[pknowles]

My wife wants a Tivo badly. But after looking at them and some of the very limited features I think I can build something better for the same price using an old PC. Computer wise I have an old 550 MHz P3 that I would like to use becuase currently it's just sitting in the corner taking up space. I realize this may not be enough, but I plan on using the Hauppauge 500 card which has hardware encoding, so I don't think I need a powerfull PC. If I use hardware encoding all the processor is going to do is control the streaming of data to disk and run the interface program, which I think a P3 should be able to do. Anyone have any advice as far as software (Beyond TV, Sage, etc.)? I'm leaning toward using windows since my wife will be using this and I really don't want to put myself through the pain of teaching her Linux (which I'm sure she doesn't want either).

As far as hardware/software I think I need:
1. TV tuner card (leaning towards Hauppauge 500 so I can record one channel while watching another)
2. Video card with TV out (not sure want I want, but a Matrox G200 TV should be cheap)
3. Need a lot more then the 8 GB harddrive the computer currently has. I'm thinking about 300 GB should do it.
4. Software (Beyond TV, Sage, Windows Media Center, etc.)
5. Remote

I guess I should say that I want to go the PC route instead of Tivo becuase my wife likes to review her favorite shows all at once. So I plan on burning her shows to DVD, so that she can watch them all at once. The only feature that I have not seen is that when you are looking at a show is there any software that will tell you what season and episode number the show is? That would make it alot easier to put the shows in the correct order on the DVD. Does a Tivo even do this? Any advice is appreciated.

[axoid]

I built a system about a year and a half ago with a dual tuner card and Beyond TV and an ATI video card with DVI output on a XP home box. I have a HD TV the has DVI in so the picture is better than with a standard video out port. The only down side is that the tuners can only record analog stations off cable. To record the digital channels (Speed) I had to get a another DVR from my cable company. But I like having the Beyond TV DVR, I often copy shows to other computers and sometimes recompress them for my PSP. I have a 260 GB drive and it can easily record 80-100 hrs of shows. I even have remote control for it.

If you install an HD tuner you can record over the air HD shows.

[Ynnek888]

I built a system about a year and a half ago with a dual tuner card and Beyond TV and an ATI video card with DVI output on a XP home box. I have a HD TV the has DVI in so the picture is better than with a standard video out port. The only down side is that the tuners can only record analog stations off cable. To record the digital channels (Speed) I had to get a another DVR from my cable company. But I like having the Beyond TV DVR, I often copy shows to other computers and sometimes recompress them for my PSP. I have a 260 GB drive and it can easily record 80-100 hrs of shows. I even have remote control for it.

If you install an HD tuner you can record over the air HD shows.

I have an older version of Beyond TV.. 3.4 with analog cable. Never got the new version because I never liked how the little problems I had with 3.4.. 2.5 years later, I still use it though, and it works mostly "invisibly" - even my wife can use it.. Thanks to the PVR250 and its remote. Plus it is nice to have the shows easily accessible.

But if I had to build another one today, I too would look at Windows Media Center.. Or better yet, Vista Home Premium that includes the MCE stuff.


However, for digital cable and stuff, its not going to happen until CableCard improves. My friend at Comcast claims that CableCard support will improve and be actively supported by Comcast in about a year or so.. I'll believe it when I see it!

Also, the CableCard interface supposedly will NOT be available for build it your selfer's.. meaning they will only officially sell them out to places like Dell and such. Blah!

That all said, I'd just get a DVR provided by your digital cable/satellite provider.. unless you are just sticking to over the air broadcasts.

I myself haven't jumped on HD yet.. Still waiting for prices to lower across everything and the last kinks in tech to be resolved.. I'll probably upgrade everything once the BlueRay/HD wars settles out and various forms of DRM collapse into one, or preferably none.

This post has been edited by Ynnek888: Jan 23 2007, 12:24 AM