Hi, I'm looking to build a PVR with 2x tuners, but before I buy the hardware I'd like to be positive that what I get will work when I go to set it up. Most of my questions are about how the audio setup would work with both tuners. I've never bought a MOBO with onboard sound before so please bear with me.

The MOBO: I'm looking at is a Biostar M7VIG-400 with 6-ch AC97
CPU: Looking at AMD Sempron 2600+
Capture Cards: I'm looking at 2x EURO TTOM878A
TV-Out: GeForce4 440 w/TV-out

[1] If I get 2x tuners I know that full-duplex allows for capture on one tuner and simultaneous playback on the other, but does it allow for dual capture, or would I have to get an additional soundcard?

[2] If I have to get an additional soundcard, say a SB Live 5.1 with SP/DIF I can still use the onboard audio to capture from one of the tuners correct? I'll also be able to record two shows simultaneously right? (my tv has 2 tuners so I'll still be able to watch other shows while box is recording)

[3] Assuming I get a SB Live and I run the SP/DIF to my home theater, will I be able to use that output for playback both tuners, or just the one plugged into it?

[4] Will the GeForce4 card also pipe out the audio to my TV, or will I have to run the audio to my home theater?

[5] General question about Wintv PVR-250 - does it encode both the video and audio into the .mpg stream on the card, or does it still need to use an audio card for capture?

[6] One last Q: If I am watching a show on one tuner and mythtv starts to record another show, is it smart enough to use a different tuner? I've seen posts where this was a problem in the past and I was wondering if this has been fixed.

Thanx in advance,
-Linux junkie, hardware flunkie...

Most important answer yes the pvr250/350 encodes audio into the mpeg2 file and does not require an additional sound card. so save yourself much hassle and get pvr250's

Other option is to use cards that support btaudio, or use multiple sound cards. either way is much more hassle.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

1. The tuner isn't used for playback, so you can:
A) Watch live and record a program.
B) Record 2 show at the same time while watching a recorded show (assuming the Sempron is powerful enough).

2. Right.

3. You should be able to...

4. No. The Geforce is a video card, not an audio card.

5. Both.

6. Still not as smart as I'd like it to be in this area. You can set it up, but I have not done so with 0.16.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

I missed 6. there is a setting in 0.16 where it tries to use the least likely tuner for livetv that way it only gets interupted when it is out of tuners. Not the best implimentation, but better than before, only problem it is not working for me. Every time I turn this option on it crashes my box. I haven't really had time to dig into why, or even search to see if others are having the same issue.

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Xsecrets

so perhaps I could mix and match. I've been trying to throw together a capable system for as cheap as possible and atm I have it configured at about $425. I could throw in a PVR-250 for $125, upgrade the MOBO to one that has sp/dif for $10 and use a cheap TTOM878A card for livetv and occasional second capture, right?

I know it would be easier with 2 PVR-250's, but $250 is too steep for me unless any of you know of any great deals..

that should work, I have a pvr250, and a leadtek 2000 (software based card) in my system, and it works well, however like I said I haven't been able to get livetv to use the leadtek card, and when I try it hoses everything up. I have no idea if this is because of the difference in cards or not.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

The only question is do you know for certain that the tuner you're looking at is supported under Linux?

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

the TTOM878A card contains a Conexant 878A chipset and I downloaded the windows drivers and confirmed that it uses the bt878 drivers and the tuner driver is called tttuner, so I suspect it should work, one way to find out is to buy it ($27) and see. It comes with a remote but no support for btaudio