WinTV-PVR-350 and MCE2005

[Netcraazzy]

I have a PVR350 that I'm using in a dedicated MythTV box that a friend of mine help me setup. It works great but I'm no Linux guru and it's a pain to fix/change anything with it. With the new media center extender functions coming with the xbox360 I'm considering switching over to MCE2005 but Hauppauge?s website seems to contradict itself regarding MCE support for the PVR350. Has anybody used this card with MCE and if so what was the experience like?

 

[jevans64]

I don't have MCE2005 but it works fine with WinXP sp2. Be aware that the PVR350 has trouble with HyperThreading so it will have to be disabled in the BIOS in order to avoid WinTV lockups / missed recordings.

 

[Netcraazzy]

The hyperthreading issue I got covered since it's running on an Athlon XP . My main concern is driver support. Hauppage's website says that the 250/350 are supported by MCE but then the link takes you to a page that only lists the 250 as being supported. I know that the 350 does hardware mpeg decode through it's TV out jack and I'm concerned that this may cause issues since MCE has it's own microsoft software decoder that you have to use.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Netcraazzy
The hyperthreading issue I got covered since it's running on an Athlon XP . My main concern is driver support. Hauppage's website says that the 250/350 are supported by MCE but then the link takes you to a page that only lists the 250 as being supported. I know that the 350 does hardware mpeg decode through it's TV out jack and I'm concerned that this may cause issues since MCE has it's own microsoft software decoder that you have to use.

I'm pretty certain the 350 is supported in MCE. I doubt you'd want to use the PVR 350's output anyway since it only supports MPEG1/2 and MCE itself requires a fairly sturdy rig with DX9 level hardware for a graphics card...the hardware decoder is simply unecissary.

Go to "thegreenbutton" and check the forums.

 

[kylebisme]

MCE doesn't come with it's own software decoder, it requires that you provide one yourself.

 

[Netcraazzy]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
MCE doesn't come with it's own software decoder, it requires that you provide one yourself.

My understanding was that you had to provide a software decoder for DVD playback but the MPEG decoder was specially written by microsoft for MCE and had to be used.

 

[kylebisme]

The only MPEG decoder that MCE comes with is the "sonic MPEG video decoder" but that isn't MCE comptable or MP10 compatable at all according to MS's own Video Decoder Checkup Utlity. so I'm not even sure why it is there. Regardless, I just reinstalled MCE the other day and I can assure you that neither DVDs or live TV worked until I installed the Cyberlink DVD decoder. I have also used nVidia's PureVideo and InterVideo's decoders with live TV and the decoder checkup utility alows easy switching between any compatble decoder you care to use for DVDs and live TV.

 

[Netcraazzy]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: Netcraazzy
The hyperthreading issue I got covered since it's running on an Athlon XP . My main concern is driver support. Hauppage's website says that the 250/350 are supported by MCE but then the link takes you to a page that only lists the 250 as being supported. I know that the 350 does hardware mpeg decode through it's TV out jack and I'm concerned that this may cause issues since MCE has it's own microsoft software decoder that you have to use.

I'm pretty certain the 350 is supported in MCE. I doubt you'd want to use the PVR 350's output anyway since it only supports MPEG1/2 and MCE itself requires a fairly sturdy rig with DX9 level hardware for a graphics card...the hardware decoder is simply unecissary.

Go to "thegreenbutton" and check the forums.

Yeah the video output on the 350 is fairly limited in what you can use it for. Even DVD playback is too choppy in MythTV. I really have no intention of using the video output on the 350 since the computer its in is essentially going to be a backend for several media extenders, I just don't want buy another decoder card after I've sunk $180 in to that 350.

 

[Netcraazzy]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
The only MPEG decoder that MCE comes with is the "sonic MPEG video decoder" but that isn't MCE comptable or MP10 compatable at all according to MS's own Video Decoder Checkup Utlity. so I'm not even sure why it is there. Regardless, I just reinstalled MCE the other day and I can assure you that neither DVDs or live TV worked until I installed the Cyberlink DVD decoder. I have also used nVidia's PureVideo and InterVideo's decoders with live TV and the decoder checkup utility alows easy switching between any compatble decoder you care to use for DVDs and live TV.

Wow that's pretty surprising. I've got about a million copies of that cyberlink DVD software lying around, they give that thing away with just about everything it seems. I guess I'll just use one of those.