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The new HD DirecTivo will have dual OTA tuners and dual Satellite tuners, meaning you can be recording up to 3 HD/SD programs while watching another one live.

Incorrect. You can use any two tuners at once while watching a third program that is already recorded.

I know know if it has any picture-in-picture capability, so I don't think you'll be able watch two things at once, but regardless, you'll be able to record two things at once and watch another. Pretty impressive actually that it'll be able to handle three simultaneous full-bandwidth HD signals.

There's a great list of features of this unit at this thread at avsforum.com.

Personally, I'll have one of these on pre-order the moment it becomes available. I've already been completely spoiled by TiVo and in the last few months I've been spoiled by high-definition TV. To marry the two will be awesome.

-S

The new HD DirecTivo will have dual OTA tuners and dual Satellite tuners, meaning you can be recording up to 3 HD/SD programs while watching another one live. The HD is 250GB and will support all HD as well as SD output formats. The unit has recently entered Beta testing and hopefully will appear on store shelves soon. Check AVSForum for more info.

DirecTV HDTV actually delivers quite a good image. Flipping between the same game on Sunday Ticket HD on DTV and CBS-HD OTA reveals some artifacts being introduced occassionally from further compression but still delivers a good image that will only get better as more satellites get in the sky. Other channels such as ESPN-HD (when they are actually showing HD) and Discovery HD look excellent compared to full bitrate OTA channels.

Note that the WinTV-D card downconverts HDTV signals to standard definition. Hauppauge also makes a WinTV-HD that does display HD. (I have a WinTV-D, and I must say that standard-definition digital is a huge improvement over analog - IMHO far more of an improvement than HD digital is over SD digital.)

The WinTV-D will (probably) not work with HDTV over cable. They use different modulation protocols. Not sure about the WinTV-HD but I doubt it, you'll probably need the converter from the cable company to receive HD that way. There are other makes of digital tuner card on the market, it's possible some support cable.

If you're reasonably close to the local broadcast towers you stand a good chance of receiving their HD signals with a standard antenna. Whether it has to be aimed depends on the local terrain. AVS Forum has a section devoted to local off-air reception. You can look up the locations of your local towers on my website - feel free to email the address at the bottom of that page for more info.

I've got a pcHDTV card and have done some transport stream captures in Linux. I've tried playing them back on a friend's Shuttle XPC (running Linux) with an Athlon XP2400+ and GeForceFX 5200. NVidia's drivers do support XvMC (motion compensation) on this card, and Xine is able to take advantage of it. But I'm still not 100% thrilled with the performance. There's some slight judder/jitter, mostly noticable in smooth pans, and that's with everything scaled to 1280 pixels wide. If I try to run the display at 1920 pixels wide, it seems to stress the fill rate or in any case cause it to get much choppier.

Supposedly GeForce4 MX cards might actually have better XvMC support, but I haven't verified this. For this specific purpose I think the general advice is that the GF4MX cards are better than GF4Ti models.

Not that Windows HD cards and drivers are apparently much better. I've seen complaints from at least one Windows HTPC user that he's not happy with playback there either.

So a bunch of us are watching the Roku HD1000 unit very closely. This is a set-top box based around the ATI Xilleon chip -- a MIPS core surrounded by specialized graphics hardware, including full HDTV MPEG decoding.

Best of all, it runs Linux. An initial SDK (gcc toolchain) is due out in the next week or so. There are Roku folks hanging out in the main Roku thread at avsforum, and have been answering questions and taking suggestions. They also just set up a mailing list of their own for technical discussions.

As soon as the product was announced there were a bunch of us who immediately thought of using this as a transport stream player, and although the initial firmware does not do that, they have already released two beta versions in the last few weeks developing this as a feature. Apparently their developers also have HD capture cards and have an interest in making this work :-)

Everytime a thread about anything home theater related the answer is the same -- go check out AVS Forum, it's answered there.

In this case go read the Home Theater Gaming/Console area and perhaps look into the Home Theater PC area. It's not clear if you were wanting to play PC games on your big screen TV (quite do able; for HD you'd want a TV with DVI input and a video card with DVI output) or console games (support varies widely, with the PS2 having the least support and the Xbox having the most).

As for why consoles don't support HD more -- it's simple. They don't have the power, and it's a great deal of additional development and QA time for a small segment of the market.

Consoles have really miserable resolution -- essentially 640x240 at 60 fps (NTSC; PAL is a bit more resolution at 50 fps). Yes, NTSC is roughly 640x480 resolution, but it's interlaced -- you don't have to draw half the screen every frame and you're foolish if you think the console games are doing so when they don't need to. If you change to a progressive scan picture then you're immediately at twice the work that needs to be done. Bump it up to a 720p 4:3 and you're nearly quadrupling the effort from there (or nearly 8x as much as a SD screen). Widescreen requires even more work. And remember, a 720p 4:3 image still has less resolution than a 1024x768 (XGA) monitor and only needs to run at a paltry 60 fps.

