Poker PC/Sage TV

[callmedonnie]

So I'm looking to buy a new PC pretty soon. I have a general idea of the specs, but was wondering if anyone uses SageTV w/ their PC. It is pretty kickass, and though it is not something I plan to do within the near present, the option of using my PC as TV recording and viewing sounds great, especially w/ a poker monitor in my room.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone does this or what they think? Thanks.

[BBill]

I downloaded for evaluation purposes SageTV, BeyondTV, Media Portal and GBpvr,
Sage wouldnt run on my pc - my problem not theirs as I have an unsupportd video card - I think sage is 79.00

Beyond TV I got to run, it seems like a decent PVR its about 59.00

Media Portal is free but has a good rep - Again it would not run with my video card (which I am upgrading soon)

I'm going with GBpvr - its free, seems stable, its forgiving of the older hardware, extremely customizable.
If you like to tweak and hack and customize your PVR I'd say GBpvr.
If you want to just install a solid program I'd say sage or Beyond. You can get 20 day evaluations of both of those on their websites.


no subscriptions for any of these services.
And to think I almost got Tivo -

[callmedonnie]

I hear you. But what I'm wondering is can a computer support this kind of stuff, while also supporting all the poker programs and what not? How powerful of a machine does it have to be? Because if you are recording stuff, I have no idea what that will do to system resources, especially while you are trying to get some poker taken care of.

[BBill]

If you get a good video card these programs will utilize card to process these programs, TV viewing and all that so you can watch tv while playing poker.
a new machine with say a video card like
good TV video card #1 <<< (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814102527)

or even

good tv video card #2 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814102441)

and you should not have any problems running TV cards, poker or anything else except the most resource intensive computer video games.

Also I'd say you can "record" and play poker at the same time with at least a 2.0 ghz processor and 256 mb of ram.
If you are getting a new PC I'm sure the specs will be better than that.

[callmedonnie]

Thanks a lot. Like I said, poker is something it needs to do now. TV recording is just a thought of something I would like to do with it in the not-so-near not-so-distant future. A buddy of mine just bought a good card--he said it does more of the processing for you and conserves RAM. Plus, it came w/ a remote control.

Thanks again.

[BBill]

Sounds good - I'm not sure if I was clear about something my other post.
In order to keep the TV and recording process "off" of your PC processor you should get a good quality "Video Card" AND a good quality "TV Tuner Card"

The difference was not obvious to me until I read about it for a while.

As you might know the TV tuner card does not have a place to plug in a monitor, its not a video card.

So you have to get a good quality Video card to plug your monitor and display the TV or recording to you monitor.

Good cards of both types don't off-load any of what they do to your PC processor.

The "Tuner card" "must" have hardware encoding.
I got the "Sapphire Theatrix 550 PRO" with remote which is actually the "ATI TV Wonder Elite" with a Sapphire sticker on it and half the price.

TV Tuner card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815117601)
Also the
hauppaugage it a good quality card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116625)


The "Video card" should be directX 9 compatable and most of the specification listed in cards in the post before this one.

[callmedonnie]

Thanks again. I just want to be clear on this. The TV card will have an input for the cable to come through. Then you need a Video card to send whatever you record, or just live TV, to the monitor.

Quick question then. I don't have a TV, but if I did, is there an output in the TV card or a second output on the video card to send it to a TV too? Or does this depend solely on the card? Thanks again for all the help.

[BBill]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks again. I just want to be clear on this. The TV card will have an input for the cable to come through. Then you need a Video card to send whatever you record, or just live TV, to the monitor.

[/ QUOTE ]

yes it has an input for cable (cable TV) just like the input on a TV.

the "Video card" is just what you currently plug your monitor into it should be good quallity


[ QUOTE ]
Quick question then. I don't have a TV, but if I did, is there an output in the TV card or a second output on the video card to send it to a TV too? Or does this depend solely on the card? Thanks again for all the help.

[/ QUOTE ]

The "TV tuner card" will not usually have output to TV or anything else.

If you get a "Video card" you can get one that had output to a TV. (its usually called S-Video, or TV-out)

the "Video cards" I listed in my second post both have TV-Out capabilities. The work well if you just watch to on your monitor OR if you output it to a TV.