Posted: 6/3/2005 1:37:17 PM EDT
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Can it be done relatively easily? Where's the best company to go to in order to get an external USB hub for turning one's computer into a DVR. Will one product work for both DISH satellite and Cable? I have satellite in the summer and Cable all during the year in college. Any recommendations? Thanks. |
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I whipped one up last year and just love it. More importantly is the WAF is very high, so the wifez0r makes use of it...a little too much...she's filled up 600GB within a month before we started scaling back a little on what we wanted to record simply because we just don't have enough time to watch it all. I've had to move a number of shows to another PC with more space. I tossed together an Athlon 2500 Barton Windows XP w/800x600 resolution 1GB memory DVD-RW 120GB HDD two 250GB HDD's GeForce 5200 with S-Video out Hauppauge PVR-250 capture card 5.1 Surround Sound speakers SnapStream's Beyond TV 3 software The PVR-250 does the lion's share of the work. The coax cable connects into the PVR-250. There's a remote control that works well too. But the magic is the software. The PVR-250 comes with some software, but it's not very good. Very Tivo like. I hear good things about the competitor Sage TV. Myth for Linux is suppose to be doing quite well too. I bypassed Windows Media Center Edition based upon the wacky "digital rights management" possibilities, such as not being able to save some types of shows for a certain amount of time, etc. The computer basically runs BeyondTV 24/7. It doesn't have a monitor, the S-Video cable plugs into the TV. We pretty much use the Hauppage remote 98% of the time. I also got a wireless GyroMouse, but the remote gets most of the use. The GeForce 5200 works well. It's not the top gaming card or anything, but I'm not playing heavy games on it...though I've put Need For Speed on there just to play it on the TV. I got a 64-bit version so it doesn't have a fan and doesn't contribute to noise. Noise-wise, I replaced the case fans with Zalman fans. The CPU heatsink/fan was replaced with a Zalman. The Power Supply was replaced with some unknown brand, but it's quieter. For a dual input system, I dunno. Though BeyondTV 3.5 will take dual Hauppage cards for dual input, so it may work. I like the Hauppauge capture card. It does MPEG-2 compression on the card itself, so the computer's CPU doesn't work very hard. There's other hardware-based capture cards too. I have an ATI All-in-Wonder card on another computer, it does backup PVR duties, but the AIW dumps the load to the CPU and BeyondTV doesn't work with the AIW. The software that came with the AIW works ok, not great like BeyondTV, but ok. Last, for shows I really like, I toss them to another computer where I edit out the commercials and compress the files to MPEG4(Divx) with VirtualDub-MPEG. Then I can toss them back to the PVR machine and BeyondTV will recognize it and play it just like a normal show. So you see, I spent a little bit of work getting it the way I wanted and I started from scratch. I could be done simpler. And there's some good USB 2.0-based capture out there. I dunno if they'll do dual-inputs though. * WAF - Wife Acceptability Factor |
MythTV for Linux is free and is pretty good. And a Myth version of Knoppix Linux is a bootable CD that will do it. Basically it installs Linux into memory (and a temp file) on your PC, so your Windows installation is still there when you reboot without the CD. You still need some sort of hardware device to capture the incoming TV signal. |
D00d! N00000000! U sed the 'L' w0rd! Now they won't even try it!  Hadn't heard of that one; thanks, I'll look it up! |
hehe...there's a MAME version of Knoppix too. Just boot from the CD and it's 80's Gaming Time! |
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I use the Media center pc and it works well. I also have the wireless media center extender that gives me access to all my computer files(video,music,pics,etc) to my main stereo and big screen it has composite video out and digital coxial audio out. Nothing like having all the MP3's cranking with Yamaha power |
Do you own Microsoft stock or something?? Yeah, don't try Linux, it might actually WORK for you, and you wouldn't have to spend $250 on WinXPME. 
