older PDF User's Guides mostly still apply: SageTV V7.0 & SageTV Studio v7.1. - Hauppauge remote help: 1) Basics/Extending it 2) Replace it 3) Use it w/o needing focus - HD Extenders: A) FAQs B) URC MX-700 remote setup Note: This is a users' forum; see the Rules. For official tech support fill out a Support Request. |
#13
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No I don't remember seeing any posts about that.
But I am quite satisfied with capping at 12mbit and encoding later. I can't imagine I would get close to the same quality capping directly to divx at 300MB/hour anyways. But thanx for the heads up...
__________________
If this doesn't work right, Then: "I'm going to blow up the Earth!" |
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