Minimum Reqs For HDTV PC

[JBreits]

I have always used OTA transmissions for TV as I can't bring myself to pay for cable/dish (I hate recurring costs). With the analog signals set to be switched off in the next couple years, I've been thinking about making the jump to DTV before the deadline gets too close. I'm not a fan of set-top boxes or converters, so a TV upgrade is in my future (I've been wanting to upgrade this anyway). However, I just realized that the ability to record shows will be a problem.

We currently use a standard DVD recorder to record TV programs to watch later in the evening. Obviously, this won't work with DTV (unless you have a converter box, but then how do I do timed records?) so I must relace it as well. I see that Tivo has an HD model, but I don't like having a subscription service. There's a couple other stand-alones available, but I don't like the fact that there's no way to back up to a DVD or something if I really wanted to save something (plus their rather pricey).

I'm curious if I could build a decent HTPC for a comparable price. I'm not looking to build a FULL media center like many people do (don't care about pictures, MP3s, gaming, weather, etc).

My bare minimum requirements would be this:

- Ability to record a DTV show (one-touch or timer record).
- Ability to play back a recorded show on my HDTV
- Ability to play DVDs
- Ability to output digital audio to my audio system via digital coax or optical cable.
- Ability to record 18-24 hours of video (don't plan to do archiving).
- Quiet and low power usage.
- Run on Linux.

My ideal requirements would also include:

- Ability to record 2 shows and playback 1 show at the same time.

I've read that recording an HDTV program is not very CPU intesive, but playback is very intensive. Realistically, what are the minimum hardware requirements I'd need for each of these scenarios?

Thanks for any help!

JBreits

[edDV]

Wait until Feb '09 when things will be cheaper. For now you can buy a DVD recorder with an ATSC tuner but it will record only in SD.

I'm assuming you are limiting cost. If you go cable the answer is basic cable and a cable HD DVR. Cost is about $25/mo. ($300/yr). This is the shortest path to the functionality you want. No need for a Linux computer.

[yoda313]

Wait until Feb '09 when things will be cheaper. For now you can buy a DVD recorder with an ATSC tuner but it will record only in SD.

I'm assuming you are limiting cost. If you go cable the answer is basic cable and a cable HD DVR. Cost is about $25/mo. ($300/yr). This is the shortest path to the functionality you want. No need for a Linux computer.

True but that will only get you ota stations through the cable signal for many cable companies. You'll have to go to higher channel packages to get cable channels in high def.

I know I'm going through it now looking for the right hd cable channel package for my new hdtv. It's tough......

[edDV]

Wait until Feb '09 when things will be cheaper. For now you can buy a DVD recorder with an ATSC tuner but it will record only in SD.

I'm assuming you are limiting cost. If you go cable the answer is basic cable and a cable HD DVR. Cost is about $25/mo. ($300/yr). This is the shortest path to the functionality you want. No need for a Linux computer.

True but that will only get you ota stations through the cable signal for many cable companies. You'll have to go to higher channel packages to get cable channels in high def.

I know I'm going through it now looking for the right hd cable channel package for my new hdtv. It's tough......

True but JBreits only wanted OTA DTV. Basic cable is a good way to get it without the antenna issues (e.g. behind a hill or far away from the transmitter).

The way fo go for a Linux PC would be MythTV at considerably higher cost.

[JBreits]

FYI, basic cable is about $40/month in my area thanks to a monopoly. Pay for a year of that and I'd recoup a good portion of my costs on an HTPC ($480).

I can't decide if things actually will get cheaper as we near the cutoff date. Plus, I'm slightly afraid that if I wait until it gets close to the cutoff I won't be able to resell my current TV and DVD recorder.

Any ideas on the minimum hardware requirements? Even if I wait, I'd still be interested to know what the requirements would be.