As for splitscreen -- if you split a 16:9 screen you don't get two 4:3 images. Supporting split screen 16:9 means you have to support at least 3 different aspect ratios... most likely you're already going to support horizontally split 4:3, so now it's 4 different aspect ratios. That's a whole lot of development and QA time, and probably not worth the effort (yet).

A few caveats -- gun games do not work with virtually any HDTV. The gun watches for the interlaced signal and most HDTVs (all digital systems, almost all RPs, and most FPs) will never display interlaced -- they upscale to progressive internally. If you want to play gun games then you'll need to move the system to an older CRT based TV.

If you use an Xbox, be aware that the Live console is still in 480i only. This can be an issue if you have a TV that has separate inputs for 480i/p and 480p/720p/1080i (all Samsung DLP RP's currently). There are ways around this (cable splitting, using a VGA adapter), but it's something to be aware of and consider when purchasing a TV.

If you do not get a DLP/LCD/LCoS based TV then you will have to be careful of burn-in. Proper calibration of the set can eliminate this danger, but most people don't calibrate. Plasma does have a burn-in issue as well, but it's not as severe as CRT.

I currently have my PS2 connected to my 46" Samsung DLP. No issues. Not many games support widescreen or 480p, but it really doesn't bug me. It's nice to play on a really big screen with a full surround system. I'm hoping to make my next PC portable enough to use as an occasional HTPC and play some games (HL2, D3) on it as well... should be a blast.

Projector People

Ritz Audio Visual

Visual Apex

You can also go to Pricegrabber to do competetive price lookups.

I finally got my boss to order one yesterday. He bought a Sony HS-10 from RitzAV. By the time I jump (January), it will be between the Sony HS-10/HS-20 and the Panny LT300/LT500. My choice will depend on projector model availability, price, and my mood.

You may want to spend some time trudging through comments at AVS Forum to get some feedback on various projectors and dealers. And search the specific forums using the keyword "shootout" if you'd like some good comparative reviews.

I'd never get a 800x600 projector for hometheatre now. I'm on my 4th digital projector and the first two were SVGA. By buying them with coupons etc with the help of fatwallet forums, I've been able to buy new projectors for the price I can get on ebay for the old projector. So this way, you don't even have to wait for the price of the projector to come down.

I'm surprised the review talks so much about luminence ... who cares that much about it in HT ? Color accuracy, black level (something not even mentioned in the review) and contrast are much more important.

They are missing a lot of important information in that article. It seems written to promote DLP and skims over a lot of deficiencies with what they tested, and uneven ways in which the testing was done.

Page 3, Contrast. What it doesn't mention is that above 800:1, it becomes hard to see any difference, and above 1200:1, it's pretty much impossible.

The examples are also set up to make you think that the 'low constrast LCD' is the Z1, which it isn't. Here's a quick snap taken of my Z1 (slight blur due to hand-held camera) of the same scene.

Page 4, Resolution. Again what's left out is at what point it no longer makes a difference. This varies projector by projector and is a factor of the screen size, LCD resolution and distance the viewer is sitting from the screen.

For SVGA/WVGA one can no longer see the grid at all if they are sitting about 1.8x the diagonal of their screen away. For XGA, WXGA that number drops to 1x (probably closer than you'd want to be).

I sit 1.5x screen diagonal away from my WVGA projector (Z1) and can see the grid in very bright-white scenes only. (Specifically, I sit 15' away from a screen with a 10' diagonal.)

Page 5, Fan Noise. Fan noise varies depending on whether you are using the projector's low-lamp/theatre mode. Most projectors give you an option of running at its highest brightness level, or a dark but quieter mode. Where the manufacturer doesn't list

I sit directly below my Z1 and can definitely hear the fan in 'low-lamp' mode, if there is no sound in the movie. I can also here my refrigerator humming in the kitchen if its quiet. If someone is speaking it covers up the sound of the projector (and the fridge). Any guests I have seem oblivious to the sound of the fan until I mention it.

It seems like they must have measured the Z1s lumens in 'low-lamp' mode, and its fan in regular mode (to make it measure as loud as possible). If a manufacturer only lists one fan noise level, it will be their 'low-lamp' mode volume.

Page 6,7, LCD & DLP. He fails to mention that some people cannot watch a DLP projector without getting a headache or becoming nauseous due to a 'strobing' effect. It only happens to small percentage of the population (maybe 2%), but it is a well documented phenomenon. The problem does not exist on high end DLP projectors as they use a slightly different projection technique, but it does exist on all low end DLPs.

This is an issue because if you are ordering your projector over the internet, sight unseen, you may get it home to find out you can't watch it. Likewise, you may have a bunch of friends over, only to find out one of them can't sit through the film/game/etc.

The article fails to mention that LCD has better color saturation.

For a fair and balanced look at the DLP vs. LCD debate, see this Projector Central article.

