Is there a soft RealTV, or TIVO ?

Shipman

Junior Member
Jan 8, 2003
11
0
0
hi Folks,

A newbie question.
Is there a way to convert my PC to a TIVO or Real TV like thing,
by adding those cheap HD's ?. Has anybody worked on
that project at home ?, etc..

thanks
 

VBboy

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2000
5,793
0
0
Just download any program that can record and compress real-time the signal coming from the card's tuner. It's usually called "dvr" or "digital vcr". Most new VIVO/tuner videocards come with such capturing software. A TV tuner card is something like $50-60 (NewEgg.com). ATI AIW Radeon 9700 Pro is the thing :)
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,161
126
Get any TV card and PowerVCR II. Poof....you have a Tivo. It doesn't do that intelligent searching like a Tivo, but who uses that anyway?
 

jtallon

Golden Member
May 13, 2001
1,166
0
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Check out snapstream or showshifter. Both work reasonably well, but both are products that must be purchased.

Neither one works nearly as good as Tivo though. The tv-guide implementation is non-existant or poor in both, you can't set up season passes to record your favorite shows, etc. Showshifter showed the most promise to me, but it's a few versions from being really cool. Do yourself a favor and just buy a Tivo - it's probably the single best electronics purchase I've made in the last couple of years.

This isn't a hot deal though - gonna get locked...
 

ozone13

Senior member
Apr 5, 2001
498
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0
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Get any TV card and PowerVCR II. Poof....you have a Tivo. It doesn't do that intelligent searching like a Tivo, but who uses that anyway?

Uh, me. I'm a TiVo expert when it comes to programming tv shows! :p Its to the point now where my TiVo knows exactly what I like and automatically records various shows for me......I rarely have to input anything anymore.