Just some general questions about MCE...

[Don_Karnia]

Hokkai, so, in a few weeks time I should have the following "rig":

-DFI Infinity nF4 Ultra: nForce4-Ultra ATX Motherboard
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU + Fan - S939, 2.2GHz, 2x512kb, 800MHz - Dual Core
-GeIL 2Gb 400MHz CAS 2.5-4-4-8 DDR Memory Kit (2 x 1Gb 400MHz DDR RAM)
-300Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 7200rpm Hard Drive - S/ATA-II, 16Mb - 5Y
-LG GSA-4167B 8/6/6/4/5 DVD+RW/-RW/+DL9/-DL/RAM Internal IDE - Drive + Software - Black
-Gainward GeForce 7800GTX Golden Sample 256Mb/1.6ns 16xPCI-E Video Card + 2xDVI/VIVO
-AVerMedia DVB-T MCE Digital TV Tuner PCI Card - MCE Edition, OEM
-CoolerMaster Centurion 532 Tower Case w/ 430w PSU, Window - Silver/Black
-Logitech Media Keyboard Elite - PS/2/USB - Black
-Logitech R-10 Twin Speaker System - 2x4w - Black
-Creative WebCam Instant - USB
-Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005 OEM

Q1) Any opinions about those specific parts?

2) Hokkai, so, one of the main reasons I wanted to get MCE was for the scheduling of tv shows and entire series-es... but it seems that NAY! Australians do not get an EPG, so we do not have access to such mindblowing capabilities. I've been reading about BladeRunnerPro and such, and I'm wondering what exactly this does. There are a lot of threads saying how to set it up, but I'm not about to go delving into each one seeing if I can find any specific information on what it does.
What I mean by this is... does it work pretty much like the official EPG for the US? Lists the channels, shows, and times; you can easily set a show or series to record automatically; you can put in keywords and it'll record shows with those keywords... can BladeRunnerPro (or other such programs - what's the best one for someone without all the techno-ness?) do these things? Will it, after the initial setup, act pretty much like the official US EPG? What's the best way to set whatever program I go with to automatically download new guide info?

3) What I want to do, is have a show recorded via MCE onto my computer, then burn it onto a DVD and watch it on my cruddy $50 DVD Player hooked up to my widescreen TV.
Can MCE do this without any additional downloads or plugins or whatever? Just burn shows to DVDs to watch on other machines?

4) Speaking of widescreen... my computer monitor is 4:3 but my TV is 16:9. Can I record shows in 16:9 on my 4:3 monitor (letterbox or whatever), and then watch fullscreen 16:9 on my TV (after burning the shows to a DVD)? Note that the Tuner Card is digital, so widescreen's possible, but I just don't know how it'll work on my non-widescreen monitor.
Is there a way to choose the aspect ratio you record with?

5) What resolution does MCE record with? If I'm going to be burning the shows to a DVD and watching it on my 32" TV (compared to my 21" monitor), I'd need a decent res wouldn't I...

6) Is it easy to tune MCE to the right channels?

I live in Canberra by the way, if that helps...
I'm sure all these questions have been answered before, but I'd never be able to find some of the details I'm looking for by just going through other threads. So, if somebody feels like repeating stuff yet again, please do.
Thanks

[bb193]

regarding 3, you will need sonicencoders.msi to burn a video DVD from within MCE. You could use nero visionexpress or other app, outside MCE.

If you want to top and tail and remove ads, you could use DCUT.

[Kettlehead]

With regard to the EPG. Using BRPro and the OzTivo guide you get a complete working guide in the same mould as that from the US.

http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/view/TVGuide/MCE

What BRP does is 'trick' MCE into thinking it has a natvie EPG, whilst the data is supplied from the very helpful people at the OzTivo community guide web site.

And it works like a dream...never misses a beat. Thanks Monster

[Matt]

Welcome to the site!

The other guys have given you some good advice.

However you're concept of recording TV shows and burning to DVD to then watch on a DVD player connected to a widescreen TV... well it's going to drive you crazy as the burns will take ages (1 hour + for an hour or so of video). You're going to go through heaps of DVD's. You'll be forever burning stuff. The burning process in MCE can be flaky...

Why not hook the MCE box directly to the widescreen TV or better yet, get yourself an Xbox360, plug this into the widescreen TV and use the MCE extender functionality so you can watch, record, timeshift etc.. etc..

One of the greatest features of MCE is LiveTV, recordedTV and the guide and having it all available from the remote while kicking back on a recliner in the lounge. I truely believe If you do what you're planning you will be disappointed.

Cheers,

Matt.

[bb193]

Brutal, but true. I have already tempered my ambitions to just burning library stuff like films I'd want to watch over and over - MCE is good at stripping out the rubbish. I guess I'll probably end up buying a similar facility on a DVD recorder.

I'm not a gamer, and don't really want to start my kids down that route, so the Xbox is out - I just wish there was a low cost extender for £20-50.

[Matt]

I'd love the low cost extender... really would.. but because there isn't one available, I'll be getting a 360 just so I've got the extender.. Probably a waste as the games do look rather cool

[Don_Karnia]

Ah, thanks for the advice.

About hooking the PC up to my TV... I prefer playing PC games and using applications at a desk with the monitor about a foot or so in front of me - I'm not really sure it would work well in my lounge room for anything other than the MCE aspect.
I suppose I don't need to burn the shows to DVDs, I'm fine with watching them at my computer. But still... resolution? Aspect ratios?
When I record a show to my hard drive, can I play it back using Windows Media Player, without converting the files? Which is better, the MCE video-player, or WMP?

[bb193]

Doesn't MCE actually use MP to play audio and video, but without all the menu and stuff?

[Don_Karnia]

Ah, perhaps it does.

[Don_Karnia]

Another question:

If I have my computer in Sleep mode at the same time I have it scheduled to record a show, will it wake up, record the show, and then go back to sleep?

EDIT: Oops, sorry about the double post... is there a "delete post" button?

[Don_Karnia]

I've decided to go with either the 7800gtx 512mb, or the 1900xt 512mb, and I'm leaning towards the 1900xt because of its better performance in games. But I'm just wondering if it'd make a difference with MCE? I've read about the nVidia PureVideo decoder... is it necessary, and is there an ATI equivalent?
I would not have HDTV, I would be watching the shows on my 21" monitor, I would not often watch DVDs on my PC... would PureVideo help at all in this situation?

Thanks.