building a HD PVR from Scratch ... want opinions.

[CurtisM]

I have decided that I will no longer pay for Direct TV just for the ability to record 2 programs at once. Most of the shows that I choose to record are on broadcast TV and I believe that I could build a better PVR than what you pay Direct TV $80.00 a month for. My first attempt was to go down and buy the hauppauge HD tuner and install it in my computer ... LOL, what a mess. The displayed picture paused, skipped, and had a generally unacceptable picture quality. That is when I determined that I would need to build a computer specifically for the PVR.

I would like the ability to record at least 2 programs at once and if possible maybe even 3 programs. The questions that I have are:

How fast should my processor be to be capable of what I am wanting?

How much memory?

Windows XP or Vista?

Which are the best tuners? Are they capable of working concurrently without crashing?

What is the best pvr software? Hauppauge recommended a program called "Sage".

What about video cards? I have a 42" LCD TV with a PC input.

Are downloadable guides available?

If recording 2 programs at once, would I need to install 2 Hard Drives or are the new 1TB drives capable of recording data fast enough to keep up.


I dont know much about the new products avalable, last time I built a computer the biggest issue was to determine if you wanted agp or pci. You guys have been there and probably have the answers, Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Curtis M

[edDV]

For ATSC recording the PC has little load. The MPeg2 stream is simply recorded to hard drive and recording multiple streams is not a problem. Best to separate OS and record drives. You can buy dual digital ATSC tuners. After June, you can still record analog SD off cable.

For HD ATSC, playback is the issue. You will need a display card with hardware HD MPeg2 decode. Get PureVideo HD (NVidia) or AVIVO HD (ATI).

For PVR software, most used is MCE. Major independent sources are

SageTV
BeyondTV
GBPVR (free)
MythTV (Linux)

[usually_quiet]

It might be helpful to know which HD Hauppauge card you bought, assuming you still have it, and want to use it. There are several of them currently being sold and their hardware requirements differ. Hauppauge is probably still the brand with the widest third-party PVR support.

[jagabo]

Just about any dual core CPU can decode HD MPEG 2 or h.264 without any assist from the graphics card. Of course, it doesn't hurt having a graphics card that can do the decoding too. Especially since those cards start around US$60.

If your HDTV has a spare HDMI input and has pixel-for-pixel mapping at 1920x1080p60 you should use that. You will get a perfectly sharp Desktop and the best quality video. You can use a DVI to HDMI cable from the computer to the HDTV if your graphics card doesn't have HDMI out.

[edDV]

His current computer is listed as AMD2800. That one would need hardware assist from the display card even for MPeg2 although players like VLC can cheat playback down to 960x540 using software only.

[jagabo]

His current computer is listed as AMD2800.

He said he's building a new computer.

[CurtisM]

Thanks for the responses so far guys, to answer some of the questions brought up so far .....

It might be helpful to know which HD Hauppauge card you bought,

I took the tuner I had originally purchased back because I really did not feel it was capable of doing the job I wanted it to do. Most of the dual tuners I have found have one analog and one digital tuner and is not capable of recording from both tuners at the same time. Also, with everything going to digital in June, it just does not make much sense to purchase a card with an analog tuner in it. If anyone has any experience with this and would like to recommend a tuner, I would really appreciate it.

His current computer is listed as AMD2800

Just about any dual core CPU can decode HD MPEG 2 or h.264 without any assist from the graphics card.

Currently, the processor I have in mind is a AMD Phenom 64 Quad-Core 9750. I guess I have just always had better luck with AMD. As for memory, would 4 gig of ram be sufficient?

For HD ATSC, playback is the issue. You will need a display card with hardware HD MPeg2 decode. Get PureVideo HD (NVidia) or AVIVO HD (ATI).

Thanks for the recommendation.

For PVR software, most used is MCE.

Again, thanks for the recommendations, I will check them out.

If your HDTV has a spare HDMI input and has pixel-for-pixel mapping at 1920x1080p60 you should use that.

I dont know all that much about the specs of the TV other than it is a 1080i. It only has one HDMI and is currently being used by the Blue Ray, but I guess I could run both of them through the surround sound as it has 3 HDMI inputs. which I guess brings up another question ... What about a sound card? Usually the HDMI carries the sound as well as the video, but if the source is a PC video card, how do you incorporate the sound?

I know that I am probably making things more complicated than the really are, but I want to know exactly what I am buying before I go to Frys. So please bear with me.

Curtis M

[xxiangg]

I have used DVICO FDTV5 USB for OTA HDTV recording for
years on my computer. Then. converting the recording to
DVD with proper softwares. I have tried several HDTV
cards a few years ago. The DVICO was the best choice
in my opinion.

http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/eng/Products/HDTV5usb.aspx

But in order to make a recording, I have to leave my
computer on all the time. I just found and bought the
new DTVpal DVR a week ago. It works like an old VCR.
You setup a timer for the program you want to record.
IT is a standalone device. It record OTA TV original
digital signal to its internal hard disk. It has a HDMI
output to your TV. I got my DTVpal DVR last week. So far
I have no major complains. Yes, there are some minor
complains. For example, it offers free TV guide information
for programs. But I could not directly setup recording
from the TV guide listing page. I have to remember the
channel number and time of the program. Then setup the
recording manually using recording time. There is no
reason this cannot be done. By the way, it is a $250
device. It is not cheap (compared with DVD recorder).
But there is no monthly severice change.

http://www.dtvpal.com/