[mythtv-users] Hauppauge PVR 500 failing?

[Anthony R. Baker]

    I've been using a pvr 500 now for about 2 years and I think it is 
starting to die. This would be a good thing if it was in about 10 days as my 
wife suggested I spend a considerable amount of our tax refund on the Myth 
setup;) Its recordings are much quieter lately but the level changes to a 
wildly high volume distorted barely audible mess which ruins the recordings. 
If I reboot the card works for a while but the prior recordings are still 
toast.This is not the audio instability problem from the Mythtv wiki I have 
"fixed" that already. Nothing unusual in the logs and I haven't found 
anybody else with this so I'm assuming it's hardware death unless someone 
has a better idea. I run SD only Directv setup.Without starting an HD/SD or 
hardware war I would like to improve my picture quality without going HD. If 
you have seen the output of a pvr 500 you'll know it can be done. Since HD 
is where I'll end up at some point I thought a new Hauppauge HD PVR  (or 2) 
would be logical. Can I run an HD directv box on an old SD dish and use the 
component outputs? Has anyone tried the svideo inputs? How was the 
picture?Does anyone have a better idea? I am a BSD admin. and my wife and 
kids tell me I love recompiling, patching and debugging the software to make 
it work but I dislike unstable software if that's an issue. Any advice is 
appreciated I have to keep the WAF happy till I can afford to bring 
everything to HD.