[k_hectic]

Ok guys, what do you I need to turn my machine into something like a ReplayTV box for Cable TV? Software and Hardware wise!!! I want to be able to record shows, and preferably be able to go back and forward in a show (if it's possible on PCs).


I have an Athlon 800MHz, an nVidia GF4 Ti4200 video card, and an SB Audigy sound card.


My hard drive is 60GB, but I'm planning on getting a separate one for recording TV shows, but I just don't know which component I need.


I'm probably getting myself a projector too (SVGA or cheap XGA), but that would be a month from now at least.


I appreciate any input guys.

 

[stickman]

There are a ton of options. I use ShowShifter with an ATI AIW card. DScaler is working on time shifting support but am unsure when that will be available. Microsoft Media Center eddition is real popular. Also, myHTPC has just added an EPG feature that is real promising, plus it's free. I use myHTPC along with ShowShifter for recording.


Check out this site for some more info: http://ruel.net/intro.htm


Jason

 

[k_hectic]

Yeah, but what sort of card do I need to add to my computer to be able to receive Cable signal in the first place?!

 

[Trik]

IMHO 800MHz is on the low side for on the fly encoding, unless you use a very good hardware assist capture card.

 

[bk]

I put an ATI TV Wonder VE in my daughter's OC'd 300MHz celeron (~450Mhz). It works fine as a TV tuner and the software is very user-friendly too. Her system is not sufficient for recording TiVo style, but this card is an inexpensive way to do what you want.

 

[k_hectic]

But I do want to record TiVo style.

So you guys recommend upgrading my CPU!? Is 1.3GHz good enough? Or do I HAVE to go higher?


What else should I get? How do I connect cable to my Computer? What cards are recommended?!

 

[Trik]

1.3 should be enough except for posibly very high res, high bit rate captures.


What are you trying to end up with exactly?

Are you planing to burn VCD's, SVCD's, DVD's?

Do you need to capture in mpeg1, 2, mpeg4, AVI?

Do you want to use advanced codecs such as divx? xvid?


Heres a very basic guide for building a TiVo type system: http://www.gamingnexus.com/Article.asp?ID=1


But before you make a decision on what hardware, you need to decide on an end result and do some research on what you need to reach those results.

 

[bk]

The ATI TV Wonder VE is less than $50. It will provide the cable TV input into your PC. After that it's a question of processor speed and disc space as to the recording of shows. Try it and see if your system can do the job as is.


If you want a remote control for your TV card you can go to a higher end ATI TV card of the All-In-Wonder variety.

 

[dkardatzke]

If you utilize a hardware encoding based card like the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250, 1.3 Ghz is plenty. It will probably work find on your 800mhZ as well. I'm running two capture cards recording at the same time on a 1.4Ghz Celeron with no problems.


The nice thing about a card like the PVR-250 is that it can be recording 24 hrs a day and use minimal PC resources.


You have two options for connecting your cable to the PC, you can either connect it directly using the RF In on the card or go through the Cable box using the Composite or S-Video in. If you want to control the Cable box you can then use an Actisys IR-200L or similar IR transmitter to send the channel changing commands to the Cable box.


Hope that helps,

Dan

 

[freat]

I use the Hauppauge PVR-350 on a PIII 800MHz system and it is plenty for recording (I use the high quality 3.5GB / hour setting) and for playback scaled to 880x496. If you don't need to scaled the playback, with the PVR-350 you can get hardware decoding as well, by hooking your tv up to the S-Video or Composite output from the card. Myself, I'm running through a VGA to Component transcoder to a HDTV. Only thing is that the PVR-350 is not supported by DScaler. The software I use howver (SageTV) uses DScaler during polayback so I have had great results.

 

[k_hectic]

Thanks for the replies guys.


I'm gonna make myself clearer now that I understand things a little better.


I don't currently have a TV. I just moved recently to a place in Chicago, so I'm not subscribed with Cable yet.

I want to save money by not getting a TV or a Cable box, yet have the cable hooked directly to my PC. The reason I'm saving this money is to get an SVGA or XGA projector instead of a TV in a month or two.

I want to be able to record shows on the hard drive. To be honest, I'm not very concerned with recording shows on CDs or DVDs at the moment (although I might in the future).


So, what's the difference between a PVR card and a TV card!? Is it the fact that a PVR encodes in hardware whereas the TV card requires the computer to encode in software!??!?


Any other brands for PVRs that I should check into!?

I don't want to get a new video card. I'd rather get an add-in card instead

 

[ruel]

Quote:

Originally posted by k_hectic I want to be able to record shows on the hard drive. To be honest, I'm not very concerned with recording shows on CDs or DVDs at the moment(although I might in the future). So, what's the difference between a PVR card and a TV card!? Is it the fact that a PVR encodes in hardware whereas the TV card requires the computer to encode in software!??!? Any other brands for PVRs that I should check into!?

You may also want to look at the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card. I use it for my PVR. The PVR software that is provided with the card is great and may be what you are interested in. The Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card has a hardware encoder which essentially means the hardware handles the recording. Regular TV Tuner cards would have your CPU handle that load. Other similar cards with the hardware encoder include the WinTV-PVR 250 / 350 cards. A bunch of the WinTV-PVR users use the SageTV software. At my webiste, I write about both the Creative VB DVCR card using the PVR software that comes with that card and also using SageTV with that card. That includes screenshots with my commentary about how I use the card and the software and hopefully should give you an idea as to what to look for in tivo-type software. Regular TV Tuner cards say they have tivo-like software, but I don't think anything comes close to what the Creative software and the SageTV software does except for WinXP MCE and maybe the Snapstream software from what people say Snapstream version 3.0 will be like.

