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Making an HD capable PVR

D

dmw16

Diamond Member
At one point I thought I read an article about making a home made PVR that could record HD.

Does anyone know where I can find a hardware and software list to do this? Maybe more info about how to do it?

thanks.
-doug
 
Hauppage makes the WinTV-HD card, which does record HD video, but will cost you $300. If you really want to get a HD PVR, you can buy the card from the Hauppage website. If you're goingto do this, you're going to want a lot of storage space and probably a dual-core CPU.
 
The above posted isn't very accurate to say the least.
You can get DVICO PCI HD Tuners: http://www.dvico.com
They are pretty much the leader in HD Tuner cards right now.
You can get the Fusion HDTV Lite for $99: http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/fusion5lt.asp
It works out of the box with Windows MCE. If you don't run MCE, you can get the non-lite version which includes DVR software.

You don't need a dual core CPU for this, it probably wouldn't help much at all if any. A Sempron 3000+ is more than enough. 1GB of ram would be preferred. And the larger the hard drive, the more hours you can record. Think of 10GB per hour of recorded HD content as a rough estimate.
 
Have you thought about a Comcast DVR? Depending on how much you spend on building a DVR, it may be cheaper. The downside (other than the added cost) is the small HD. You can only get about 15 hrs of HD.
 
Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
Have you thought about a Comcast DVR? Depending on how much you spend on building a DVR, it may be cheaper. The downside (other than the added cost) is the small HD. You can only get about 15 hrs of HD.
Click to expand...

Also, this is currently the only way to record encrypted HD over cable. TiVo has an HD-capable unit for DirecTV, and may be releasing a general HDCP-compliant model at some point.

MS Vista is *supposed* to change this on the PC side, with support for Cablecard tuners. Of course, it may be horribly crippled by DRM restrictions, but we'll have to see what it looks like once it is available.

If you want to record OTA HDTV, or unencrypted HD over cable, the options given above will work.
 
"Also, this is currently the only way to record encrypted HD over cable."

So I can't use one of the outputs from the back of my cable box into my PC to record?
 
Originally posted by: dmw16
"Also, this is currently the only way to record encrypted HD over cable."

So I can't use one of the outputs from the back of my cable box into my PC to record?
Click to expand...

Component video capture devices are VERY expensive.

Regular HDTV tuners ( I have the myhd dvp-130) can only record unencrpyted signals (2,4,5,7,11,13).
 
On the Comcast HD DVR's you can go from the Firewire out to a PC and record the show that way. This works with the PhaseIII Motorola 6412 boxes. Not sure what other models work. There's several threads on AVSforum about it.
 
Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
On the Comcast HD DVR's you can go from the Firewire out to a PC and record the show that way. This works with the PhaseIII Motorola 6412 boxes. Not sure what other models work. There's several threads on AVSforum about it.
Click to expand...


Yeah I forgot about that.

Stupid Cablevision boxes do not have firewire.
 
I hate paying comcast anything! 🙂

I thought about getting their box, but I already spend $112 a month on TV and internet.
 
Originally posted by: dmw16
I hate paying comcast anything! 🙂

I thought about getting their box, but I already spend $112 a month on TV and internet.
Click to expand...

I feel your pain. We spend $115/mo and we don't get any movie channels. Making you pay for the digital package just for getting the HD DVR is insane. We can get FIOS where I live but not FIOS TV yet. When that days comes, Comcast is GONE!
 
Until cable cards start becoming mainstream, you are pretty much limited to analog cable signals. Anything encrypted is off limits to PVRs. Some cable providers don't even give you access to analog cable.

The only other solution is to have a set-top-box controlled by your PVR via an IR blaster. That's not a really good solution, though. Unfortunately, it's cheaper and easier to go through your provider.
 
I would assume it would be as easy as picking up a couple of ATI HDTV Wonders, along with a Powercolor Theater 550 PCIe. Shouldn't be more than $300 of TV hardware. After that, I'd aim towards the following:
1. 6150 mobo w/ Opteron 165 and 1-2gb of (cheap!) RAM.
2. DVD-RW and Mitsumi 7-in-1 combo floppy.
3. _BIG_ hard drive(s).
4. Antec Aria or similar.
5. Windows MCE 2005

This is assuming you want an "all-in-one" solution. Alternatively, you could spend more money on a backend/frontend setup.

Makes that TiVO look cheap, eh?

-Erwos
 
Originally posted by: dmw16
I hate paying comcast anything! 🙂

I thought about getting their box, but I already spend $112 a month on TV and internet.
Click to expand...

I don't see your logic, you already pay them over $100 a month. What's another $15 a month to have dual tuner HD capable PVR? Espically given the alternative is to spend several hundred bucks on a PC that will be nowhere near as easy to use.

I pay $12.95 a month for mine (Moxi) with Adelphia which includes the HD service, not a bad deal if you ask me.

 
Originally posted by: anvil82
Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
On the Comcast HD DVR's you can go from the Firewire out to a PC and record the show that way. This works with the PhaseIII Motorola 6412 boxes. Not sure what other models work. There's several threads on AVSforum about it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I forgot about that.

Stupid Cablevision boxes do not have firewire.
Click to expand...

Also, you *still* can't record programs that are flagged to prevent recording. That includes all pay-per-view and most non-local HD channels (ESPN, HBO, Showtime, etc.)
 
I use the Avermedia A180 with MCE 2005 to record all OTA HDTV, it is stored on my server so that all my other machines and TV's can get to it. If you only want to record and watch at one place stick with what you can get from your cable company. I plan on adding more tuners and cablecard access when it become available and stream it all from one location via my network. My ultimate PVR server will have one cable card 2.0 card and two OTA cards, that will let any tv in the house get any type of channel. The only thing will be the DRM limitations but I suspect if all hardware is MS compatible it will not be a problem.
 
I use SageTV plus a Firewire Motorola 6412 Comcast box to get a HD-PVR. Cinemax is unencrypted, but HBO, Discovery, Sho, and Starz are 🙁. ABC, FOX, NBC, CBS, ESPN, WB, and inHD are all available, though, so its worth it, and it works very smoothly over Firewire.
 
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