How do you build a DVR?
- Thread starter dantonic
- Start date
well I've built a number of systems, I wouldnt say I have an advanced knowledge of computers, but I know how to build one and I've spent my share of time troubleshooting various problems.
I've never dealt with a DVR, I realize I'll need a TV tuner, but how to pick one?
How do you configure one to work like a regular DVR as in set timers to record, get the programming guide... is there software that automatically recognizes the guide from my Comcast cable box?
Do I need to use linux for this box?
will I be able to view the OS environment on the Television through the tuner card?
OH btw I've Never used a TUner card
Thanks for any comments
I've never dealt with a DVR, I realize I'll need a TV tuner, but how to pick one?
How do you configure one to work like a regular DVR as in set timers to record, get the programming guide... is there software that automatically recognizes the guide from my Comcast cable box?
Do I need to use linux for this box?
will I be able to view the OS environment on the Television through the tuner card?
OH btw I've Never used a TUner card
Thanks for any comments
Vista home premium and ultimate have media center built in, ati makes good cards and keeps there drivers up to date, hauppauge makes good cards but does not do a good job with driver updates (or at least they havent in the past). Do you care about hdtv? DO you have an hdtv? If you have an hdtv then it is easy to view everything on it, if you have sd then regular os stuff is going to look crappy because of the low resolution. Over the air hdtv (antenna) is easy and inexpensive if you want hd over cable then you have to buy a box (for now they arent selling the cards seperately but a bunch of the bigger oem brands over them as options).
Well I currently Do Not have an HDTV, however I would like to purchase one in the future...
I am planning to build this system from spare parts.. therefore it will not be my main rig. I dont mind about the bad resolution, I just need to view the OS environment from time to time for general settings I guess. I've read somewhere that you can set some remotes to access OS commands. That would be nice.
Do I have to have MCE? Is there anything that decent that might run on windows 98 by any chance? I have XP, however since I'm building another machine I dont think I can activate my xp on the second machine.
thanks
I am planning to build this system from spare parts.. therefore it will not be my main rig. I dont mind about the bad resolution, I just need to view the OS environment from time to time for general settings I guess. I've read somewhere that you can set some remotes to access OS commands. That would be nice.
Do I have to have MCE? Is there anything that decent that might run on windows 98 by any chance? I have XP, however since I'm building another machine I dont think I can activate my xp on the second machine.
thanks
Muse
Lifer
- Jul 11, 2001
- 39,214
- 9,154
- 136
Never used Linux or MCE, or Vista. Google, yes!!
Here's what I am doing:
My main desktop system (running Windows 2000) doubles as a DVR/HDTV box. This system is in my home theater room. The DVI output from the computer can be run into either of my 19" LCD's (double DVI video card), or into my DVI capable Sanyo Z2 720p projector for projection onto a large white screen for movies or HDTV. I do not bother to watch SD TV on the big screen. If I do that, it's on my 19" LCD monitor.
I have a MyHD HDTV tuner card in the PC along with the DVI outputting daughterboard. The newer version of this supports HDTV via cable, although mine doesn't (don't have cable, anyway). I get my signal from two rooftop antennas. The MyHD card supports two antenna inputs.
The MyHD software keeps evolving and supports DVR including real time time shifting. IOW, you can watch a program and at any time put the card into timeshifting mode, which means you can put it in pause, walk away and come back and not miss a beat. Adjustable FF and Rew is just part of the package. The software includes scheduling recordings. Of course, SD broadcasts are supported as well as HDTV. There's a ton of stuff on all this and the entire home theater and HTPC scenes at AVS Forums.
"MCE" (Windows Media Center Edition) is basically WinXP with a nicely-integrated application that does the same stuff. There are some other Windows alternatives as well (such as BeyondTV and SageTV). The higher-end versions of Windows Vista have similar capabilities.
MythTV is an open-source program for Linux that works along the same lines.
