11 replies to this topic

[krismason]

Hi All,

Im building a HP Microserver as PVR just after a good PCIe Tuner.

I have a old DViCO tuner which I am happy with but isnt PCIe...

Thanks

Kris

[logifuse]

The DigitalNow Quad is great, but tends to need a strong signal.

The Microserver will be your front end? Using an add on video card? The onboard GPU won't be up to it. Great little unit - saw it for $279 at ShoppingExpress.com.au the other day.

Justin

[krismason]

Hey logifuse thanks for the reply

Yes I am using it as my front end sits nicely behind the TV, using a Radeon with HDMI out direct into tv running w7 with Media Centre...

Currently using my old media centre to do the recording and this one is picking up the recordings via network share.. - not ideal

The N40L is a great little box, squeezed in 5 x 1 TB HDD's and a slim 3.5 250GB for OS...

Will check out the digital now one.. I'm undecided between dual/quad worried about recording performance vs tuners..

[logifuse]

how did you fit 6 hard drives in it??

[DenDen]

Hi All,

Im building a HP Microserver as PVR just after a good PCIe Tuner.

I have a old DViCO tuner which I am happy with but isnt PCIe...

Thanks

Kris

I'm using a DN Quad in my N40L (w/ 5450 GPU).

Love having 4 tuners, but I tend to record so much that I'm considering trying 4TB Coolspins!!

Tuner is sensitive to signal strength & I've found the coax antenna conector is flimsy & can cause connection issues (have used elastic bands & cable ties as a temp fix). Been looking around for small hardware fix, but no luck yet. Any clamp needs to be small so will check out Jaycar in a few days.

Cheers

BTW logifuse > 4 drives in carriers, 5th using ODD connections & 6th e-SATA to SATA cable in through back, otherwise need card connections & would loose either GPU or tuner. OCAU has a monster thread (444 pages!) > http://forums.overcl...ad.php?t=958208

[logifuse]

Sounds good.

In regards to your flimsy connection, basically you need the female connector on the card to clamp down on the male connector on the cable harder? A hose clamp might be a good solution:



Justin

[Scott_A]

I'm using both a DN dual hybrid (about 4 years old) and a hauppauge dual in the main MCE box and a single hauppauge dual in the other one.
Both work well and I've had no problems using the hauppauge cards in small rigs running dual core atom (ION platform).

I agree that the antenna sockets on the DN are flimsy. I tried the hose clamp method (had to use a different style of clamp than the ones suggested by Justin as they were a little too wide). In the end, the centre pin snapped.
I ended up replacing the socket completely with a solder in, through hole socket from jaycar. Getting the old one out was much harder than getting the new one in. The relatively large mass meant that getting enough heat to the legs to desolder them also meant damage to the board. In the end, it was Dremel to the rescue. Removing the bulk of the old socket meant that each pin could be removed more easily and with less heat.

http://www.jaycar.co...w.asp?ID=PS0730

Scott

[MCVista]

Hi All,

Im building a HP Microserver as PVR just after a good PCIe Tuner.

I have a old DViCO tuner which I am happy with but isnt PCIe...

Thanks

Kris

Any of the Digital Now cards are good
http://www.digitalno.../dvbtcards.html

[Kazdalk]

I feel like a broken record here , but a network dual tv tuner solves the space issue.

Sidetopic re microserver build - I have 5 x 1.5TB in software RAID 5 and 1 x 1tb boot disk in my MicroServer. I fitted the boot drive and one of the 1.5's in the top with one of these http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=11025 and some silicon grommits on the bottom metal of the ODD slot to avoid one of the drives from shorting. I used a grill in front of the ODD drive slot for cooling. The boot drive is running off a Highport Rocket 620a http://www.highpoint...series_r600.htm dual port PCIe sata card and the top 1.5TB is running off the internal ODD SATA port after installing an alternate bios http://www.avforums....os-support.html to get it in AHCI mode. Works great and I still have a free PCIe x 16 port. I am not using if for PVR duties though, it is more of a souped up NAS with WHS2011 and Crashplan on it. But with a network tuner I could record if I wanted to without cramming more stuff in the box. FYI - The software RAID5 is surpisingly fast and if the mainboard packs it in I can access the data from a windows 7 box that has enough ports, where as if a hardware raid card craps itself you have to go buy another (usually at least of the same make) to get at your data. I actually migrated away from a hardware raid 5 card when I moved to this. Anyone want to buy a used Intel SRCSATAWB RAID card?

[logifuse]

What RAM are you guys using in the M40L? I'm thinking of moving my TV server in to one (from my combo FE/BE/media server), but I use a RAM drive for the live TV buffer, so I'd need 6-8GB of RAM.

I wish we'd gone to F connectors instead of keeping Belling-Lee (PAL) connectors when we went to digital TV. Would have eliminated a lot of the loose lead issues people have.

Justin

[Kazdalk]

What RAM are you guys using in the M40L? I'm thinking of moving my TV server in to one (from my combo FE/BE/media server), but I use a RAM drive for the live TV buffer, so I'd need 6-8GB of RAM.

I wish we'd gone to F connectors instead of keeping Belling-Lee (PAL) connectors when we went to digital TV. Would have eliminated a lot of the loose lead issues people have.

Justin

it has two RAM slots and will take either ECC or non ECC. Max ram is 8GB. I have some cheapish gskill ram in it, mind you all ram seems cheap at the moment. Cheers

[krismason]

I only have 4GB of ram works without problems.
I ended up finding on deals direct a dual express 2 dvico tuner PCIe for about $80 delivered with remote.. sensor is built onto PCIe card so I can turn the computer on/off with my harmony remote.. pretty handy...