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How is it that I keep missing these polls?  They must be posted somewhere on the site that I don’t frequent because I’m here in the forums several times a day.

I’ve used both TMT and PDVD and can’t really say I have a preference.  I just want a program that allows me to play back Blu-Ray rips with HD audio, and both programs do that equally well.  I’m currently using PDVD 10 and it integrates seamlessly into Win 7 MC.  I understand that TMT3 does this as well.  I previously used the version of TMT that came with my Asus HDAV 1.3 sound card but I hear that TMT3 has more features and a new user interface.  It was a nice program but I can’t say it was any better than PDVD for my intended purposes.

PDVD 10 allows me to gain access to all of the controls and settings that suit my needs and I can operate the program like a standalone DVD player with my MC remote.  As long as the program does what I need I don’t really care which one it is.  During playback, the program should be invisible to the viewer so realistically you should never be able to tell which one is being used.

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The one thing that jumped out at me was that he “added” the Ceton card to an existing configuration.  When I installed my Ceton card it was on a fresh install of Win 7.  I had both USB ATSC tuners (four HP models) and a HDHomeRun.  I opted not to use the HDHR in my setup and things went smoothly.  I did run into a few issues but it turned out to be bad drivers or some other such thing that I eventually worked out.  I’m sure I have way too much crap installed on my HTPC but so far things are running relatively well.

I had to laugh about the wife comment because I went through the same thing with my wife in an attempt to replace her cable box with a media extender.  Needless to say I gave up and hooked the STB back up to her TV and she’s been (relatively) happy ever since.  I still hear occasional gripes when the TV in the family room has issues (these are usually resolved by resetting the extender or switching inputs on the TV).

If anyone can be called a tuner whore it has to be me.  Besides the four Ceton tuners I also have four ATSC tuners connected to my HTPC.  However, when you consider that the tuners are shared between the HTPC and three extenders it really isn’t all that many.

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The one thing that jumped out at me was that he “added” the Ceton card to an existing configuration.  When I installed my Ceton card it was on a fresh install of Win 7.  I had both USB ATSC tuners (four HP models) and a HDHomeRun.  I opted not to use the HDHR in my setup and things went smoothly.  I did run into a few issues but it turned out to be bad drivers or some other such thing that I eventually worked out.  I’m sure I have way too much crap installed on my HTPC but so far things are running relatively well.

I had to laugh about the wife comment because I went through the same thing with my wife in an attempt to replace her cable box with a media extender.  Needless to say I gave up and hooked the STB back up to her TV and she’s been (relatively) happy ever since.  I still hear occasional gripes when the TV in the family room has issues (these are usually resolved by resetting the extender or switching inputs on the TV).

If anyone can be called a tuner whore it has to be me.  Besides the four Ceton tuners I also have four ATSC tuners connected to my HTPC.  However, when you consider that the tuners are shared between the HTPC and three extenders it really isn’t all that many.

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[quote=”ruwackd”]
[quote=”xjboonie”]
If I wanted a new motheboard that has more PCIe slots, can I use my AMD A64 x2 4850e AM2 CPU in a newer AM3 motherboard?
[/quote]
Unfortunately no.  The backward compatability AMD provides allows AM3 CPUs to be used in AM2 motherboards, not AM2 CPUs in AM3 motherboards.
[/quote]
The bottom line is that there are motherboards out there that will accommodate both AM2 and AM3 CPUs.  I have an MSI K9A2 Platinum mobo that originally could use only AM2 or AM2+ CPUs.  A BIOS update allowed it to work with AM3 CPUs as well.  You’ll just have to look at the CPU compatibility chart for a given motherboard to see if your CPU will work with it.  AMD CPUs are dirt cheap these days so rather than drive yourself nuts looking for a motherboard that’s most likely out of production, you can buy a newer board and CPU for an extra $50, give or take.

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[quote=”ruwackd”]
[quote=”xjboonie”]
If I wanted a new motheboard that has more PCIe slots, can I use my AMD A64 x2 4850e AM2 CPU in a newer AM3 motherboard?
[/quote]
Unfortunately no.  The backward compatability AMD provides allows AM3 CPUs to be used in AM2 motherboards, not AM2 CPUs in AM3 motherboards.
[/quote]
The bottom line is that there are motherboards out there that will accommodate both AM2 and AM3 CPUs.  I have an MSI K9A2 Platinum mobo that originally could use only AM2 or AM2+ CPUs.  A BIOS update allowed it to work with AM3 CPUs as well.  You’ll just have to look at the CPU compatibility chart for a given motherboard to see if your CPU will work with it.  AMD CPUs are dirt cheap these days so rather than drive yourself nuts looking for a motherboard that’s most likely out of production, you can buy a newer board and CPU for an extra $50, give or take.