The conclusion fails to factor in other important cost information, like that over the course of 6 years of ownership, the Dell projector will cost significantly more because you will have to buy 2 bulbs for it, in the same period you will only buy 1 for the other two projectors.

It also never returns to the briefly mentioned benefits of natively Widescreen projectors over traditional 4x3 projectors. Unless you watch a lot of very old movies, you will want to own a widescreen projector. All movies today are widescreen, and in 5 years, so will your television.

There is a lot more wrong with the article, but this should at least give you an idea that you should not make this your single source of information about home projectors. Instead do some reading over at AVSForum. There are a lot of knowledgeable people there who can set you straight where this article would mislead you.

-Colin.

Many online and offline business rental companies will let you rent a projector. This is HIGHLY recommended. The $50-$100 more you'll spend will give you a big chance to see if the projector is for you.

Lumens, contrast ratio, and even resolution is NOT comparitive between brands. Some people see "rainbows" with DLP projectors. Some people see excess screen door with LCD projectors.

Before I bought my (CHEAP) Sanyo PLV-Z1 projector, I scoured the AVS Forums for information, and it was the best help I could find.

Now I have a 110" projector on my living room wall, the room feels twice as big (the TV took up so much space), and my projector looks great during the day, the night, and in HDTV (thanks Comcast for doing something right!).

dada

It's all about easy to use front ends. Right now DIY HTPCs on linux have two problems. Linux is a pain to configure for media apps and the front ends are very rudimentary right now. I have yet to find a way to get Linux running at 1280x720 on my HDTV but it's a snap with Windows XP. Remember that this broadcast flag is here to stay. We have a nice fat slow target to work around. The last piece of the puzzle is open source hardware. We need a better look at that video driver code to create crash free Linux HTPC apps. Go here to check out what's new in the Linux HTPC world.

According to this post on avsforum, there is clearly a market for such exact device. It would capture Component Out from a HDTV set/tuner, and real-time encode it to MPEG2, sending the result back as a ts stream over firewire. With fairly low-cost MPEG2 HD encoders available now, such devices could easily "remove" the broadcast flag.

Yes, i understand that this is not the original signal (its going to go through a D/A -> A/D conversion, but still, would you rather have nothing at all or this?

As a long-time ReplayTV user who is active on the ReplayTV Forum of the AVS Forum, I can say that this is a feature that has been often requested. The ability to be able to watch TV recordings at a faster speed with pitch-adjusted audio would be great for watching things like news shows, etc.

What "he" (meaning me) said was the analog capture could not be reliably differentiated from the digital source. Since this seems to have flown completely the fuck over your head the first two times I'll explain it in simpler terms:

Image(s)1: still images captured from the analog input (svideo) from a reasonably high end (but old) DVD player.

Image(s)2: stills (same ones) taken from a DVD rip of the movie. Since this will still probably go over your head I'll explain it further: you put the DVD in the computer's DVD drive, and "special software" reads the DVD movie as a file, with which you may then do as you please.

My bet would be he's viewing the Analog outpt through the same POS TV Tuner card

And you lose.

Ever heard of AVS forum? A whole community of high end snobs who were, for quite some time (many still are) basing entire home theaters - tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and time investment - and using lowly peecees as the central video processor. Peecees with $100 video capture cards. And, your ignorant assertions to the contrary, enjoying very high quality video.

You can spew ignorant bullshit all day if you like, but the fact remains thousands of people know you're dead fucking wrong. Think none of the people who read that also read /.? Well, here's one writing you this very second. With nearly three quarters of a million registered here, I very much doubt I'm alone. If you don't care that you look like a stupendously ignorant "know it all" in front of thousands of strangers, I certainly won't dwell on it any further.

480p is still only 640x480 (4:3) or 853x480 (16:9). That's utterly trivial on a modern PC.

Oh, and I have a 46" DLP RPTV with a 1280x720 native resolution. If I so wish I can hook my PC up to it via VGA or DVI and get a far better display than what you're likely to get out of Xbox (esp. since most Xbox games that even do 720p only do it at 4:3 due to lack of CPU/GPU power).

If you're serious about playing games on your TV, console or PC, then I suggest reading AVS Forum's Home Theater Gaming forum. Useful info for both groups.

There's a thread on AVS Forum about using DVHS VCR's in Linux. It doesn't support D-Theater, so prerecorded shows won't work, but you can use the tools for transferring to/from a DVHS deck, Firewire-enabled tuner, or other MPEG2 TS over 1394 device.

There's a thread on AVS Forum about using DVHS VCR's in Linux. It doesn't support D-Theater, so prerecorded shows won't work, but you can use the tools for transferring to/from a DVHS deck, Firewire-enabled tuner, or other MPEG2 TS over 1394 device.

- no concerns about light control. if you're using a front projector, your room has to be DARK.

