Easiest Cheapest PVR Setup

[deeznuts]

Hi. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or guides/tutorials for setting up the easiest and cheapest PVR. I'm not going to be doing anything elaborate with the PVR, just want to hook up a coaxial cable, and be able to view a guide and set the PRV to record ONE show per week. I did a search but did not find anything. My current setup is pretty up to date, XP64 3000+ at 2700MHZ, nforce3, and Geforce 6800. ANy help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[rbV5]

You can easily add a TV tuner to your rig. For "cheapest" real PVR software look at something like GB-PVR, it supports a nice list of decent hardware TV cards, but not necissarily "easy"

For "Easiest", you could go with MCE 2005 and a supported card, even my wife can handle it, but not "cheap"

Then there is everything in-between which may not be either easy or cheap.

PVR bundles with SageTV or Beyond TV, make a nice balance between easy and cheap, and MythTV is an option as well if you went with Linux.

Most of the TV tuner cards come with poor software, or lack an EPG, which makes it useless for PVR duties, so you end up looking for a software solution for it.

My advice always is:
Look for the PVR software that you want to use, then look for a supported card after checking their forums and elsewhere for user feedback on what they are using it on.

 

[deeznuts]

After reading around, I think I might go for a Hauppauge 150 (non-mce). And then use their software or GB-PVR. I think this should work ok yeah? I have so much to learn, I didn't even get those acronyms you threw out heh. Will this get the guide automatically from my cable company? I have regular cable, not digital or anything. I just want to set it early and be confident it is recording.

Thanks for the help.


PS, what does EPG stand for? Electronic Program Guide (just a wild guess)? Does the Hauppauge have a good one?