GBPVR: First Thoughts

Despite having developed for the GB-PVR platform, I don't actually have a HTPC running yet. Well, I don't have a complete one running with a remote control, etc.

I currently have a P3-800 box with 256MB and about 60GB of combined HDD space. It has a SB-16 sound card, and a WinTV PVR-150MCE capture card. Right now, there's a SIS AGP video card in there.

It took a little bit of trial and error to get GB-PVR to work on this interim setup. One lesson learned, and I'm not sure if it was made clear in the documentation or not (probably was, but I tend to skip over important details), is that you need a MPEG-2 decoding software (aka, a software DVD player that integrates with Media Player, etc) like WinDVD, etc. Or at least, GB-PVR started playing for me after I installed one.

In the current set up, I still have intermittent problems with live tv and watching video in GB-PVR, but scheduled recordings fire off without a hitch. I'm proud to report that I was able to record Ghost Hunters on SciFi last night during the busy Wednesday Night 9PM timeslot and play it back later (through Media Player, but it was still a great picture).

I'm sure my issues are related to the fact that Sub just put in support for the WinTV 150MCE, and probably issues related to the video card (it's not supported by Media Center, so it's going to get upgraded sometime). I won't rule out my software configuration either.