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I’d start by checking the minimum and recommended requirements for a system using the Ceton card as posted on the Ceton website.  I believe the recommended RAM for extenders is about 500MB per extender.  2-3GB should be sufficient.  The PSU depends on what else you’ll be stuffing into the case.  Here’s a comprehensive list of recommended components for building an HD HTPC:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940972

Follow the most current link for the latest updated list of components as many of the older ones are no longer available.

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I’d start by checking the minimum and recommended requirements for a system using the Ceton card as posted on the Ceton website.  I believe the recommended RAM for extenders is about 500MB per extender.  2-3GB should be sufficient.  The PSU depends on what else you’ll be stuffing into the case.  Here’s a comprehensive list of recommended components for building an HD HTPC:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940972

Follow the most current link for the latest updated list of components as many of the older ones are no longer available.

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That’s interesting because I just recorded Ken Burns’ Baseball – The Tenth Inning on PBS just a week or so ago.  I also noticed that even though Splice is being released on Oct 5th it won’t be available on NetFlix until 11/02/10.

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That’s interesting because I just recorded Ken Burns’ Baseball – The Tenth Inning on PBS just a week or so ago.  I also noticed that even though Splice is being released on Oct 5th it won’t be available on NetFlix until 11/02/10.

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Are you sure it’s not your HDHR that’s heading south?  Try connecting it directly to the Ethernet port on your HTPC and see if that fixes the problem (I assume this is possible but never having done it I can’t say with absolute certainty).  If it does fix it then your network hs problems.  If the problem persists it’s probably either your HDHR or the antenna feed.

FWIW, onboard Realtek NICs have been known to cause network issues with WMC when using extenders.  I had one on my mobo and it caused all sorts of problems with my extenders.  Installing an Intel gigabit NIC in my HTPC fixed most of the issues, although a few still remain.  My next step is to replace all of my homebrew cat6 cables with retail cables.  I’ve been told that homemade cables can cause all sorts of problems if they’re not constructed carefully.

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Are you sure it’s not your HDHR that’s heading south?  Try connecting it directly to the Ethernet port on your HTPC and see if that fixes the problem (I assume this is possible but never having done it I can’t say with absolute certainty).  If it does fix it then your network hs problems.  If the problem persists it’s probably either your HDHR or the antenna feed.

FWIW, onboard Realtek NICs have been known to cause network issues with WMC when using extenders.  I had one on my mobo and it caused all sorts of problems with my extenders.  Installing an Intel gigabit NIC in my HTPC fixed most of the issues, although a few still remain.  My next step is to replace all of my homebrew cat6 cables with retail cables.  I’ve been told that homemade cables can cause all sorts of problems if they’re not constructed carefully.

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[quote=”shadymg”]
the irony about fringe, is that i was never a fan of X-Files…and yet i’m totally into Fringe. Go figure huh 🙂
[/quote]
Fringe and X-Files have two completely different storylines.  X-Files was primarily about aliens and government conspiracies while Fringe deals with unusual phenomena and alternate universes.

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[quote=”shadymg”]
the irony about fringe, is that i was never a fan of X-Files…and yet i’m totally into Fringe. Go figure huh 🙂
[/quote]
Fringe and X-Files have two completely different storylines.  X-Files was primarily about aliens and government conspiracies while Fringe deals with unusual phenomena and alternate universes.

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I missed it as well.  I used to use BeyondTV and have never tried SageTV.  I’d probably still be using BTV and a couple of Tivos if I hadn’t gotten a Ceton card.  I only started using Win 7 MC a couple of months ago and I’m glad I made the switch.  It’s still a bit buggy when it comes to recording TV, but it could just be the learning curve on my part.  Overall I’m quite pleased with it.

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I missed it as well.  I used to use BeyondTV and have never tried SageTV.  I’d probably still be using BTV and a couple of Tivos if I hadn’t gotten a Ceton card.  I only started using Win 7 MC a couple of months ago and I’m glad I made the switch.  It’s still a bit buggy when it comes to recording TV, but it could just be the learning curve on my part.  Overall I’m quite pleased with it.

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