My advice: doing this on a PC is still an adventure, and often requires considerable tweaking. You'll learn a lot doing it, but it can be a PITA sometimes. If you don't like the idea of having to mess around with sometimes-unstable drivers and codecs, and occasionally totally indecipherable problems, go buy a TiVo or rent a DVR from your cable company. Or buy a prebuilt HTPC from a major manufacturer that they'll support (although then you're usually locked into their PVR software, which may or may not suck.) Come back in a few years if you want real HDTV support and all the bugs worked out.
After you've looked at how to build one and punched the calculator on how much it will cost, I would also compare it to just buying a DVR.
Before I headed back to school (i.e. back when I had money) I got hooked on the DVR service available from my cable company with their digital package. One big drawback was that model had no way for me to archive things (i.e. copy to DVD). At school I moved into an apartment complex that included extended analog cable with the cost of rent. On a college student budget this made sense, but I sure missed that DVR. So I started looking around.
Toshiba makes two DVR models that will tend to work with most things you throw at them. Though I'm only going with the analog signal (no converter box at all) they include an infrared interface that will let the DVR switch channels on various brands of analog and digital cable converter box.
A second nifty feature is that these DVRs include an interface that works with the TV Guide interactive program guide. This is a "Tivo-like" onscreen program guide that is piggybacked on both over-the-air and cable signals across most of the country. It is FREE, and allows me to schedule recording a program up to 10 days in advance (as well as a "record every day or every week" scheduler).
These units also include a single-layer DVD recorder (only use DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD-R disks though) with which I can save programs that I like. Since they include optical sound out and progressive scan, these units are kind of a nice replacement for a standard DVD player.
The lesser model has a 160 GB hard drive and only supports 480P/i.
http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvr/product.asp?model=rd-xs35
The fancier version comes with a 250GB hard drive and upconverts DVDs to 720P/1080i, though I think it may still only record at 480.
http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvr/product.asp?model=rd-xs55
Because I'm a cheapskate, I ended up getting the 160GB model as a "refurbished special" from an online merchant that specializes in refurbished gear. All told, I spent $300 on mine and it has worked just fine for 1.5 years.
negatives? The whole menu system could be a bit more intuitive. For some operations I find myself going back to the manual. The cooling fan is also a little bit noisy, but I can't hear it when it's inside of my audio cabinet.
It may lack that satisfaction that computer tinkerers have in building their own unit, but I would suggest it is a serious possibility if the pre-built DVR does everything you want and if the cost of building one yourself starts to add up. A homemade DVR will probably have more flexibility about moving files back and forth from the hard drive, etc. I'm just saying it may be an option.
Before I headed back to school (i.e. back when I had money) I got hooked on the DVR service available from my cable company with their digital package. One big drawback was that model had no way for me to archive things (i.e. copy to DVD). At school I moved into an apartment complex that included extended analog cable with the cost of rent. On a college student budget this made sense, but I sure missed that DVR. So I started looking around.
Toshiba makes two DVR models that will tend to work with most things you throw at them. Though I'm only going with the analog signal (no converter box at all) they include an infrared interface that will let the DVR switch channels on various brands of analog and digital cable converter box.
A second nifty feature is that these DVRs include an interface that works with the TV Guide interactive program guide. This is a "Tivo-like" onscreen program guide that is piggybacked on both over-the-air and cable signals across most of the country. It is FREE, and allows me to schedule recording a program up to 10 days in advance (as well as a "record every day or every week" scheduler).
These units also include a single-layer DVD recorder (only use DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD-R disks though) with which I can save programs that I like. Since they include optical sound out and progressive scan, these units are kind of a nice replacement for a standard DVD player.
