CompuServe Messages

Mike… I just got my PVR on Monday, and noticed that the drivers are 3.1 and not NT which really surprised me since the FAQ generally speaks to NT as the best route to go. I spoke to Eric up at DPS Canada and he said the current NT drivers are not yet finalized, but do work… and that they are on their BBS. He noted that we should not try the net for the drivers as many who have done so noted that the download time is horrendously long. Seems theres some sort of problem. Eric also noted that DPS will eventually pack in an "install" or setup disk that will help users install the card, prompting for disk 1 or disk 2, etc. and they hope to get that done very soon. He noted that the 3.1 drivers are very good, have been released since June. On the question of the incompatibility with the Matrox Millennium, he does not know what the "incompatibility" is, only that some time ago there were a few calls noting problems with these two cards (PVR/Matrox). Luckily for me, my PC builder is familiar with the Matrox card and is currently using it in his own system, so I brought the PVR and AD2500 down to him yesterday and he intends to temporaily install it on his system… which is similar to the one he will put together for me. Mark and I thought if he had a few days to check it out, maybe he could discover what the problem is, or if it still exists. No-one seems to know if the problem was related to a specific motherboard, video drivers, operating system or what. As a back-up, Mark has a Diamond card handy. He will also try out a IBM UltraSTAR 4 Gb SCSI drive which supposedly has specs that should meet A/V & PVR requirements. I can tell everyone right now that the PVR/AD2500 combo fits nicely on the SuperMICRO P55CMS mobo, but it does obstruct one PCI slot of the four available. The DPS cards go in the far left slot… looking from the rear. That gives you two 3/4 length PCI slots for the video card and maybe a network card… and then you have 4 16-BIT ISA slots to deal with other peripherals like sound card, modem, etc.. Note that DPS will release a full-length PCI sound card to compliment the PVR this winter. The projected cost is about $2000 but beyond that, they are not saying much. Maybe there's some rationale to using the BBS as a open forum to discuss both success/problems with other PVR users? \\\. ========================= >-==<MIKE(>=– >-==*- /