Compter TV?

[Gerold Griffin]

Hi All:
The Wife and myself are thinking about getting a second computer to:
(1) Record programs from over the air (antenna) and satellite.
(2) Transfer all our DVD's and VCR tapes to the hard drive. This will get rid
of several cabinets. I am guessing that we will have to watch the
VCR tapes while recording them to the hard drive.
(3) Download movies from the internet.
We went to Best Buy and talked with the Salesman and after a 20 minute spew all I could say was "uh-huh, I need to talk to the wife about this some more." That converstion started with me asking "Did you understand that?"
Now then, I am assuming that this can be done so could anyone tell me what I would need to get to do this? Anything special about the computer itself?, and what else would I need? I would also be interested in any download sites that are safe and LEGAL for downloading movies and music. Our general idea is to create a libary of all our media that we can add to from several ways (hopefully cheaper) while getting rid of some video cabinets and making it easier to find and play.
Thanks

[Dennis McGarry]

Very simple to make a DVR system.

Quad Core CPU
lots of ram, 4gb
Good video card
HD tv turner capture card
fast drive, large drive, 1tb can get as low as 85.00 bucks

Thats its, use windows media center for the o/s

Done.

Let me know and I can get you a quote together on a nice one.

Dennis

[Gerold Griffin]

Uh Huh Would I be better off with a second modum or would a wireless router(?) work just as well to be connected on line?

[Dennis McGarry]

You could go wireless to connect this system to the rest of the network but I wouldnt recomend that unless you have a gigabit network.

This would be just another computer on the network now. That you would be able to stream the videos to either a tv or another computer or both..

[Tim Morton]

why not chose an iMac and Apple TV?

[Dennis McGarry]

Learning curve? Limited then to apple only, host of other reasons. Sometimes just because its an apple doesnt make it the best choice for all..

[Gerold Griffin]

The idea of connecting to the net is to download movies and music. Is that idea possible with what the reccomendations?

[Dennis McGarry]

Yup, A computer based DVR is nothing more then a higher end PC with the capture capabilty built in. It will do everything your pc will do now and more

[Gerold Griffin]

Dennis: PM sent.

[Myk Rian]

The smallest, USABLE, file size for a movie is in the neighborhood of 700+mb.
I think you would be better off using DVDs. They really don't take up any room, and you could build a small cabinet to keep them without the plastic cases. Buy the paper envelope covers for them.

[Gerold Griffin]

Myk: My lovely wife loves movies. We already have 4 cabinets filled with with dvd's. Space issue here!!!!

[Eric Larsen]

The computer I'm using now does exactly what you're looking for.

It's only a dual-core (which was state-of-the-art when I bought it), with a good Video card with DVI out for my TV and a TV tuning card (ATI "All-In-Wonder")

I cannot recommend Windows Media Center highly enough. This program makes all the competition look amateurish. In addition to WMC, we have DVRMSToolbox, a free utility which automatically strips out commercials from TV shows -- and it's very accurate.

The TV system is controlled via a Microsoft remote control and IR blaster which is taped to the front of my cable box. That allows Windows to change channels for recording. The whole she-bang can be operated from a single remote control, and it's a LOT more intuitive than TiVO or the rest of the "pay" solutions.

WMC downloads my cable listings every few days, selects the shows I've told it to record (and skips any it has already recorded), and reports any scheduling conflicts. Once recorded, I can burn any show I wish to archive (or send to a friend) to a DVD with one click. It also manages my entire music library, and every vacation picture I've ever taken.

My video library expands by a few titles every week, because channels like Encore! plays movies that I like, uncut, free. There's always I few that I consider worth recording. I could save them to disk, but that takes up a lot of space. So I burn them to DVD. I also have 90% of New Yankee Workshop (and all of Wood Works) saved to DVD thanks to WMC. All free. And all legal.

