Anybody using a DIY PVR?

[os1kne]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, I thought about this a few years ago. If I were to do my own PVR/DVR, I'd want to be able to distribute it to any TV in the house (which could be done with an RF modulator) - are these PC based systems able to be controlled with a remote? If so, I suppose an IR target/emitter setup could be used. Has anyone done this?

[jziegler]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, I thought about this a few years ago. If I were to do my own PVR/DVR, I'd want to be able to distribute it to any TV in the house (which could be done with an RF modulator) - are these PC based systems able to be controlled with a remote? If so, I suppose an IR target/emitter setup could be used. Has anyone done this?

IR remote is supported. In fact, works best if you have it.

MythTV is a client/server system though. If you have one backend server, you can hide it in a closet or your basement and run an ethernet to near each TV. then you can use something like the MediaMVP that I linked to before to connect to the TV. It's about $90 for the MediaMVP box. Probably a little more expensive than an RF modulator and remote setup, but it gives seperate control to each TV. Plus, you can add multiple tuners to the server to record/watch more than one show at once.

Jim

[iceman61]

Sam, you might want to try doing a search on HTPC (Home Theater PC) or MCPC (Media Center PC) There are alot of interesting articles on building your own. One of my hobbies is building PC's but lately I decided to bow my head & purchase a Media Center PC from HP.

Stormbringer has some helpful info. You will want to look at hardware encoding not software encoding, a huge hard drive & alot of ram. IMHO after you build your initial system, you might want to look at the external hard drives for file storage since the files generated while recording TV get huge quick. If you record your DVD's to hard drive, your looking at 4 - 8 gig just for one movie, just to give you an idea of how big video files get.

Food for thought: Later on down the road I'm look at wireless media players like the DLink DSM-520 on each TV and external hard drives that have a network plug like the Western Digital MY Book World Editions. That way I can use one PC set up as a PVR for all the TV's in my house & the media player can access the networked hard drive to watch the shows or DVD's I have recorded.

There are alot of helpful articles on Tom's Hardware. Click on "Build Your Own" (top left of the page) and do a search for "HTPC". Too many atricles for me to link too here.
http://www.tomshardware.com/us/

[iceman61]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, I thought about this a few years ago. If I were to do my own PVR/DVR, I'd want to be able to distribute it to any TV in the house (which could be done with an RF modulator) - are these PC based systems able to be controlled with a remote? If so, I suppose an IR target/emitter setup could be used. Has anyone done this?

The way you are talking about, wouldn't every TV would have to watch the same thing? Kinda like running several TV's off a single satelite descrambler?

IMHO a wireless router, wireless media players on each TV, and your PVR and/or a networked hard drive plugged into the back of the router. That way each TV could watch different recorded files from the hard drive

[Kristofor]

A few other points.

Most of the capture cards are for analog signals from an antenna or sat/cable box. That means standard definition. There are some ATSC/QAM tuners for HDTV over the air or in the clear (not scrambled) on cable systems. These options can all be added to an existing PC but Microsoft MCE doesn't play well with QAM to date.

You mentioned you dropped your satellite service, but didn't say if you went to cable or over the air broadcast reception. If you are going terrestrial over the air then you only have ~15 more months of use unless you buy a digital ATSC tuner since they'll be flipping the switch on NTSC analog broadcasts in Feb 2009.

There are no current (easy) options for recording HDTV from a DirectTV, or DishNetwork source, though of course you could capture an HD program at standard def. For cable systems there are cablecard capture systems that allow you to record HD content, but right now (maybe forever?) they need to be purchased with a certified PC so it's not an upgrade option.

Kristofor.

[compgodjds]

Check out http://avsforum.com/ forums. They have a whole section devoted to this. A lot of people are doing it. I use it occasionally but am considering switching over exclusively.

Also check out http://titantv.com/ It is a site that gives you a "TIVO" like guide for one-click recording.

[maxparot]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, I thought about this a few years ago. If I were to do my own PVR/DVR, I'd want to be able to distribute it to any TV in the house (which could be done with an RF modulator) - are these PC based systems able to be controlled with a remote? If so, I suppose an IR target/emitter setup could be used. Has anyone done this?

My HTPC w/ Beyond TV and Snapstreams Firefly remote is a USB RF remote that has a roughly 30' range they also have a Firefly mini that is IR. These control the computer to control the TV/external tuner/cable converter you need to either have a direct USB/Firewire/serial port or an IR Blaster. So after you tell the computer what you want with the remote it then controls the rest in whatever way you set up the interface.
But to control individual TVs a computer and network connection works best. 1 computer would be the server the others would be clients and not need tuner/capture cards. But would need their own remotes that would work on other channels if using RF

[KenBurris]

Mce 2005

I have a Dell refurb I bought from Dell Outlet Jan. 2005 - $ 719 no monitor, 2-tuner tv card, 160 gb Sata drive,16Xdvdrw 3.2 P4 512 k memory, Win XP Media Center Edition 2005 I record in " normal" mode - and currently have 20.5 hours of TV shows recorded from Time Warner Basic (no box) cable. - total 50.1 GB - A 60 minute show ranges from 2.35 to 3.08 GB. I use a $20 Philips RF modulator from KMart to send the output optionally to my bedroom where I can use the MCE remote which was included in the Dell package to control programming. I had trouble burning DVDs at times directly from MCE, and bought Sonic DVDit for $99 which took care of that , so I haven't tried burning from MCE lately. The Guide and recording options in MCE 2005 work as well as my Time Warner DVR set-top box.

I priced a similar system tonight - but this one has one TV tuner, bigger drive, more memory, and a 17" wide LCD monitor --- $ 599

My Components AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium

17 inch SE178WFP Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs

250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

16x DVD+/-RW Drive

NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU

Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

ATI Theater 650 PRO Combo Analog/Digital TV Tuner with Remote Control

Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse


No Floppy Drive Included

56K PCI Data Fax Modem







My Software & Accessories
No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)

No Security Subscription (30-day trial)

Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD







My Service 1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor, 24x7 Phone Support


Free 3GB DataSafe Online Backup for 1 Year


6 Months of America Online Membership Included




Also Includes
Mouse included with Keyboard purchase
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Windows Vista™ Premium
No Entertainment software pre-installed