Is TIVO the only solution?

[Kishan]

Originally posted by: Bootprint

Originally posted by: Kilrsat

Originally posted by: KPSHAH316

Originally posted by: Crucial

Originally posted by: KPSHAH316
OT: If I have a digital cable box, can I use a TV tuner or the like to record my shows? The box has S-Video out(currently using out to TV), composite out, and coax out.

You would need something that can change the channels on the cable box like the microsoft windows media center remote and receiver. You woul have to have windows MCE of course. I dont know if any of the other tv programs like sage or BTV can do this.

Then I guess I'm SOL. This is the main computer and I don't wanna run MCE on it. Thanks for the reply.
Kishan

Both BeyondTV and SageTV can use either serial cables or USB-IRT devices to control external cable boxes.

And use a hauppauge pvr-250 for hardware encoding directly to mpeg-2, so it doesn't need any real cpu power.

If I used this method, I would get the castrated Tivo which is watch one thing at a time and record it, unlike watch one thing and record another.

 

[Jassi]

So the hauppauge pvr-250 + P3 (866Mhz + 384 SDRAM) + Decent sized HD (40GB @ 7200 RPM) = good recording while watching something else or am I missing something?

 

[theblackbox]

decent hd should be at least 120gb. 40gb is small for recording...

 

[Kishan]

Originally posted by: Jassi
So the hauppauge pvr-250 + P3 (866Mhz + 384 SDRAM) + Decent sized HD (40GB @ 7200 RPM) = good recording while watching something else or am I missing something?

get a dvd burner, maybe some more ram-I got a stick of 256 PC133 for like 15 bucks on ebay. That way you may be able to use the computer while recording.

 

[Jassi]

I could probably get my hands on a cheap 120. But is that all I will need or do I need 2 tuner cards? and do I need to use my cable box or can I directly run the wire to my comp?

 

[Jassi]

KPSHAH316 - If I can build my new gaming rig, my current comp will just collect dust. I will probably add more ram and a good sized HD but I dont need to use it. I will just connect it to a network and D/L the files off it to my gaming rig.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: theblackbox
my other pvr is on a 27" samsung tv, and it looks as good as cable, no difference. just make sure the video card supports overlay.

My ghetto HTPC will be a Dell PowerEdge 400SC server, P4 2.8GHz (800MHz), 512MB ECC RAM, 200GB Hard Drive, PVR250 and Beyond TV.

What's the best bang for my buck ATI video card which supports overlay?

 

[Kilrsat]

Originally posted by: RossMAN

Originally posted by: theblackbox
my other pvr is on a 27" samsung tv, and it looks as good as cable, no difference. just make sure the video card supports overlay.

My ghetto HTPC will be a Dell PowerEdge 400SC server, P4 2.8GHz (800MHz), 512MB ECC RAM, 200GB Hard Drive, PVR250 and Beyond TV.

What's the best bang for my buck ATI video card which supports overlay?

My current HTPC is an AthlonXP 1800+ running @ 1666mhz, 512mb of pc3200, 160GB drive, PVR250MCE, PVR150MCE, Radeon 8500, and BeyondTV/BeyondMedia combo.

Using the mpeg2 decoder included with BeyondMedia (its a repackaged Cyberlink one, although newer than the ATi/Cyberlink combo) I get ~20-25% cpu usage watching one tv show while recording another.

Picture quality is damn near perfect and I'm finally happy. I spent 3 weeks going through mpeg2 decoders, fiddling with settings, and just going through the last tweaks to get the best image from it.

So basically, you don't need much in terms of the video card, anything with a RageTheater 200 chip or higher will support the hardware assist mpeg2 decoding (which is what keeps the cpu usage down).