PVR Build

[jbruno]

OK, I have the following pieces and would like advice on what else I should get to make this.

ATX Case (midtower)

POWER SUPPLY ANTEC TRUEBLUE 480

VGA ATI|RADEON x1300 256M 8X AGP

MB P4 INTEL 875P D875PBZLK FMB1.5 R

CPU P4/3.2CGHz 800M 478P/512K HT

DDRAM 1GB|PC3200 DUAL BL MUSHKIN


I think I just need a hard drive (IDE OK? or SATA needed?) and a PVR card. Correct?

Also, do I need to put an OS on the drive or is their specific PVR software that will suffice.

Fianlly, do I need to hook a monitor up to this for setup or when running?

Thank you,

[newbuilder14]

If this is recording data I'd recommend a fast SATA hard drive. Seagate's 7200.10s are good. And yes you'd need some sort of PVR card. I would recommend you put Windows XP Media Center Edition on the hard drive as you can use a remote control, etc. You will need a monitor to set it up, but it is not necessary to have a monitor hooked up all the time.

[mojo]

IDE is definitely ok if you're making a standard def PVR. Mine records about 2GB for a one hour program. If you're doing standard def, I would recommend one of the hauppauge recording cards. I have the pvr-150 and it works great. I personally don't like MCE. It's too limited in what it lets you do and records in a proprietary format. I have SageTV and love it. BeyondTV is also great with their latest version, or you could always use MythTV if you want to tinker a bit.

If this box is going to be dedicated format your drive with 64K cluster size instead of the standard 4K, this will handle the large files much better. If you only have one drive you have to install windows on a small partition and then format the rest of the drive after the install since the windows installer does not let you choose cluster size.

[newbuilder14]

2gb for 1hr? I'd get the 320gb Seagate 7200.10 just for starters.

[jbruno]

Oh, I forgot to mention that I saw cards for standard def, digital cable, and over the air HD. Is there a card that will do HD coming from my digital cable box?

Also, can I also record from my DVD player? All my components run into my yahmaha reciever and then from the reciever to my plasma. Can it capture anyhting running this route?

[mojo]

You can capture pretty much anything through there, but it won't necessarily be in the full original quality. HD PVR recording is a mess right now. You basically have to capture the analog signal coming off the digital cable box, and you have to rig up an IR blaster to be able to change the channels. If you just want to do over the air HD recording it's much smoother, just buy an appropriate card and you're good to go. Keep in mind that HD recordings take up loads of space, around 10 GB per hour.

[jbruno]

Originally Posted by mojo You can capture pretty much anything through there, but it won't necessarily be in the full original quality. HD PVR recording is a mess right now. You basically have to capture the analog signal coming off the digital cable box, and you have to rig up an IR blaster to be able to change the channels. If you just want to do over the air HD recording it's much smoother, just buy an appropriate card and you're good to go. Keep in mind that HD recordings take up loads of space, around 10 GB per hour.

Thank you,

I guess what I'm looking to do is be able to record TV/movies from my digital cable box that will be digital but non-HD for the most part. It would be nice to be able to record football games (Eagles) that I am not around to see for whatever reason. These I usually watch in HD.

Regarding the IR blaster, is this if you are watching one channel but want to record another?

Not worried about space as I can always increase Hard Drive space. Also, I would probably burn DVD's for things I wanted to keep and delte old stuff.

Do I need a separate sound card to capture/replay shows back on my TV?

Thank you,

[mojo]

The capture card will capture video and sound. For playback you just use the standard outputs on the computer, either a separate or integrated sound card. You need the IR blaster if you want to use s digital cable box, otherwise the computer will not be able to change the channel that it's recording and all your recordings will be the same channel unless you are there to manually change the channel on the cable box. If you're going to want to archive stuff on DVDs, Windows media center is definitely not what you want. I know that sageTV records in totally normal mpeg2 format and creates .mpg files. It can also be modified to author your DVDs so that you can just pop it in a normal DVD player and play it, or you can just burn the files onto a data DVD. MythTV also has this capability, not sure about BeyondTV.

If you have Windows Media Center and you install Windows Meda Player 11, your recordings become unwatchable after 3 days due to their new licensing ideas. Pretty genious idea eh M$?