[Pat Germain]

This is certainly doable. But I think you should consider a few key points:

- Hard drives are flakey devices. They chug along perfectly for years. Then, suddenly, "BLECH!" they die a horrible death taking all your content with them.

- While not perfect, and not forever, DVD is a very good medium for data storage. They excel at reliability and longevity. Therefore, I would recommend finding a better way to store DVDs rather than relying on hard drives.

- A PC can be a very good DVR. If it's going to be a multi-function device, it can be cost effective. But if you already have a reasonably good PC, I don't think it's worth it to cough up major coin for another just for DVR purposes.

- Over the air content (from an antenna) is still pretty limited. You can get ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS Create and maybe a couple of local stations. Adding up all those sources, there are perhaps three programs I would want to record. YMMV.

- Internet content may not be what you think it is. If you want to legally download complete, high quality movies, for example, the selection is still pretty limited. And even with the best broadband connection, the download time is significant. I have a very good cable modem connection and it typically takes me twenty minutes or more to download a HD fifteen minute woodworking video.

- Since you already have satellite TV, consider making them pick up the tab. If you sign up for a new service, you can get a free HD DVR which will hold hundreds of hours of content. You can connect a low cost DVD recorder and archive anything you like from the DVR (although not in HD).

But hey, if a PC DVR is what you really want, go for it. Be prepared for a steep learning curve. Once you master the technology, you'll likely find it pretty cool.

[Paul Atkins]

We dumped our TV and got the biggest iMac 2 years ago and got an eyeTV tuner and will never look back. We get Netflix on demand and play dvd's on it We can stop,rewind and record TV programs. Everything seems so available I don't see needing a library of commercial stuff like movies and tv shows.I don't need cable or sat since there are 7 or 8 channels on air here. There is only so much time anyway. I am watching tv right now as I am writing this. Hooked up to my stereo I get great sound and it's wireless so I can go to any room if I want. I have a little house so compact is good. Suits our needs.

[Andy Pedler]

- Hard drives are flakey devices. They chug along perfectly for years. Then, suddenly, "BLECH!" they die a horrible death taking all your content with them.

Yes, but any reasonable HD based file system should be redundant in nature, so when a drive dies, you simply replace it. It is important to standardize today on as big a drive as you can afford, preferably 1-2TB. You have two, mirrored (the simplest backup scheme), and someday when one of them dies you replace it with another drive of the same size and type.

Also, to increase your reliability, eschew the techies who don't know what they're talking about and buy only 5400 RPM drives, instead of the "faster" 7200 RPM drives. The salesman at the box store will tell you that the 7200 RPM drives have better performance, which is true if you take the time to set up a really long sustained read from the outer sectors of the disk and blah de blah de blah. The truth is, in a normal application (such as a DVR), you won't see any performance difference, and 5400 RPM drives have far better reliability.

- While not perfect, and not forever, DVD is a very good medium for data storage. They excel at reliability and longevity. Therefore, I would recommend finding a better way to store DVDs rather than relying on hard drives.

DVD's are not a reliable way to store data. New studies are showing that your data is only safe on a DVD for a few years. Sure, they may store your data for decades, but the cheap media that is readily available at computer stores these days is not likely to last too long.

- Since you already have satellite TV, consider making them pick up the tab. If you sign up for a new service, you can get a free HD DVR which will hold hundreds of hours of content. You can connect a low cost DVD recorder and archive anything you like from the DVR (although not in HD).

That is an important point. Your home brew DVR WILL NOT SUPPORT HD PROGRAMMING. You'll be recording in SD format. If that's not a big deal, then great. Just be advised.

If you want an HD DVR, your only choice today is to buy the box from the company that provides your service. (okay, that's not completely true, you could build your own HD DVR, but it is going to require a high-powered server farm, loads of hard disks in a fancy RAID configuration, etc....it isn't worth it, just by the HD DVR from the cable company.)

Good luck. If you do look into doing this, and if you are relatively computer savvy, you might consider using linux and MythTV.

Andy - Newark, CA