- no concerns about burn-in. unlike plasma, lcd, and crt (direct view and rear projection) the screen cannot have an image burned into it. watch blackboxed 4x3 television, play video games, and watch channels with static logos without having to deliberately balance your viewing.

- lightweight. samsung's flagship 61" rpdlp set weighs only 100 lbs. a 40" wega direct view crt weighs 300 lbs (and most of the weight is in the front of the unit).

- little calibration required for optimal viewing. most alternative sets need numerous factory menu tweaks in order to get acceptable color levels.

- inexpensive. compare the prices :)

- dvi-hdcp interface for future-proofed hdtv compatibility. also a perfect pixel reproduction as a monitor.

the only maintenance needed is a $250 lamp every 2-3 years. i know a lot of these comparisons have been in contrast to front projection, but they should all be weighed.

look at samsung's rpdlp site (they're the only major people pushing the sets so far), hit the avs forum for much better advice than you'll get here, and then check them out at your local store. most major department stores (best buy, circuit city, etc) have them on display unlike front projection units.

If I am totally wrong here speakup.

Ok. You're totally wrong here. :)

It's a complete non-issue. As others have pointed out, the maximum bandwidth for DD is ~480 kbps. All the channels are decoded out of that. And there's no reason to decode them prior to the USB device, since it can do the decoding itself.

Anything else that is going to put out multiple data streams would be advised to use DD or DTS (which generally has a maximum data stream of 512kbps, although I think I've seen 784 talked about). Yes, it requires some CPU crunching, but you'll have to do that at some point if you want to use any kind of digital outputs. Discrete analog inputs to HT systems aren't rare anymore, but they're still frowned upon.

Voice chat in a game will probably use telephone quality sound at best... that's all of 64kbps (8 KHz, mono). Doubt it'd be a strain on the USB. Nor would printing things out (remember the DD data stream is consuming under 5% of the theoretical maximum of USB)... although exactly why you're watching a DVD and printing at the same time is beyond me. I'm sure there are other, valid, cases of such things though so it's a decent what-if case.

BTW, your math is wrong. It's not 7 * 2.8, it's 7*1.4. Which, while it's below the maximum theoretical bandwidth for USB1.1, it's above the realistic realized bandwidth.

Of course, there isn't a single 7.1 discrete format out there. It's all 5.1, with "magic" being applied to the rear 2 channels to extrapolate an additional (6.1) channel or pair (7.1) of channels. So we're back to 5*1.4, which is once again within the range of USB, albeit on the edge of real world performance.

USB1.1 certainly has the bandwidth to support a full sound system. Better reading on this, with all the pluses and minuses, is available from AVS Forum's HTPC Forum.

The HDTV FAQ should also come in handy. And also check out Antenna Web for further information on HDTV reception.

The HDTV FAQ should also come in handy. And also check out Antenna Web for further information on HDTV reception.

The HDTV FAQ should also come in handy. And also check out Antenna Web for further information on HDTV reception.

try this place:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&t hreadid=269141.

Requires an Apple laptop/desktop, firewire cable, OSX 10.2+, some C++ skills, and a large hard disk.

Key points that many posters to this thread don't seem to know:

• Many people on the AVS Forum who've actually tried DVI output say that the picture quality is much improved over component video and is close to HDTV quality.
• There are numerous TVs that have DVI inputs, including most good projection TVs. It's not limited to Plasma or LCD.
• Bravo isn't the only DVD player with DVI, though it is the only one that is not copy protected.

Big Displays are fun. After all, I never realized how much of a dork I was until a friend came over, and thought I was watching tv... and then found out I was using IRC on an 8 foot screen..

...be sure to check out Samsung's DLP rear projection TV. It's head and shoulders above the other rear projection sets out there.

Lovely! Those links are referred right back to Slashdot. That's one way to avoid a slashdotting.

Other good home theater sites:

• AVS Forum
• Home Theater Spot (some useful reviews and links, but more importantly a great set of forums)
• Digital Connection, the place to find high-end PC/home theater equipment.
• Magnolia Hi-Fi. Okay, I only threw this one in here because it's my preferred place to buy A/V equipment.

If you're looking to get sound, then MB sound is just fine. I use it for filler/background noise all the time and love it.

If you're looking for music, they still have miles and miles to go before they will compete. Check out products by Lynx,M-Audio,,RME and Digital Audio Labs

Also check out this thread in a forum for a list of just some of the cards that are worth looking at.
HiFi Sound Cards

And don't be fooled by statistics and numbers, even the best DAC in the world can get messed up by some 2bit clown laying it down with the wrong analog circuitry to support it.

I'm not saying that the people who lay out all these cards are 2bit clowns, just that people look at the numbers and don't use their ears all too often.

The most important thing is do you like the sound that comes out of the system. If yes, then who cares what else is out there. Be happy with it.

xmltv for open source listings. Read about it here.

Works with the front end of your choice (a few suggestions)

Linux:
MythTV.
Freevo.

Windows:
SageTV.
MyHTPC.

