Home made DVD Recorder with HD

[donpedro]

I was just wondering. Did anybody tryed to place PC in living room as an alternative to DVD Recorder ? If yes, what is configuration and how do you operate it ?

[Destroyer]

Yes, there are many solutions to this.
Most manufacturers of TV-tuner cards do offer a PVR functionality.
The writing to DVD is however not that common. (integrated functionality)

Check:

www.mythtv.org

[kzod]

Read the fine print guys, MythTV requires linux. Damn, looked like a great idea! I have an ATI TV wonder card installed in my computer, but I find the quality looks like shit. Much worse than the stuff I dl. Not sure if its compatability issues or what.

[donpedro]

I am looking on this from practical perspective too. How would one operate somethink like that in living room ? I am sure that my wife would be upset if I would place PC with monitor, keyboard and mouse into living room ruining her idea how furniture should be placed. Also what about PC noise ? All fans that spins to keep it cool... ?

[Destroyer]

So what's the deal about Linux? It's free and perfect for such things that requires a minimal fast boot. Sure it can be quite tricky get going, but look what you get.

Just check out the features !!!

http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures

The modular idea is great, with perhaps several backends and frontends.
The frontend seems very easy to navigate, even for those who don't know heck about computers.

[donpedro]

I just checked that web site and it looks very nice. I will have to read details later. Thanks for link.

[FulciLives]

Well you can buy small computers such as those made by shuttle which are like a large shoebox and have most everything integrated like video and sound. Usually they only have an AGP slot for video and one PCI slot and room for one optical drive and one HDD.

So you get one of those and put a large HDD in it along with a video card that has TV output (although I think some shuttle models have a video chipset like that on-board) and then a capture card.

For such a set-up I think the best solution would be the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-350 as this features real-time HARDWARE MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding and features a dedicated TV out which is limited to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 but looks just like the output of a DVD player. In other words very high quality without all of the "issues" that you have with normal video card TV output. Of course you still need the video card TV output so you can get your desktop on your TV to program the thing etc.

You could put in a DVD burner or get an external HDD that connects to the shuttle computer via USB and/or FIREWIRE and transfer your captures to that ... delete the capture on the internal HDD to make room for more recording ... then take the external HDD to your "real" computer for DVD authoring and burning.

In fact you could even use the very popular Canopus ADVC-100 using the external HDD transfer method. Since the ADVC-100 features both input and outputs of DV video you could also use it to watch something you recorded (rather than the video card TV out) then delete it if you don't want to save it.

I know MWAVE.COM has the shuttle computers (in the barebones section) as do many other computer sites.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Jukka]

Try http://www.dvdbuster.co.uk/ for some tips.

[donpedro]

Those systems looks cool..... Anybody who ownes one here ????

[spiderman2k1]

Well I capture i my bedroom so other people can watch what they want. I use a Dazzle 2 card www.dazzlegeek.com is a great site for info on this card. I also have a ATI AIW I would have to say Dazzle 2 is better for Satellite capture's but ATI AIW is better for VHS capture's. I use MPEG2VCR to edit ans TMPG> Can record in any format there is VCD SVCD DVD.

[donpedro]

I was thinking more like... replace VCR so anybody can record with it and at the end they can record it to DVD. So it will have more "user friendly". Like MythTV. I am just not sure if I am capable of doing something like that.

[spiderman2k1]

"donpedro" It can be done. The way I would go about it is. Make a cube PC I would get a Dazzle 2 but read about it at www.dazzlegeek.com I would get a intell chip set for the Dazzle 2 so you wont have problem's or a good via chip set I have a AMD 1.8XP VIA 266A and have no problem's.

Take your cable box or satellite box and use the RF plug to view TV use hook up the RCA and S-video to the Dazzle 2 or even ATI AIW. This way you can you do not have to hook up cable all the time. But I think if you unhool the RF cable you will get better picture. Use wireless mouse and keyboard and install only software you need to make DVD's and SVCD yes i still make SVCD very good and in alot of way's better then DVD just burn your show to a CDR.

[malaugh]

Donpedro

Here is a pic of my shuttle PC. It has an ATI all-in-wonder 9800 video card, which comes with software to timeshift and record TV shows to hard disk, an electronic program guide, DVD player software, and software to transfer recordings from the hard disk to DVD (Pinnacle). It also comes with a remote. There are probably better indiviual packages, but this all in one solution works pretty well.

[malaugh]

Here is the image

[Donny661]

If you don't like the shuttle because of lack of expandability you can look at this called the Hornet from Monarch Computers: http://www.monarchcomputer.com.

It uses a normal MicroATX motherboard and can fit the full size workstation AGP video cards.

[The village idiot]

A little off topic but, I hate the super bright blue LED that Shuttle uses. I had to put tape over the one in my SS50.

[Gil T Pleasure]

Is there a case manufacturer that makes a case that looks something like this?



Btw, this is the new Gateway® FMC-901 Family Room Media Center PC.

[malaugh]

Look at the sudhian forum at http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=51&threadid=30132
they discuss a lot of different cases. I believe the Coolermatser 600 is a popular case in the form factor you are looking for

[K(c)offee]

For something like this i would go with linux. Just because for one you dont want to have your DVR crash on you and rebooting it would be a bit of a pain. Also lower end system needed. Dont think you want to have to get a monster machine that only does one thing.

[donpedro]

What about Pinnacle Showcenter ? Any experience ?
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage_n.asp?Product_ID=1481

[SLICK RICK]

donpedro,

This case looks like it would be a good start to building a Home made DVD Recorder with HD. You can put 2 hard drives in this case and it also comes with 3 fans and a 200 watt power supply.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-150-996&catalog=7&depa=1

SLICK RICK

[donpedro]

This option is more and more interesting... I didn't explore it to full extend, but it seams that it might gain on popularity in the feature. Maybe DVD Recorders and Multimedia PC will meet on road one day. (I hate those play-compatibility issues with DVD Recorders)

[Gil T Pleasure]

More info on the Pinnacle Showcenter: http://www6.tomshardware.com/consumer/20031205/index.html

Other Multimedia Network Players:
http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20040114/index.html

[donpedro]

Nice info. Too bad that it is just "player".