Thanks,
JBreits

[rallynavvie]

The FCC is bringing up a lawsuit in Federal courts for certain cable "monopolies" but I think they're aiming it at apartment complexes. When I had cable at my house in MN there were at least 2 competing services: one cable and at least one satellite carrier. That's still competition and if it didn't drive down service cost it did increase services offered for that same price.

Now in my apartment in Dallas I have only one option because the "visual" restriction of my lease state that I can't have a satellite dish in certain places and I'm SOL because my apartment faces the wrong way. Since the cable company knows they have a grip on most residents because of this they charge just as much as any other cable service but offer terrible service.

They just started offering digital cable (oddly coinciding with a report I filed with the BBB on them for misleading sales when calling their customer service) there but refuse to elaborate on the specifics of their service as it pertains to my HTPC. I've noticed other cable companies like Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, and DirecTV offer support for HTPC users (though generally just the Windows ones).

[dphirschler]

@rallynavvie
If your apartment faces the southeast, then you can put up a dish or an antenna. They can't prevent you from doing that.

@JBreits
If you want to use Linux, then your selection of TV cards will be limited. I suggest you visit http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page to see the limited selection that is currently working under Linux.

That being said, a lot will depend on your video card's speed. You can get by with a slower PC (I'm talking < 1GHz) if you have a speedy video card. Otherwise, I would recommend minimum 2GHz, or more realistically, a 3GHz.


Darryl

[JBreits]

So a decent graphics card would get me by with a cheaper processor?

Some other things I've been wondering about. I've heard that recording the HDTV stream doesn't require much work by the CPU because it's just dumping the already digital data onto the hard drive, but playback takes a lot of power because it has to decode the information. Isn't there some way that I could just dump the encoded information back to my TV and let the TV decode it?

Also, as mentioned earlier, there are some DVD recorders that will downgrade the signal to SD and store it that way. Is this possible to do with an HTPC? I'm guessing it would just move the processing required to the capture stage rather than the display stage so probably not any gain.

Thanks,
JBreits

[jagabo]

Midrange nVidia 8600 GT or ATI 2600 XT are sufficient (~$125):

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047

You might even get away with a 8500 GT (~$75).

Mid range CPU <$200 is fine too.

[rallynavvie]

@rallynavvie
If your apartment faces the southeast, then you can put up a dish or an antenna. They can't prevent you from doing that.

That's the problem, my apartment faces north and I have no south or east facing windows. And there are limits as to where we can place antennas and dishes, FCC rules or not, as it we had to agree to it when we signed our lease.

[zoobie]

move to the other side?

[edDV]

FYI, basic cable is about $40/month in my area thanks to a monopoly. Pay for a year of that and I'd recoup a good portion of my costs on an HTPC ($480).

If basic cable is $40/mo it means your city/county cable franchise department is being bribed by the cable company. Here basic analog service (which includes digital QAM and HD cable box support) is $15.50. The HD DVR cable box rental is additional. The local HD channels cannot be blocked per FCC ruling.

[JBreits]

I wish it were only $15 a month here. Anyway, it's not and there's not really anything I can do about it. OTA is fine if I can get it to work. Thanks for the responses, it sounds like a lot more power is necessary that I expected.

Anyone know of a way to get an HDTV test file to run on a system to see if it could handle it?

[edDV]

I wish it were only $15 a month here. Anyway, it's not and there's not really anything I can do about it. OTA is fine if I can get it to work. Thanks for the responses, it sounds like a lot more power is necessary that I expected.

Anyone know of a way to get an HDTV test file to run on a system to see if it could handle it?

Receiving MPeg2_TS or QAM(cable MPeg) HD is low in system requirements other than disk space (~9GB/hr). Watching the playback or monitoring video during the capture is high in display card and moderate in CPU requirements. Most ATSC capture software allows capturing only the subchannel of interest thus lowering capture rates from 19Mb/s to 12-19Mb/s for HD or 3-5Mb/s for SD.

Here are some of the ATSC transport stream (MPeg2_TS) tools for Linux and links to some samples.