Also, LOTS of good reading at the Home Theater Forums (the Linux forum is embedded under that link).

All of the above systems allow you to use on-screen listings, search for programs by schedule, name, category, etc. They learn favorites and do everything tivo does, best I've been able to tell.

I've been a Tivo user for a year and a half now. Couldn't live without it - until I get my HTPC set up and running the DVR for me on my home network. Just got the green light from my fiancee for that summer project.

I know a lot of people on AVS Forum have turned off the automatic Commercial Advance feature and just used the old manual skipping method you've outlined. Your mileage may vary.

Checkout projectorcentral.com for prices/info and the Under $5k Digital Projector forum for more detailed info.

SonicBlue is selling the ReplayTV 5040 (including Lifetime activation) for only $329

This is an incredible deal, especially since the price of the activation alone will be $299 on June 1st. The only catch is that it is refurbished, but it still comes with a 90 day warranty.

This is a limited time/quantity offer, so I'm guessing that it won't be available much longer.

More info in the AV Science Forum

Specifically, the HTPC forum might have some of what you're looking for. It's geared mostly towards HD PVR, DVD Playing, etc.

> High-resolution direct-view CRTs are still the quality benchmark that other displays strive for but still fall short of. It has a superior combination of contrast, dynamic range, and resolution compared to any alternative.

If you mean the Loewe Aconda as being the standard, then yes, you can't buy a better CRT.

However, these Plasma owners beg to differ:
If plasmas were not available, which set would you own?

Cheers

For some pretty honest feedback from projector owners and experts, check out avsforum. Check out comments from owners of dlp, crt, and lcd projectors. The folks in the forums are not afraid to either praise or pan a particular projector (or manufacturer or reseller), and they have been a great help to me in sorting out the various factors during my seemingly endless quest. (Actually, I'm just a bit too chicken to drop the $$$ right now.)

And there are quite a few factors worth noting. For instance, some people may be bothered by the "rainbow effect" that is generated by dlp projectors. Others may not be affected by that, but may be bothered by the "screendoor effect" of lcd projectors. Still others may be affected by the "pocketbook effect" of purchasing these things. I may well end up purchasing an LCD for around $2000, and then throwing it away after 4000 hours. (Which for me would be many years, since I watch less than 10hrs of TV per week.) Or I may spend around $4000 on a DLP and plan on keeping it a bit longer. In any case, I don't think I can make a bad choice since South Park will be kick-ass on 100" screen.

Something worth noting is that Sony does not produce any DLP projectors. They do produce CRTs and LCDs. While I'm not a huge fan of Sony, they do kinda have a decent reputation in the consumer electronics field. So to me, their presence in the LCD market lends a bit of credibility. (The HS-10 is getting killer reviews, and it's only around $2500.) Also worth mentioning is the fact that DLP projectors can suffer from image burn-in, while LCD projectors do not. It doesn't mean that LCD is better than DLP. But these are some of the differences worth knowing before dropping several thousand $$$ on a projector. Again, check out avsforum for lots of insight into the different technologies.

If you are interested in purchasing a projector, do your research. You'll probably find that there isn't any one "best technology" to go with.

When demand temporarily is greater than supply we ship to customers who rent fewer movies because they have fewer opportunities to get a particular movie. We do this to give the best experience to as many members as possible.

AHA! They confess!!! Then my question is, why don't they tell people like me that buy the Ulta package for $40 bucks a month that priority goes to $15 a month customers. Ridiculous.

I've had PC HD cards for several years. Currently, I'm using a Telemann HiPix with the user modified software from a dedicated group of hackers from the AVS Forums. But processor speeds have reached the point where one can playback HD transport streams solely in software using a tool like DVHSTool and the MPEG2 decoder from a software DVD player.

A quick search over at avsforum produces some detailed reviews. The general verdict from several owners is that it's not a very good scaler or deinterlacer. Not really surprising considering the low price ("low" relative to good scalers and deinterlacers :-)

Well, if you use something like powerstrip to put out an HDTV resolution signal from your video card, the transcoder isn't really converting the resolution. It just sits there and converts the signal from VGA to component. It's a somewhat simpler solution.

For information on specific transcoders, I'd recommend checking out the AVS HTPC Forum.

I haven't actually set up an HTPC yet, as my HDTV is on order.. but I've seen em in action and I can tell you, it does work and it does look quite nice. In fact, you can even play quake in HD :) With good HT speakers, a 10" subwoofer, and a big HD image it's pretty damn cool.

