Dual tuner recording = split files in Windows Media Center Vista

[yoda313]

Ok I have been setup with Windows Media Center Vista Premium and two tuners for a week now. I have a pci fusion 3 hdtv card and a pinnacle hdtv stick (usb model) for dual tuner recording.

I have a couple of instances where an hour show was split into two unequal half hour segments. I'm assuming this was a case where two shows were scheduled to run simultaneoulsy but it jumped from one tuner to another to record.

Is there an option in media center to tell it to record an hour show on one tuner and a half hour show on a seperate tuner? It seems ridiculous that it wouldn't be smart enough to do this automatically.

Is there a setting I'm missing? I've only done one tuner recording previously on the pc. This is my first testing with two tuners.

I guess another question is could it be jumping to another harddrive to record the second show? I have a firewire external drive setup for my recording drive. I believe all the shows are being recorded to the drive as it already has nearly a 100gbs on it. Does Media Center buffer a show on an internal drive and then silently transfer it to the external?

Can Media Center record two shows simultaneously to the same harddrive? I am not aware of an option to tell it to record one tuner to one drive and the other tuner to another drive.

Am I better off using one tuner with media center and then the other tuner with its own dedicated software? I could do that but I'd prefer to use Media Center for simplicity.

[rallynavvie]

I run 5 tuners and have never had issues with them recording to the same internal SATA drive. I can even playback from them while recording from all 5 sources. And I don't even need RAID like all those leet-kiddies say is required

I also have never had them switch between tuners during recording. The only reason I can think of why this would happen would be the source fails on one card then Media Center is smart enough to switch the recording to a different card that is getting a signal or it will fail the recording and re-record it in its entirety at a later showing.

[yoda313]

@rallynavvie - hmm... that is ineteresting that you haven't had a similar issue with 5 tuners. Are they all internal? Are they external usb? Is it a mix?

Right now I am pretty sure it is set up to only record to the firewire drive. I'll have to do some more testing.

In the end it won't be that big of a loss if I need to spllit it up and record one with media center and the other with its dedicated software. I'll see what happens.

By the way, what version of media center are you using rallynavvie? I am using the 32bit Vista Home Premium.

[rallynavvie]

All my tuners are PCI devices. I have a new HVR-1800, an HVR-1600, and a PVR-250. Two are HD tuners while the rest are analog. I'm using Vista Ultimate 64 on this machine.

[StBil]

Hi rallynavvie ,

Can you have PIP or multiply channels from the different tuners at the same time? If yes how do you do that?

Thanks.

[rallynavvie]

Windows Media Center does not allow for multi-up playback. I have heard it was a feature that may be added in a later Service Pack.

[StBil]

Thanks rallynavvie,

Besides WMC is there any solution for viewing multiply channels at the same time? Or at least PIP?

Thanks

[yoda313]

You can try media portal and see if it offers pip. There are also payware htpc applications. I believe cyberlink (aka makers of powerdvd) offeres a htpc application. I don't know what it offers though.

[rallynavvie]

Wasn't a recent build of MythTV supporting this as well?

[StBil]

Thanks guys, MithTV obviously is not intended for ordinary people. On there site there is no exe file or instructions how to install it. No body is going to spend two days reading all sorts of not necessary text (I call it noise) to figure out how to install the program. Also it looks to me Linux oriented. Media Portal doesn't have PIP. I use to had ATI tuner and it had this 9 windows preview screen. Do you know if they still support this design or if anyone else has similar thing?

Thanks.