 

[k_hectic]

Looks like I"m going for the creative card. Thanks guys.

 

[rgathright]

Quote:

Originally posted by ruel You may also want to look at the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card. I use it for my PVR. The PVR software that is provided with the card is great and may be what you are interested in. The Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card has a hardware encoder which essentially means the hardware handles the recording. Regular TV Tuner cards would have your CPU handle that load. Other similar cards with the hardware encoder include the WinTV-PVR 250 / 350 cards. A bunch of the WinTV-PVR users use the SageTV software. At my webiste, I write about both the Creative VB DVCR card using the PVR software that comes with that card and also using SageTV with that card. That includes screenshots with my commentary about how I use the card and the software and hopefully should give you an idea as to what to look for in tivo-type software. Regular TV Tuner cards say they have tivo-like software, but I don't think anything comes close to what the Creative software and the SageTV software does except for WinXP MCE and maybe the Snapstream software from what people say Snapstream version 3.0 will be like.

ruel


Do you think the Creative DVCR will work for what I want it to do? I currently have the Xcapture and am tired of trying to make it work. I want to be able to record from my satellite receiver and play back on my HDTV (GWII). Some times I will want to transfer this recordings to make a DVD.


Also what type of software comes with this. I am using 1280X720 aspect ratio and the PowerDirector or DVD Player will not work at this aspect ratio.

 

[Salmoneous]

Quote:

Originally posted by rgathright Also what type of software comes with this. I am using 1280X720 aspect ratio and the PowerDirector or DVD Player will not work at this aspect ratio.

I have a Creative Labs D-VCR card and am very happy with it. The things I like best are (1) the included PVR software yeilds a "TV watching experience" as opposed to a "watching TV on a computer experience", (2) the card and software have worked perfectly from day one - pop in card, install software, that's it, no hastle, no fuss.


I'm running it in 1280x720 on my Samsung DLP, so my experience should be similar to what you will see. Here's where you need to understand what the card is doing. First, it encodes the incomming video stream as a 640x480 mpeg-like file. Then - either simultaneously or utilizing the PVR software's PVR funtions - it plays back the encoded file. Your choices for playback are 3-window sizes (up to 640x480) or full screen. Full screen mode requres the software to stretch the 640x480 file out to 1280x720. Between the encoding and the stretching, there is a noticable drop in quality over the original TV signal. I suspect that it would look better if I ran my computer desktop at 800x600 or 640x480 and let the TV do the stretching, but I haven't tested it out because (1) I'm lazy, (2) for what I'm watching, the quality is perfectly acceptable.

 

[jkaiser]

While not a "real" problem, just so you know. Creative Labs maximum record is 640 by 480. I did try the "custom" but lost audio in the capture. And while it does come with a utility to convert your captures to MPEG, some DVD authoring software will not read the MPEG.


Other gripe for me at least is when using SVideo to a TV, the screen has black bands on all 4 sides (underscan rather than overscan).


One "neat" feature that I like is that rather than having to go through hoops to switch from SVideo In to Tuner (I have DSS on SVideo In), the SVideo is just another "channel" in the channel list.


I also noticed that CompUSA no longer lists the card (which usually had $50 rebates) so it looks like full price where you can find them (I only found them on the Creative Labs site).

 

[dkardatzke]

Quote:

Originally posted by jkaiser Other gripe for me at least is when using SVideo to a TV, the screen has black bands on all 4 sides (underscan rather than overscan).

What video card are you using? I used to have this same problem using my nVidia Graphics Card.

 

[video321]

What about the Leadtek TV2000 XP PCI card with remote?

 

[manstretch]

Anyone have any experience with an All-in-Wonder VE Pci card? I'm looking at this card for PVR box and to use it as a cheap video card as well. How is the quality of this card as far as TV recording (this will be the main use for this card).

 

[repoman]

I just installed Creatives DVCR a few days ago. The install was a piece of cake and it functions as advertised- very TIVO like. The HTPC has a MyHD card as well, connected to the VGA input to my Pioneer 433cmx and I'm using the loop back cable to my video card. The video card is connected via DVI to the plasma. My intial impressions using my Cablevision SA HD Digital box connected to the DVCR's RF input were positive. The picture while watching 24 on FOX was TIVO acceptable. Not as good as broadcast but watchable. However, last night I tuned into the Islander and Mets games and the picture was very poor thru my DVI connection. Any motion blurred the picture,worse then anything I've seen including VCR tape. If I switch to VGA input on the Plasma all I get is a pink screen. The numbers and menu will appear but no picture. I figure this has to do with the MyHD card. Now I've read many positive reviews of the DVCR from Ruel and others and I'm wondering if there is something I can do to improve the picture. I figure I'll try disconnecting the MyHD and run VGA to the Plasma from the video card (is DVI the culprit?). After that I could resize the desk top, I guess. If thats the case it leaves me with the problem of having to connect two things to one VGA input (MyHD being the other). The component input is used for the HD cable box. Anyone have any thoughts on this?