Actually, what you need is an HDTV tuner card. There are several on the market, for the price of a top graphics card (that is to say, under $300) The computer I'm on now has a MyHD MDP-100 $260 from the Digital Connection, who also happen to offer the primary US tech support for the card, on bug report/support threads on the AVS forum (read the entire forum - there have been separate followup threads for each driver revision and they contain other support tips too. Especially check out the v1.55.2 driver thread. That driver allowed DVDs to be displayed in 1080i - something the DVD consortium has since declared to be forbidden. All other cards and DVD players display DVD in 480p)

The MyHD comes with VGA output with a passthrough cable for dual monitor or simultaneous computer/HDTV use, and a breakout cable that gives Component Video and s-video. it also offers your choice of stereo or Dolby outputs. I don't usually to use it in that mode however. I find that it's usually simpler and equally high quality to simply rout the video through my (decent but nothing special) graphics card.

I also own a Telemann tuner, but I can't look at the model number and outputs right now. It's in the basement, cabled through the floor to a Toshiba DLP-650 LCD projector (though it's a used 1999 model, I usually can't even imagine what better quality would look like. Maybe a tad blacker blacks -it's only 300:1 contrast ratio, unlike the newer models at 450-3000:1- but that's it!) There is at least a third major manufacturer, whose name eludes me at the moment, but all the model numbers and details are listed in the support thread I linked above, with more info in other threads

In short, the card you want is out there. I've run the LCD projector off the MyHD a junkbox celeron 466 and ATI Rage-something card, running Win98 and projecting onto a bare wall (that was my test rig) and the results were outstanding: a crystal clear 120"+ image for a total equipment cost much less than a hinky 60" rear projection screen on sale at Best Buy. I did later upgrade to a better machine (Athlon 1700XP, but it worked with a P-III 800, too), so I could do HDTV recording. HTDV VCRs, like D-VHS, cost several thousand by themselves, but with a card, all you need is a moderately powerful CPu and a decent sized HDD to sotre them on (I saw a 200GB for $160 after rebate on Fatwallet Hot Deals forum this week) You can compress/record the transport stream to DVD-R for archival storage, and still get DVD quality or better. (I compress to DVD the next day. I haven't tried doing it in real-time yet, but it should be possible)

As much as I hate to say it, if you're building your own Home Theater PC, I'd recommend an Intel processor over a AMD. Maybe the newer or better Athlon boards are rock stable for HTPC use, and set and forget for at least a week at a stretch, but this wasn't the case for myself or others on the AVS forum a year ago (As a workaround, I have it reboot at 5 am every day. ) In general, I readfewer Atlon complaints for HTPC, I almost never heard Intel problems - and the drop in Atlon issues may be due to a shift to Intel, which is the general advice of that board.

Actually, what you need is an HDTV tuner card. There are several on the market, for the price of a top graphics card (that is to say, under $300) The computer I'm on now has a MyHD MDP-100 $260 from the Digital Connection, who also happen to offer the primary US tech support for the card, on bug report/support threads on the AVS forum (read the entire forum - there have been separate followup threads for each driver revision and they contain other support tips too. Especially check out the v1.55.2 driver thread. That driver allowed DVDs to be displayed in 1080i - something the DVD consortium has since declared to be forbidden. All other cards and DVD players display DVD in 480p)

The MyHD comes with VGA output with a passthrough cable for dual monitor or simultaneous computer/HDTV use, and a breakout cable that gives Component Video and s-video. it also offers your choice of stereo or Dolby outputs. I don't usually to use it in that mode however. I find that it's usually simpler and equally high quality to simply rout the video through my (decent but nothing special) graphics card.

I also own a Telemann tuner, but I can't look at the model number and outputs right now. It's in the basement, cabled through the floor to a Toshiba DLP-650 LCD projector (though it's a used 1999 model, I usually can't even imagine what better quality would look like. Maybe a tad blacker blacks -it's only 300:1 contrast ratio, unlike the newer models at 450-3000:1- but that's it!) There is at least a third major manufacturer, whose name eludes me at the moment, but all the model numbers and details are listed in the support thread I linked above, with more info in other threads

In short, the card you want is out there. I've run the LCD projector off the MyHD a junkbox celeron 466 and ATI Rage-something card, running Win98 and projecting onto a bare wall (that was my test rig) and the results were outstanding: a crystal clear 120"+ image for a total equipment cost much less than a hinky 60" rear projection screen on sale at Best Buy. I did later upgrade to a better machine (Athlon 1700XP, but it worked with a P-III 800, too), so I could do HDTV recording. HTDV VCRs, like D-VHS, cost several thousand by themselves, but with a card, all you need is a moderately powerful CPu and a decent sized HDD to sotre them on (I saw a 200GB for $160 after rebate on Fatwallet Hot Deals forum this week) You can compress/record the transport stream to DVD-R for archival storage, and still get DVD quality or better. (I compress to DVD the next day. I haven't tried doing it in real-time yet, but it should be possible)

As much as I hate to say it, if you're building your own Home Theater PC, I'd recommend an Intel processor over a AMD. Maybe the newer or better Athlon boards are rock stable for HTPC use, and set and forget for at least a week at a stretch, but this wasn't the case for myself or others on the AVS forum a year ago (As a workaround, I have it reboot at 5 am every day. ) In general, I readfewer Atlon complaints for HTPC, I almost never heard Intel problems - and the drop in Atlon issues may be due to a shift to Intel, which is the general advice of that board.

