TSGL: Digital Video Recorder Advice? (Long)

[William Pike]

All of what you describe is very possible. As far as cheap, that depends on
how far you want to go. The TV tuners could be Hauppage Win TV each to a
dedicated hard disk. (if you even need more than one, I think some of the
"high end" cards have multiple tuner built in) I'll do some research on the
rest of the items and send you a more detailed e-mail later this weekend. 


William Pike
whpike at cox.net
 whpike at gmail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounces at tsgserver.com [mailto:list-bounces at tsgserver.com] On
Behalf Of Geoff Glave
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 12:05 PM
To: list at tsgserver.com
Subject: TSGL: Digital Video Recorder Advice? (Long)

Hi Everyone,

Just curious if anyone on the list has built a PC-based personal digital
video recorder / media centre?  I'm interested in moving into the 21st
century and retiring my VCRs for good.  Plus, I figure I should get on board
and get something built before the broadcast flag rears its head again.

There's limited Tivo service here in Canada and it seems easiest to just
build my own digital recorder.  In no particular order, the requirements
would be:

- Build-it-myself (save some $$$)
- Windows, not Linux or Mac (more wife-friendly, and, in the case of the
Mac, presumably cheaper)
- Two or three tuners (seems like many of the shows I want to 'record' are
on the at the same time, i.e. The Simpsons and The Amazing Race are on at
the same time in September)
- Relatively quiet: I don't want to hear a loud whirling power supply fan
the whole time I'm watching The Simpsons
- "Audio/Video Component" form factor would be nice, i.e. it would be nice
to stack it on top  of (or under)  my surround-sound amplifier (but this is
a nice-to-have)
- Wireless keyboard, mouse & remote control
- Wireless LAN - No CAT 5 in the living room of my old house right now!
- DVD burner for obvious reasons
- Ability to record off of the tuners onto the hard drive while watching
another program off the hard drive

I've got sixty-channel analog cable.  I probably won't be going to HDTV,
digital cable or a dish service any time soon, so tuners don't have to be
that sophisticated.

Things I'm wondering about:

- Software: What do people like?

- Machine specs: What processor / RAM / Audio / Video / Hard Disk should
this beast have?  Particularly with the requirement to 'watch and record' at
the same time?

- Digital audio out for surround sound: Should I consider this or just keep
playing DVDs on the DVD player?

- Component Video out for DVDs...? See above

- Sending the signal elsewhere: Right now, if we have something 'taped' that
we want to watch before bedtime the wife and I will just pop the tape into
the VCR in the bedroom.  If everything's on a hard drive on another floor of
the house this gets more complicated.  How do others get around this and
'watch' the PVR in another room?  Burn a DVD?  Rebroadcast the signal
elsewhere in the house?  (And if you do rebroadcast how do you control the
PVR?)

...what else have I missed?

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada



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