[mythtv-users] PVR-500 still kicking!

[Karl Newman]

On Sun, Sep 8, 2013 at 6:05 AM, John Drescher <drescherjm at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Sep 8, 2013 at 1:39 AM, Karl Newman <siliconfiend at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Consider this a cautionary tale. I'm using a Hauppauge PVR-500 (dual
>> tuner, analog, PCI). It's original from my first myth box (~7 years ago).
>> About 3-4 months ago we suddenly lost the second tuner, connected to a
>> Comcast PACE 50X DTA--everything was recording as static. I assumed that
>> given the age of the tuner card, I had bad capacitors which killed the
>> second tuner. I haven't had time to open up the system to take a close look
>> at the card, but fortunately with it being summer, we haven't had many
>> conflicts now that I was down to one tuner. Well, tonight I finally got
>> some time to look into it, and one of the first things I noticed once I
>> started poking around was that the green power LED on the DTA was not lit.
>> I did some swapping with the DTA from the bedroom and finally discovered
>> the power supply on the DTA had gone bad (doh!). So, I'm back to 2 tuners
>> again, just in time for the fall TV season. Woo!
>>
>> Now to see if Comcast still has any power supplies for that DTA any
>> more...
>>
>>
>>
> I am still using a PVR500 that is also a good 7 years old - I have not had
> to replace the capacitors yet. Like you I am recording from a Comcast DTA
> with the PVR500. Although a month or two ago I finally got a cable card for
> my HDHR Prime (that I had for a year and was using for unencrypted only) so
> with that the PVR500 is only recording for the wife in a redundant role
> (the HDHR prime records the same show at the same time).
>
> John
>

That show must be very important to your wife...! I have been eyeing the
Prime for a while (and even more closely since I thought the card was
dying), but I've been holding off for a few reasons. One, I don't want to
pay Comcast's HD tax when I don't even own an HDTV (yes, really). Two, I'd
still need the analog capture to record off HBO from the cable box. And
three, I don't have the hard drive space for the HD streams that the Prime
puts out. Although that last point is about to be alleviated since I have
new 3 TB hard drives on the way. Also I know the new 4-tuner Prime with
on-board h.264 encoding should be released any time now, so that may be the
one I want to get anyway (or at the least, the original HDHR-3CC should be
cheaper!).

Karl
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