You can buy the WinTV-PVR-500MCE

[edbmdave]

Ok, installed, configured channels and all appear to work. Strange thing happened. Now when I playback a video (not all of them, just some) The activemovie window appears. Currently my Video Decoder is set to my Sonic DVD Decoder. I thought sonic was fine? PS. This is not a MPEG2 file it is a DIVX. Explain that? It worked fine prior to the install of the PVR500.

Any ideas?

[edbmdave]

Ok, had to re-install the DIVX decoder... All works now.

Note: In order to get the second tuner to "tune", I had to first use the amcap_dx9.exe utility on the CD, to first attempt to auto-tune each tuner. After that Sage was able to see the channels on the seconds tuner.. I don't know what it does, but it woke up the second tuner for me..

May intialize some registry entries...

[edbmdave]

Does anyone know if the PVR-500s use the same registry entries for PQ that the 250/350s did?

[Juncti]

Just received my 2 500's. Can't wait to get home and fire this up. Thanks to the people who posted links where they were in stock. I ordered last Wednesday and just got them today.

[mlbdude]

Originally Posted by edbmdave

Does anyone know if the PVR-500s use the same registry entries for PQ that the 250/350s did?

They are based off of 150's so I would guess they would follow those registry settings.

[Humanzee]

Has anybody combined the 500mce with a 350 yet? I want to use my silver remote and tv out on the 350 to control sage and all three tuners. I have read that there are some issues with combining the 350 and 150 cards surrounding the remote, and the new drivers getting the hardware confused. The 500mce doesn't have a remote, so that might avoid some of the remote driver problems. Since the 500 is based on the 150 might there be other problems? Is anybody running this setup succesfully? I want another tuner but don't know what to get.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

Has anybody combined the 500mce with a 350 yet? I want to use my silver remote and tv out on the 350 to control sage and all three tuners. I have read that there are some issues with combining the 350 and 150 cards surrounding the remote, and the new drivers getting the hardware confused. The 500mce doesn't have a remote, so that might avoid some of the remote driver problems.

Actually, the lack of a remote means that the problem could be worse -- the IR software might latch onto the 500, which doesn't actually have the IR port, and you couldn't use the remote at all. You may have to play around with installing the cards in different slots trying to get the IR software to choose the 350 instead. The remote issue is for the 150, 250, 350, and 500. If all your cards have IR ports, you are OK since any one will do... unless you are trying to use the 150's IR blaster & thus have to use its port.

The pvr-usb2 is different & its IR receiver doesn't conflict.

- Andy

[abbott_m]

So, if the PVR-500 doesn't have a remote port, how does the hardware bundle (which ships with a remote) interface. I'm rather curios since I just bought this package.

[jptaz]

The bundle you purchased doesn't have a Hauppauge remote but rathder a streamzap remote that has a USB receiver.

[abbott_m]

That would explain it. Way too many choices in various hardware lately jumping into SageTV and I was worried I'd missed the boat somewhere there.

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Actually, the lack of a remote means that the problem could be worse

Has anyone actually verified this compatability problem with a 350 and a 500mce?

Originally Posted by Opus4

The remote issue is for the 150, 250, 350, and 500. If all your cards have IR ports, you are OK since any one will do.

Does anyone know if there will be a non MCE version of the 500 with a remote?

Originally Posted by Opus4

.. unless you are trying to use the 150's IR blaster & thus have to use its port.

If I am not interested in using the 150’s IR blaster, do you think the 150 and 350 will work together if I just leave the sensor unplugged on the 150 and use the remote on the 350?

I was looking at the 150 at the store the other day. The box shows the same silver remote as the 350. With the words asterisked below it “Card and Remote subject to change” The Hauppauge website shows the 150 with the “New Style” remote. Does anybody know which remote comes in the retail box? I was thinking of getting the updated remote anyway, if I decide to try out the 150 and it comes with it then I could save the an extra $15.00 + shipping.

Dang it, I want another tuner yesterday, and I haven't been able to find a 250 locally. These issues make me hesitant to jump into the 150/500 without some usability reports from the field. The 500 is just so neat, and 3 tuners would be better than 2, (if they work) right?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

Has anyone actually verified this compatability problem with a 350 and a 500mce?

