Adding a second card.

[Mortanis]

I've been running up and basically smooth for a year. This TV season has shown me that I will now need a second card.

However, the card I purchased, the Hauppage PVR250, is hard to come by. I can find a PVR250MCE, however.

I'm using Windows XP with SP2. I don't know anything about the MCE cards. Can I use the PVR250 and the PVR250MCE side by side in the same system without problems? When I'm not using Windows XP MCE?

Thanks much.

[Opus4]

Yes, the 'regular' and MCE versions of the cards can be used together.

Others may more comments, but one issue I am aware of is that if you use the Hauppauge remote currently, you _might_ have problems using the remote after adding a card that has no port for the IR receiver (the MCE cards have no such port). It seems that the drivers can't tell the difference between the two versions of the card & sometimes they decide that the MCE card is the one to keep trying to use for the remote... and that fails. If the remote is important, you could consider a 150 w/a remote -- then it won't matter which card the remote driver uses.

- Andy

[Mortanis]

Remote is very important in this case, as it's a full HTPC that I never want to see windows or use a mouse on. Will there be any losses if I get the 150 card? I'm having a hard time finding the differences between the 150 and the 250, in terms of details. If it fits my needs, I have no problem nabbing a 150.

[Opus4]

Here is Hauppauge's comparison.

Note that with the way SageTV currently handles Closed Captions, you have to use a 250 or 350; the 150 won't do CC in SageTV right now.

- Andy

[Mortanis]

Says same video quality, so I'm sold. I don't have any need for Closed Captioning, so all should be good.

General questions since I'm new to dual cards:

Since the second card is to record from the same source (Standard Coaxial Basic Cable), will I need to set up a second source in Sage?

Will I need to split the coax to both cards?

Is there a significant increase in processing power/needed memory? This computer will be a Sempron 2200+ running on 512 DDR333 ram.

And just to verify, I'll be able to record two shows simultaneously, correct? Either 2 favorites in the same timeslot, or record a favorite AND watch Live TV?

Many thanks!

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Mortanis

Since the second card is to record from the same source (Standard Coaxial Basic Cable), will I need to set up a second source in Sage?

Yes, you have to configure the new card as a 2nd source, but that source would use the same provider/lineup as the first one.

Will I need to split the coax to both cards?

Yes.

Is there a significant increase in processing power/needed memory? This computer will be a Sempron 2200+ running on 512 DDR333 ram.

Should be no problem - recording is harder on a hard drive than the cpu + memory, since the card does all the hard work of encoding. But I'm sure your system has a modern drive controller. (Oh -- just make sure the drive where recordings are saved is formatted using a 64K cluster size.)

And just to verify, I'll be able to record two shows simultaneously, correct? Either 2 favorites in the same timeslot, or record a favorite AND watch Live TV?

Yup.

Oh -- I don't know if the 150 has any issues with certain motherboards/chipsets, but you should probably mention that just in case someone notices something. (The 500 has problems with some motherboards; not sure about the 150.)

- Andy

[cmaffia]

I have absolutely no problems using my PVR250 and PVR150 in the same box.
Not sure what remote you use as I first used the Streamzap with no problems and then graduated to the USB-IRT device which allows me to use my beloved Tivo remote.

Originally Posted by Opus4

Yes, you have to configure the new card as a 2nd source, but that source would use the same provider/lineup as the first one.

Yes.

Should be no problem - recording is harder on a hard drive than the cpu + memory, since the card does all the hard work of encoding. But I'm sure your system has a modern drive controller. (Oh -- just make sure the drive where recordings are saved is formatted using a 64K cluster size.)

Yup.

Oh -- I don't know if the 150 has any issues with certain motherboards/chipsets, but you should probably mention that just in case someone notices something. (The 500 has problems with some motherboards; not sure about the 150.)

- Andy

[Mortanis]

Thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear all works well. I have the smaller Hauppage remote that came with my SageTV bundled PVR250. The kinda golden smaller one, not the one I see new with the 150 I'm looking at. Works well enough for me.

Thank you all for your help. I'm pretty excited to enter the world of dual tuners.