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You really are full of shit… Unless you are very experienced with computers and Linux in general it would be a very good move to stay away for Linux when building a DVR. This is solid advice. And if you are spending $250 on a product that can be bought for $120 less you are just proving you are every bit as obtuse as you come off. Somebody is asking for advice not a Microsoft-Linux pissing match. Do you really believe building a Linux DVR is something for the inexperience system builder? I have built Linux DVRs, have you? I have built MS Media Center PCs, have you? It does not appear you have because you have no idea what the software cost. There is no question as which is easier to build and get running, easier to use, and has more features… the MS Media Center PC hands down. |
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The computer still needs some sort of hardware device to capture the video stream... * Windows - definitely easier...no doubt * Linux...yeah, more to play around with * Linux - Myth Knoppix version - this is a fun one and easy to try out. It loads from the CD, and if somebody doesn't like it...eject the CD and reboot. Among the Windows solutions, I really like the 3rd Party titles such as Snapstream's BeyondTV and Sage due to Windows MCE's built-in restrictions on media content. |
And you are a one-note blowhard with not merely a chip, but actually a large hardwood block, on his shoulders. The sole information content you provide to any computer thread seems to be a rote "Linux is too haaaaaaaard! Stick with Windows you brainless dolts."
Hey blowtard, have you noticed that people are posting about live-CD distributions? Drop in a CD, boot it, everything works. You probably have a hard time setting the clock on your VCR, too, huh.
So I got the price wrong, big fat hairy fucking deal, blowhard. Last time I looked, it was $250. If Microsoft has dropped the price, then it's because it was selling so poorly that they got desperate. Or is that the price of those the "backup copies" you can buy on EBay?
I believe people should be given the opportunity to TRY other software to see if it works for them, rather than scaring them off it by saying "don't worry your pretty little brainless head, just stick with Microsoft you stupid tool."
Actually, I was one of the developers on an internet-enabled Linux multimedia system back during the dot-com boom. So that would be a "yes". As opposed to yourself, to whom this apparently means "I put together a bunch of parts out of a few boxes and then installed the software." Now you're going to say something like "oh, you're an ubergeek, you know a lot more than anyone else does, for them it would be too haaaaaaard, you're not representative of the morons who want to put together media computers." Right?
Gosh, so I didn't check Pricewatch(TM) before posting. 
Oh, you mean dropping a CD into a tray is too hard for the average blowtard like yourself? There is no question as to which is easier for Max_Mike, Microsoft representative blowtard and probable stockholder. As for the rest of the world, it's easier and easier every day to TRY Linux, even if people like yourself are too dumb even to think of doing it. |
I've got an ATI All-in-Wonder in another computer...it's not my full time PVR, but it works fine. ATI's software is ok...not drop-dead gorgeous like the BeyondTV though. BeyondTV won't work with it though...the All-in-Wonder card dumps the workload off to the CPU of the computer. The computer (2.4GHz) does fine with it, but when it's recording, it's noticeable that the computer's working away. If we watch another video while the ATI card is recording, sometimes dropped frames can be the result in the recording. Contrast this to the PVR that has the Hauppauge PVR-250 card. The Hauppauage does the MPEG-2 compress on the card itself, so the CPU of the PC isn't hardly breathing hard at all. The CPU gets loaded up to about 5% or so...that's nothing! So it will playback other videos or whatever while recording a TV show. |
Can you string an entire sentence together without acting like a 3 year old? Did you miss that he asked “Can it be done relatively easily?” I believe people should be given valid answers to questions they ask not OS evangelism. So are we to believe you have set up a Windows Media Center box and don’t know the price of the software... pricing that has been in effect for 2 years. Are you actually proposing that all there is to setting up a functioning Linux DVR is dropping a CD in a drive tray? I don’t own Microsoft stock. I use Microsoft products where they are appropriate; I use Linux where it is appropriate. I believe in using the best tool for the job. I am not the only person in the world that is of the opinion that Windows Media Center is a much easier product to setup and operate vs a Linux DVR, this is a fairly universal opinion others have said as much in this thread. I don’t know what your problem is why you feel so threatened by advice to use a product. I don’t know why you are so irrational but you come off as seriously unbalanced. roboman can take my advice or leave it… that is up to him and I will not lose sleep over it one way or the other. And I am not going to have an irrational hissy fit as you have had. Either way you need to get control of yourself. Someone asks for advice and you start a OS pissing contest where it is not needed… I am done with your childish nonsense For those interested here is a link for building a Windows Media PC… there are also good series of articles at the site on building Linux boxes and going MS free. You can make up your own mind without this noise. www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1742236,00.asp |