I don't know if there has been a discussion of it regarding the 500mce in this forum, but there certainly have been comments regarding the 150mce causing a conflict with the IR receiver. Plus, an engineer at Hauppauge confirmed the nature of the problem regarding the 150/250/350/500 since they all use the same driver.

If I am not interested in using the 150’s IR blaster, do you think the 150 and 350 will work together if I just leave the sensor unplugged on the 150 and use the remote on the 350?

If you don't care whether you can use the blaster, having 2 cards with the remote isn't a problem, since you can simply use the one that gets recognized by the IR driver. The problem comes from having the driver pick a card w/o the IR receiver or picking one w/o the blaster if you want to use the blaster. You _might_ be able to switch PCI slots or change the order of installing the drivers to get your preferred card recognized by the driver, but I'm not sure about that.

I was looking at the 150 at the store the other day. The box shows the same silver remote as the 350. With the words asterisked below it “Card and Remote subject to change” The Hauppauge website shows the 150 with the “New Style” remote. Does anybody know which remote comes in the retail box?

As far as I know, they are all shipping with the newer remote.

- Andy

[Methius]

Is the PVR-500MCE capable of recording 2 shows? (like having 2 PVR-250's?)
Or is it just able to record 1, while watching the other?

(which if I think about it answers my Q, does it not? While you watch you are recording that show, right?)


Do you have to buy a splitter or something extra to get it to work?
Thanks in advance,
M

[Opus4]

Yes, you answered your own question -- it has 2 tuners/encoders for 2 simultaneous recordings. It has an internal splitter, so when using a coax cable, you connect a single cable & it splits that input to its 2 tuners.

- Andy

[SiNiSon]

Has anyone tried this yet? This is what I would be interested in doing as well.. putting my 2 analog feeds on the 500 and my Digital box on the 350...

Originally Posted by Humanzee

Has anybody combined the 500mce with a 350 yet? I want to use my silver remote and tv out on the 350 to control sage and all three tuners. I have read that there are some issues with combining the 350 and 150 cards surrounding the remote, and the new drivers getting the hardware confused. The 500mce doesn't have a remote, so that might avoid some of the remote driver problems. Since the 500 is based on the 150 might there be other problems? Is anybody running this setup succesfully? I want another tuner but don't know what to get.

[davey_fl]

you guys that dropped your 250s in favour of the 500 - how are you finding the PQ in comparison to the 250s?

thx

davey

[Crashless]

Originally Posted by SiNiSon

Has anyone tried this yet? This is what I would be interested in doing as well.. putting my 2 analog feeds on the 500 and my Digital box on the 350...

I've seen posts on both sides. I don't know if things have been tested enough to get a list of what will work and won't work.

[broderp]

Originally Posted by davey_fl

you guys that dropped your 250s in favour of the 500 - how are you finding the PQ in comparison to the 250s?

thx

davey

Someone did a comparison between the 150 and the 250 and had a poll were people guessed at which was which. The 150 was a tad bid better, since the 500 is basically two 150's then one could sumize the PQ is the same or slightly better on the 500 as well.

Now keep in mind, if you use CC (Closed Captioning) then this will not work with the new cards......or so I have read.

[DrBloodmoney]

So I have one 250 now and I'd like to upgrade to a dual-tuner situation. I was going to drop another 250 in there. But I haven't been able to find one. Newegg is currently out.

So my question is:
1. Any idea if the 500 will be compatible with my current 250?

Thanks

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by DrBloodmoney

So my question is:
1. Any idea if the 500 will be compatible with my current 250?

I've only had my 2 - 250MCE's and 1 500MCE installed since Sunday but they appear to work well together. Hope this helps you decide.

MotherBoard is PentiumIII 1Ghz SOYO board (SY-7VBA133U), 1GB memory recording to a network drive on another computer with 1GHz network. Also server is only an encoding server I don't watch anything from the TV out on the graphics card (Radeon 9000 AGP 4x) but it is fast enough for SDTV and overlay mode. I run in service mode and 2.2.2Beta. Drivers from the 500MCE CD.