That's not entirely true. Using something like Powerstrip you can run your PC at HDTV resolutions. At that point, you're HDTV is really just a BIG, high resolution PC monitor.

Detailed information can be found on the AVS HTPC Forum

I doubt any current PC Video cards implement HDCP, however, I doubt any current TVs will REQUIRE it in order to accept a signal. You are much more likely to have problems outputting a resolution that the TV will display than an issue with HDCP.

There are better forums to ask this question, such as The AVS Forum and The Home Theater Forum

I disagree. Many people more knowledgeable than I agree that MPEG-4 compressed video at the same bitrate as MPEG-2 compressed video looks much better (ie. less compression artifacts such as ugly ugly MPEG-2 macro blocking). I've seen A/B comparisons and tend to agree with these guys.

MPEG-4 gets a bad rap with people who don't know much about video compression, because the only MPEG-4 content they see is highly compressed DVD rips and internet porn. In reality, MPEG-4 really shines with a reasonable bitrate when compared to MPEG-2, to the point that many believe that MPEG-4 completely obsoletes MPEG-2.

One camp of the HD-DVD standard struggle wants to actually continue using red-laser DVD technology, but coupled with MPEG-4 compression. Apparently 1080i or 720p MPEG-4 combined with filtering and preprocessing at normal DVD bitrates (5-9 mbps) looks pretty good! (Hopefully, this proposed standard won't get accepted. Let's move forward with higher capacity media. And while this format might look good enough, I want completely artifact free HD to display on my 48" HDTV.)

-Mani

40 times slower than realtime (on unkown hardware).

There are none. Check the Linux HTPC AVS forum for plenty of whining on this topic.

HD DVD is still in a blue-laser MPEG-2 vs. red-laser MPEG-4 fight, but digital VCRs already exist and do let you record high definition programming.

It's called D-VHS. D-Theater is a standard on top of that that adds tough encryption for distribution of Wacky Jack V.'s movies so they'll be hard to back up.

The limitation of D-VHS in recording is that you're depending on a tuner to give you signals. 8VSB-broadcast-only (OTA or "over the air") tuners may never be DRM-crippled by the proposed broadcast flag, but satellite and combo HD-OTA/sat tuners are subject to nasty firmware upgrades with Digital Restrictions Managed. It's possible that even OTA-only tuners will be upgraded with MPEG private section data, but that reqires cooperation of broadcasters.

There are also OTA-only HD tuner cards for PCs. Whether there are backdoors for "upgrading" the DRM if the broadcast flag flies is left as an exercise (try SoftICE). The streams that at least one of the cards captured are not "in the clear," which gives you an idea of the mfg.'s intentions. There are no open source drivers for any of these cards working yet. The Telemann "independent developer" project for HiPix requires an NDA to get source access. Teralogic who makes the chip on that board has been bought by Oak, BTW.

HD DVD is still in a blue-laser MPEG-2 vs. red-laser MPEG-4 fight, but digital VCRs already exist and do let you record high definition programming.

It's called D-VHS. D-Theater is a standard on top of that that adds tough encryption for distribution of Wacky Jack V.'s movies so they'll be hard to back up.

The limitation of D-VHS in recording is that you're depending on a tuner to give you signals. 8VSB-broadcast-only (OTA or "over the air") tuners may never be DRM-crippled by the proposed broadcast flag, but satellite and combo HD-OTA/sat tuners are subject to nasty firmware upgrades with Digital Restrictions Managed. It's possible that even OTA-only tuners will be upgraded with MPEG private section data, but that reqires cooperation of broadcasters.

There are also OTA-only HD tuner cards for PCs. Whether there are backdoors for "upgrading" the DRM if the broadcast flag flies is left as an exercise (try SoftICE). The streams that at least one of the cards captured are not "in the clear," which gives you an idea of the mfg.'s intentions. There are no open source drivers for any of these cards working yet. The Telemann "independent developer" project for HiPix requires an NDA to get source access. Teralogic who makes the chip on that board has been bought by Oak, BTW.

I'll admit I didn't finish reading all the responses (I will - this subject has particular interest to me) but after plowing through ca 100 posts w/o any actual real World experience, I had to pipe up:

Slashdotters should realize that a decent (not great) PC with some free software and inexpensive hardware can be the key to nearly State-of-the-art (compared to the stuff in the retail chains) TV exceeding kilobuck HDTV sets. A spectacular home theater is within the reach of a dedicated high school fry cook working at McDonalds and living with their folks. In fact, get your folks to chip in, and it's *easy*. In Home Improvement, we call it "sweat equity": creating with work and know-how something that would cost mucho dinero to buy (plus learning a thing or two as a major benefit -- I can easily afford an HDTV at Best Buy, but that would be boring to me, or even pointless)