The lesser model has a 160 GB hard drive and only supports 480P/i.
http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvr/product.asp?model=rd-xs35
The fancier version comes with a 250GB hard drive and upconverts DVDs to 720P/1080i, though I think it may still only record at 480.
http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvr/product.asp?model=rd-xs55
Because I'm a cheapskate, I ended up getting the 160GB model as a "refurbished special" from an online merchant that specializes in refurbished gear. All told, I spent $300 on mine and it has worked just fine for 1.5 years.
negatives? The whole menu system could be a bit more intuitive. For some operations I find myself going back to the manual. The cooling fan is also a little bit noisy, but I can't hear it when it's inside of my audio cabinet.
It may lack that satisfaction that computer tinkerers have in building their own unit, but I would suggest it is a serious possibility if the pre-built DVR does everything you want and if the cost of building one yourself starts to add up. A homemade DVR will probably have more flexibility about moving files back and forth from the hard drive, etc. I'm just saying it may be an option.
Muse
Lifer
- Jul 11, 2001
- 39,214
- 9,154
- 136
It was around $300 when I bought the MyHD cards, but the prices have come down since I got mine 2½+ years ago. They come integrated with TitanTV support, so press a button and you have your online TV guide and you can record and schedule from there. Since I'd been considering HD Tivo, I saved a huge amount by going with MyHD (At the time, the Tivo box was around $1000). Plus really the only issue I had with my PC was that two PCI slots are devoted to the slots. Everything works fine. The cards don't have fans, so there's no extra noise.
I could have devoted a machine to HDTV/DVR stuff, but why? I have two desktops, but why use two when you can use one? Normally, I devote a 120 GB partition to TV recording/timeshifting. I'm not much into keeping recordings. I know how to save recordings and parts of recordings for later viewing, but don't do it as a rule. I watch it once and delete. Lots of people are into archiving to DVDR's, and there are lots of programs and utilities around to help, many of them freeware. There's a whole lot of discussion of these things and related topics at AVS Forums.
I could have devoted a machine to HDTV/DVR stuff, but why? I have two desktops, but why use two when you can use one? Normally, I devote a 120 GB partition to TV recording/timeshifting. I'm not much into keeping recordings. I know how to save recordings and parts of recordings for later viewing, but don't do it as a rule. I watch it once and delete. Lots of people are into archiving to DVDR's, and there are lots of programs and utilities around to help, many of them freeware. There's a whole lot of discussion of these things and related topics at AVS Forums.
Thank you for all the comments.
Part of the reason I am considering building my own is that I have some spare parts I can use from old systems... from what I understand a PVR system does not require too much power regarding CPU, memory etc. since most of the work is done by the tuner card itself.
The idea of the computer/PVR is intersting since as some of you mentioned it becomes more versatile regarding operating files, saving editing etc.
I was planning to slap a DVD recorder on the thing as well so as to be able to record to DVD...
I would like to use linux since the mythTV software is free, although I am a little scared of the tinkering I would have to do to get the software configured... I am not really a linux user, I've used it very seldom in the past.
Anyone have experience with MythTV? is it a headache to install and configure that software?
Regarding the tuner card. I keep reading about Hauppage when searching on google... Is that supposedly the better brand regarding Tuner cards? Any suggestions regarding a card that would allow me to get good decent picture quality including HD, without spending a bundle?
thanks
Part of the reason I am considering building my own is that I have some spare parts I can use from old systems... from what I understand a PVR system does not require too much power regarding CPU, memory etc. since most of the work is done by the tuner card itself.
The idea of the computer/PVR is intersting since as some of you mentioned it becomes more versatile regarding operating files, saving editing etc.
I was planning to slap a DVD recorder on the thing as well so as to be able to record to DVD...
I would like to use linux since the mythTV software is free, although I am a little scared of the tinkering I would have to do to get the software configured... I am not really a linux user, I've used it very seldom in the past.
Anyone have experience with MythTV? is it a headache to install and configure that software?
Regarding the tuner card. I keep reading about Hauppage when searching on google... Is that supposedly the better brand regarding Tuner cards? Any suggestions regarding a card that would allow me to get good decent picture quality including HD, without spending a bundle?
thanks
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