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  1. Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
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    Chicagoland, Northwest Suburbs
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    Hi all! I recently cancelled Cable/Satellite service, and went with an OTA (over the air) antenna for digital broadcasting.

    My question is, is there a way to automatically record favorite shows via a TV tuner card?

    My current setup:
    -Antennas Direct ClearStream4 w/ Channel Master 3414 Amplifier for OTA signal

    On the PC (Win 7 x64):
    -Hauppauge 2250 TV Tuner Card with their WinTV 7 software
    -Plex Media Server
    -Dedicated 2tb hdd for recordings

    -TitanTV for recoding shows *can favorite shows, but cannot record a 'favorite show' on certain channels, have to manually record each episode
    -Smart TVs and Rokus for playback in and outside of the house

    Any help would be great. I'm so close to having this complete, just cannot find a way to automatically record our favorite shows! Essentially need an alternative to the Win7 or Titantv guide.
    I am probably going to use a utility to automatically delete old recordings (Belvedere file manager).
    Thanks!
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  2. '
    have ya tried Windows Media Center,, that behaves much like a DVR with 'favorites' availability,, and works with 2250 TV card
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  3. Member
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    Jun 2014
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    Chicagoland, Northwest Suburbs
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    Originally Posted by Atticus Draco View Post
    '
    have ya tried Windows Media Center,, that behaves much like a DVR with 'favorites' availability,, and works with 2250 TV card
    I should have thought of that! I will give it a try.

    Edit: Awesome!
    Last edited by cfdp; 25th Jun 2014 at 21:57.
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  4. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
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    I have been using an HVR-2250 with Windows Media Center for a about 3 years. It's an excellent TV card. Windows Media Center has the ability to delete old recordings based on age, or low storage space. Maybe it can meet your needs by itself.

    The Silicondust HD Homerun Dual is another excellent dual digital tuner for Windows Media Center. It is an external device with an Ethernet interface that you can connect to a router so it can be used by more than one Windows PC on a home network.

    [Edit]Windows Media Center records in WTV file format on a Windows 7 PC. The WTV format supports DRM for paid TV sources, but if recorded from an over-the-air US source, WTV files should always be unprotected.

    Some non-Microsoft players will play unprotected .WTV files, but others won't. (VLC, PotPlayer, and Cyberlink PowerDVD have worked for me, in most cases.) You may need to convert them to something else for other players.

    VideoReDo TV Suite can both convert and edit WTV files directly and compensates for transmission errors, so video and audio remain sin sync after editing. Windows 7 includes a utility to convert from WTV to DVR-MS, which has better support, but for some reason closed captions are corrupted in the resulting files. The less expensive VideoReDo plus can work directly with DVR-MS files and also compensates for transmission errors, but provides fewer conversion options.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 26th Jun 2014 at 01:43.
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  5. Member
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    Jun 2014
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    Chicagoland, Northwest Suburbs
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    Windows Media Center had exactly what I wanted. However, in my situation, I had to utilize my PC (hooked up to my livingroom TV via HDMI), so I could not use my PC while say my gf was watching tv. The remote also did not allow one to close WMC either.
    Returned the Hauppauge 2250, ordered the Channel Master DVR+ instead, just makes things a lot easier. Thanks all!
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  6. Member
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    Aug 2006
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    United States
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    Originally Posted by cfdp View Post
    Windows Media Center had exactly what I wanted. However, in my situation, I had to utilize my PC (hooked up to my livingroom TV via HDMI), so I could not use my PC while say my gf was watching tv. The remote also did not allow one to close WMC either.
    Returned the Hauppauge 2250, ordered the Channel Master DVR+ instead, just makes things a lot easier. Thanks all!
    If you decide to give Windows Media Center a try again at some point, it is possible to close WMC with the remote or turn off the PC. There isn't a dedicated button for either, but it is still possible. I have done it myself. See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/turn-off-your-computer-using-windows-media-center
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