[jbruno]

Originally Posted by mojo The capture card will capture video and sound. For playback you just use the standard outputs on the computer, either a separate or integrated sound card. You need the IR blaster if you want to use s digital cable box, otherwise the computer will not be able to change the channel that it's recording and all your recordings will be the same channel unless you are there to manually change the channel on the cable box. If you're going to want to archive stuff on DVDs, Windows media center is definitely not what you want. I know that sageTV records in totally normal mpeg2 format and creates .mpg files. It can also be modified to author your DVDs so that you can just pop it in a normal DVD player and play it, or you can just burn the files onto a data DVD. MythTV also has this capability, not sure about BeyondTV. If you have Windows Media Center and you install Windows Meda Player 11, your recordings become unwatchable after 3 days due to their new licensing ideas. Pretty genious idea eh M$?

OK, here is what I am thinking.

Run a free OS (Linux)
Have one small HD for OS
Have one larger HD for files (IDE)

Record in standard definition.
I would like to be able to record from my DVD player too if possible (720p)

Network this computer with my main machine so I can burn DVDs view files, etc. from my main computer.

Input sound and video via pvr card.
Can pvr card also output sound and video?

I have the video card listed above but not an extra sound card.

Thank you,

[newbuilder14]

Why do you want an IDE hard drive when the SATA hard drives are faster?

I'm not sure how you would network the two of them together... at the very least you would need Windows XP Professional to use remote desktop I guess.

Everything else looks okay.

[jbruno]

Originally Posted by newbuilder14 Why do you want an IDE hard drive when the SATA hard drives are faster? I'm not sure how you would network the two of them together... at the very least you would need Windows XP Professional to use remote desktop I guess. Everything else looks okay.

I was looking at price. And I thought an IDE was fast enough for what I was trying to do.

I was thinking plugging the PRV into my router and somehow "sharing" that drive, so I could see it and manipulate it from my other Computer

Also, I'm looking at myth tv... to run on liniux.. any thoughts...

[newbuilder14]

I don't think you can do that with your router - because all you can really do from networks is use other files and printers. What you are trying to do is virtually run a PC through a router which I don't believe is possible.

[mojo]

Originally Posted by jbruno OK, here is what I am thinking. Run a free OS (Linux) Have one small HD for OS Have one larger HD for files (IDE) Record in standard definition. I would like to be able to record from my DVD player too if possible (720p) Network this computer with my main machine so I can burn DVDs view files, etc. from my main computer. Input sound and video via pvr card. Can pvr card also output sound and video? I have the video card listed above but not an extra sound card. Thank you,

All of the above would be quite doable, and it's similar to what my setup is. IDE is fine, and frankly SATA is not any faster at this point. The interface is technically faster, but drives haven't even maxed out the IDE bus yet so it's a moot point. Typically IDE is not any cheaper though, so only buy IDE if you already have a big drive laying around you want to use, you already have the motherboard you're going to use and it forces you to use IDE, or there's some hot deal you found on an IDE drive that you're not sharing with the rest of us, like the 400 GB IDE Seagate drive I got for $100 a couple months ago. If you're just getting all new stuff, go SATA as it is definitely the way of the future.

Recording in standard definition is best done with a Hauppauge card. The pvr-350 will also output video, but only mpeg2 and not divx/xvid and the like. I don't know of any capture cards that output sound. The onboard sound and the TV-out of your video card should be fine. Why are you so concerned about getting a capture card that will output sound and video for you?

You can record from your DVD player, but it's not really a good idea. A standard def card will only record in standard def, and if you want to make copies or your DVDs for archive or other reasons it's best to rip the content off digitally with the DVD drive in your computer and then do whatever you want with it.

As for the networking, there's 2 ways you could do it, and both would work fine. You can just share the directory that you record the files in, and access it from your main computer and do whatever you want with the files, or you can use VNC to control your PVR computer from your main computer. VNC is like remote desktop, except open source and cross-platform, and free. MythTV actually has a module where you can author and burn DVDs from the comfort of the couch with the remote control though, so remote administration may not even be necessary. You can also run SageTV on Linux since they have a Linux version. Sage is about $80 for either OS, Myth is free but takes quite a bit of setup, although it has become much easier over the years.

Newbuilder, do you have much experience building a PVR computer?