1) Some starting points for real-world solutions:
AV Science: where I hang out now (esp. the HTPC forum, whose Linux section could use more programmers!)
Keohi HDTV (they helped me get started, I assume they're still good)
The Home Theater Spot: Admittedly, a home for guys with more dollars than sense, but at least they experiment instead of spouting sales literature at each other. They also had some great group buys from One-Call, which is as good as it gets for both support and service (if you want to buy)

2) Only now am I retiring my original HTPC (Home Theater PC), a Celeron-466 with 256 MB, a $20 TV card, and a $45 Matrox 450 DualHead with s-video, composite and XVGA outputs - a simple system that would still wow a lot of 'retail buyers'. I can't explain how it changed my TV viewing, how great it is to have a library of 150-300MB archived eps of my favorite shows, etc. Add a few sub-$1/GB HDDs (see Anandtech Hot Deals or FatWallet for bargains), and you'll wonder how you ever tolerated clumsy VHS tape libraries. For archiving, these same forums will tell you how to get 4x DVD-R recorders for as little as $140 at major chains (epending on sales)

3) My current aging workhorse is a Athlon 1700+XP ($209, barebones, from Outpost.com a year ago). I added memory, a sub-$300 MyHD card (some other HDTV cards are as good or better) and a few minor bits like a $50 Dolby Theater Sound card, etc. It'd be much cheaper today, and many of you already run gear that's much hotter than this. The software was mostly free and/or open source.

4) My favored output device is a Toshiba TLP650 LCD projector (native 1024x768, but with a nice 1600x1200 mode) cost $900 on eBay last year - a bit pricey, but that was last year and the last-gen prices are dropping fast. On President's Day (Monday) I got my GF a nice 640x480 projector to experiment with: under $100, and it exceeds the line resolution of any 'normal TV'. You can assemble a decent HTPC/projector for about the price of a "pretty nice" normal TV if cash is tight, and you'll have far more capability, like HDTV and HDTV *recording* (which runs a few kilobucks by itself, retail). Admittedly, I'm comparing "MSRP" TV prices to bargain-hunting for HDTV, but hackers have always been scroungers, right?

To me, the learning is the biggest benefit. I'm not a big fan of most TV, but building my HTPC has been a wonderful (and not *that* pricey) hobby. I don't need cable when most of what is sold locally as "digital cable" doesn't come close to the 1080i resolution I pick up with a $20 "double bowtie" antenna from Radio Shack (As a general rule, any antenna that calls itself an HDTV antenna will be *worse* than a cheap 1950's retro-looking double bowtie)

When your videos are always on your HDD, you'll rule in Geek Debates on SF tech or plots (one-click access encourages the invaluable habit of rigorous fact-checking). You can make outrageous SF music videos or parodies, and otherwise exercise your creative and intellectual side instead of being purely a passive couch potato. Modesty prevents me from linking my own videos, but I'd gladly recommend a friend's site of example TV-SF music videos and parodies

Go to here and download some videos (large!) and download the codec here. These videos are REALLY nice, it's like looking at digital photos.. For me it really is like that since my p3-733 just isn't fast enough to play them! Also get Microsoft's shot at HD quality video here.

The question suffers from a lack of definition. What source of video is being used (CATV|DirectTV|Broadcast Satelite Feed)? What quality are we looking for (D1|DV|320x240)? How much programming is being recorded (24/7 per channel|Selected scheduled programs)? What is the destination for the recorded media (Direct View|Streaming|DVD Archive|MPEG-4 Sharing)?

The solutions would result from the answers to these questions. Sony makes an excellent line of MPEG video servers for broadcast environments. It costs big bucks, but you can put together a video capture/agregation/distribution setup worthy of a DBS broadcaster that way. That's the high road.

Middle of the road, and for the poorer video sources (DirectTV and CATV) would probably be best served by a half-rack of 1U systems with MPEG-2 or -4 capture cards. I would avoid using 4 cards per system becaue the cost/density/stability equation doesn't work. Why get raid or extra hdd controllers to make a system work when you can have a nice stable single-stream system? And no worries about PCI bandwidth/latency/conficts. Depending on output format you can have the systems encode directly or share to a separate encoder / dvd mastering system. Also, consider using professional pre-filtering hardware to reduce noise and improve video quality before the capture/encoding phase in order to reduce the load on general purpose processors that have trouble handling the full datarates of video in real time.

If your goal is just to get it done and do it cheap (and your goal isn't 24/7 or real-time streaming) I would suggest that a stack of DirectTivos would be the best bet. At $500 for 2 simultaneous recordings, I doubt you'll beat the price point, stability, and program guide availability, and using a control box and some scripting with available TivoWeb and mpeg offloading utilities, you'll get good results without having to do all the engineering yourself.

That's just a couple of ways to do it. Probably as many routes as there are users of such systems. And we haven't even scratched the thorny stuff like de-interlacing, multi-system (PAL/SECAM), HDTV and HDCP!