Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Who here has built their own Tivo or PVR unit?

And..... has it worked out as well as say buying a
pre-made DVD/HDD unit such as one in link below?

http://tinyurl.com/7xj6x

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

me6@privacy.net wrote:

> Who here has built their own Tivo or PVR unit?

I've set up my own MythTV machine.


> And..... has it worked out as well as say buying a
> pre-made DVD/HDD unit such as one in link below?
>
> http://tinyurl.com/7xj6x

Who knows. I've never used the above item.
MythTV rocks, though.


-WD

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

>Who knows. I've never used the above item.
>MythTV rocks, though.

Questions abt Myth....

What vidoe/PVR card are you using?

Is the Hauppage line OK?

And..... does Myth allow setups for recording JUST like a VCR by using
start and stop times?

I realize it can get fancier than that by using online guides and
such.... but I also NEED basic VCR-like programming with start/stop
and channel entry.

Also..... how do you play back recording on a standard TV? Or can
it?

Do you use a media hub to playback to reg TV?

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

me6@privacy.net wrote:

> Questions abt Myth....
>
> What vidoe/PVR card are you using?

It's an OEM PVR250. That's the preferred card for Myth. It cost
something like $75 just over a year ago.


> Is the Hauppage line OK?

See above. Any of the ivtv supported cards should be fine.


> And..... does Myth allow setups for recording JUST like a VCR by using
> start and stop times?

Yes, but I've only used this feature in testing. (Much easier to
search by program name)


> Also..... how do you play back recording on a standard TV? Or can
> it?

Generally MythTV machines are built with video cards that have TV-Out.
For the best quality, the PVR-350 has integrated MPEG2 decoding and
TV-out.


> Do you use a media hub to playback to reg TV?

Not sure what that is, so I'd say "no" to that.


-WD

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

>> And..... does Myth allow setups for recording JUST like a VCR by using
>> start and stop times?
>
>Yes, but I've only used this feature in testing. (Much easier to
>search by program name)

Oh yes Im sure it is MUCH easier programming by name.... but I
absolutely must have the old style VCR-like start/stop timer as well.

I may be using a TV antenna only in future and not have any internet
connection.... hence the need for start/stop timer recordings ala VCR.

Again..... Myth CAN do this?

>> Also..... how do you play back recording on a standard TV? Or can
>> it?
>
>Generally MythTV machines are built with video cards that have TV-Out.
> For the best quality, the PVR-350 has integrated MPEG2 decoding and
>TV-out.

So the 250 does NOT have TV out then? And one must then install a
separate TV out card if using the 250?

Whereas the 350 has it ALL built in....TV out, etc?

If yes on both accounts...... would you recommend getting it all in
one card such as the 325? Or is there some advantage to using the 250
and additional TV out card?

>> Do you use a media hub to playback to reg TV?
>
>Not sure what that is, so I'd say "no" to that.

Something like this. See ink

http://tinyurl.com/4anud

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

me6@privacy.net wrote:

> I may be using a TV antenna only in future and not have any internet
> connection.... hence the need for start/stop timer recordings ala VCR.
>
> Again..... Myth CAN do this?

Absolutely.


> So the 250 does NOT have TV out then? And one must then install a
> separate TV out card if using the 250?

Correct. If your video card doesn't have TV-out, then you'll either
need to switch it out or get an add-in card for TV-out.


> Whereas the 350 has it ALL built in....TV out, etc?
>
> If yes on both accounts...... would you recommend getting it all in
> one card such as the 325? Or is there some advantage to using the 250
> and additional TV out card?

Yes. The 350 has the advantage of unsurpassed quality output, all in
one card. But at a higher cost.

When I set up my MythTV machine, the TV-out support on the 350 was
highly experimental if even supported at all. But the driver
development has made it quite a viable solution lately.


-WD

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

>Yes. The 350 has the advantage of unsurpassed quality output, all in
>one card. But at a higher cost.
>
>When I set up my MythTV machine, the TV-out support on the 350 was
>highly experimental if even supported at all. But the driver
>development has made it quite a viable solution lately.

OK Will great info!!

But just to recap and make sure...... YOU do own the
350, right?

And.... do you use any kind of remote with this card
such as that FireFly thingie they sale?

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Boring to do nowadays...

Almost any of the Windows Media PCs, PCs with ATI All-In-Wonder cards,
and so forth will do the basics of time shifting, TV recording, creating
burnable files, etc. quite easily. The ATI AIW with remote control
models are super-easy to use -- acts just like any other PVR, and you
can drop one in anyday for a Tivo, etc - with their free EasyLook software.

On this note, lots of work has been done on alternative platforms and
OSs, such as MythTV for Linux, Xbox Media Center, etc.

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

me@privacy.net wrote:

> But just to recap and make sure...... YOU do own the
> 350, right?

No, I have a 250, as I stated yesterday.


> And.... do you use any kind of remote with this card
> such as that FireFly thingie they sale?

It's an X10 Lola RF remote.
http://www.x10.com/products/lola_remote.htm
X10 was running some kind of special at the time and it was free. (just
pay $5 or something for shipping)


-WD

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

> Who here has built their own Tivo or PVR unit?

I have a PC running Beyond-TV as the user-interface with a PVR-250-BTV
encoder card and a FireFly remote. This is relatively easy to build as
soon as I find a workaround with the problem in the FireFly driver
(that prevented me from getting access to COM port for dial-up
connection).

There is one catch though:
If you only have one PC and you have multiple persons in your
family that want to view videos, you will find that you will be
competing with your family members for the use of that PC. You will
likely need another PC for non-PVR use, or get a media-network-player;
as of me, I have none; therefore, people in my family need to take
turn using the PC -- Oh well...

Jay Chan

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

>
>There is one catch though:
> If you only have one PC and you have multiple persons in your
>family that want to view videos, you will find that you will be
>competing with your family members for the use of that PC. You will
>likely need another PC for non-PVR use, or get a media-network-player;

Why?

Are you viewing your TV on the PC itself.....and NOT a
regular TV?

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

> Are you viewing your TV on the PC itself.....and NOT a
> regular TV?

A PC can do TV and a whole lot more!

eg. Buy and small Shuttle XPC PC.

http://sys.us.shuttle.com/

Attach to the latest big-screen LCD/Plasma monitor.

Now, you have TIVO & TV.

Load up the Shuttle with MP3 audio files from your CDs, and you have
a jukebox as well.

Load up the Shuttle with all of your movies, and you now have a video
jukebox.

Load up all of your pictures from your digital camera, and now you've
got your entire photo album viewable on a big screen.

Hook it up to the Internet, and you can now surf the Internet and
watch TV/Video at the same time on the same big-screen from a comfy couch.

All in the size of a small bread-box. No need for all those
traditional pieces of AV equipment, like the tape player, CD player, DVD
player, etc, etc.

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

In article <ce9e4s$gnq$1@news.service.uci.edu>,
David Chien <chiendh@uci.edu> wrote:

> > Are you viewing your TV on the PC itself.....and NOT a
> > regular TV?
>
> A PC can do TV and a whole lot more!
>
> eg. Buy and small Shuttle XPC PC.
>
> http://sys.us.shuttle.com/
>
> Attach to the latest big-screen LCD/Plasma monitor.
>
> Now, you have TIVO & TV.
>
> Load up the Shuttle with MP3 audio files from your CDs, and you have
> a jukebox as well.
>
> Load up the Shuttle with all of your movies, and you now have a video
> jukebox.
>
> Load up all of your pictures from your digital camera, and now you've
> got your entire photo album viewable on a big screen.
>
> Hook it up to the Internet, and you can now surf the Internet and
> watch TV/Video at the same time on the same big-screen from a comfy couch.
>
> All in the size of a small bread-box. No need for all those
> traditional pieces of AV equipment, like the tape player, CD player, DVD
> player, etc, etc.
>

And the best part is when someone steals your Shuttle XPC PC they will
have stolen every memory you own.

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

me@privacy.net wrote in message news:<u8pfg0lvg5l5u23ju03te13oqqge97f801@4ax.com>...
> >
> >There is one catch though:
> > If you only have one PC and you have multiple persons in your
> >family that want to view videos, you will find that you will be
> >competing with your family members for the use of that PC. You will
> >likely need another PC for non-PVR use, or get a media-network-player;
>
> Why?
>
> Are you viewing your TV on the PC itself.....and NOT a
> regular TV?

I am viewing on my TV, not on the PC monitor. But that doesn't really
matter. The reason is that the CPU is the one decoding MPEG (at least
that is how it is being done in Beyond-TV), and this is a CPU
intensive process. If someone is viewing TV via Beyond-TV, I cannot
use the same PC to edit video clips -- too slow in my 1.5-GHz P4 PC.
The solution seems to come down to:

- Not allow multiple users to use the same PC (this is what I am
doing now).

- Get a second PC or a media network player (this is what I will do).

- Get another front-end program that can take advantage of hardware
MPEG decoder (Beyond-TV cannot do this).

Jay Chan

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

>
> A PC can do TV and a whole lot more!
>
> eg. Buy and small Shuttle XPC PC.
>
> http://sys.us.shuttle.com/
>
> Attach to the latest big-screen LCD/Plasma monitor.

Any particular Shuttle model you like best for this
use?

Also.....what DVD drive/burner do you use?