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Turning the PC into a Digital Video Recorder
gearfix2 writes "The NYTimes ran this story in today's paper about how to turn the PC into a personal video recorder (a la TiVo)... It's got pretty thorough coverage of PC-based hardware with the conclusion "the TiVo outshines the PC-based systems by being easier to use and by offering more built-in intelligence." Conspicuously absent are El Gato's EyeTV for the mac and SnapStream's Personal Video Station... Anyways, the real question is whether PC PVR will *ever* get there. No one does it quite right yet..."
Wasn't there a story on some PVR software for Linux a while back? Anyone have the link?
accurate up to date free TV listings.
able to auto-configure to any cable or satellite setup
dual tuner
program suggestions
season pass
easy interface
video quality
exactlly what is missing in the current PC PVRs?
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
I used to use VirtualDub when I was on Windows, and it was rally nice. Did everything from recording, to cutting out commercials, to encoding into a variety of formats.
Wondering if there's any similar program on the *nix side?
I do know of Video::DVDRip and drip for ripping DVDs, but spefically looking for cable. (to use w/ my WinTV card)
For those who want to make a start, here's some sample code to start off with.
I moved across the us recently and decided to ditch all my tubes (tv & monitors). i got a ati tv wonder usd and it's totally kick ass. works off either cable or antenna. plug it into a networked computer, give it a zip code, and voila!, u have tv in that local area. :(
my friend has tivo, and it's cool. but when i get my projector goin (ati also has a remote for this), i'll have a mobile projection system. even a 640x480 projector on a wall will look better than most tubes. i basically gave my tv away. just like the old radios yr granparents mighta dug and have since bitten the technology dust, so will tube tv's.
expect more tv wonder type devices. now, if only it worked on my tibook..
If you are average or even above average consumer and are given the following choice:
1) Go out and buy a $450 ReplayTV that provides 40 hours of record time, network sharing, and was builting from the ground up to be an integrated part of your home theater system.
2) Go out and buy a PC for 300-400 then buy the video capture card, a video card with a TV out, an IR receiver, and software. Then hook it up to your home theater system and always have this odd looking box sitting next to the rest of your equipment.
Gee, I wonder why the PC PVR thing hasn't caught on. We are only now getting to the point where the left over machines we have from new purchases have the performance necessary to handle being a PVR. I've tried to do this a bit myself, and the basic problem I ran into was that my processor just wasn't fast enough to handle the demand. If you have an old PC that's fast enough, it might be worth hacking but otherwise, it's WAY easier and similar priced to just buy a Tivo or ReplayTV.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
There is a fairly neat open source PVR at mythtv.org. It is still rather early in development, but has neat features like an on-screen display, a program guide, pausing and rewinding of live TV, etc. Pretty neat stuff.
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout.
I personally own a AIW Radeon 7500 and am *extremely* happy with the advanced features it offers over a Tivo, most notably the ability to save video directly to VCD format, for cheap, easy, longlasting storage...
I used the new ATI A-I-W 8500 for a while and the tools were easy to use. I wouldnt compare it being on par with other solutions out there, but if you wanted a PVR and a Good Video Card thats one way to go.
The Live-Pause feature was quite good and the image jitters once (when it starts recording) and does a good job, but the file sizes were obviously too large (Half an hour of high quality video translates to 3 GB of space).
Where as Nvidia's Personal Cinema, though boasting a superior Chip had the worst software tools. I was surprised to see the Live-Pause feature to be totally useless, where you try to play back the video that got recorded was so jittery and of bad quality that it was practically useless. I wish they would do a better job with their suite of tools next time.
As for me, I would try and see if ATI does some good work with the 9700 A-I-W, coz as for me, thats the card I would buy (till DoomIII fades out and QuakeV gets in).
Rapid Nirvana
User: dummy
Pass: dummy
Works for me as a member login.
"I may be quite wrong." - Socrates
...is if someone could put together a cohesive package for linux/windows/whatever. Something that works out of the box with a selection of TV cards (hey the BT chipset is common like dirt... you could even make a commercial package that included a card).
You could make money from a subscription service (to get the TV listings online).
The most challenging part would be the interface - people want it to work like a piece of home electronics - much like the tivo manages, they just don't want to pay tivo prices (or if you're like me you don't live in a tivo supported area).
BlackNova Traders
I've been using Snapstreams' PVR since the Winter Olympics and I've found it to be an amazing tool. It's pretty simple to use through the web interface but the web interface is slightly slow... .Net technology and allows you to surf a tv guide and record straight from that.
Although the version I have currently encodes to WMV (then I use the MS media decoder to convert it to fixed version of wmv and then use virtual dub to convert it to divx) the newest version (Quartz) can encode right to divx =)
If you have an older version then you can upgrade to Quartz for free.
Also in Quartz, there is a service you can buy that uses
But...since I prefer recording shows at custom lengths I find the text interface pretty easy to use (I even recorded all the World Cup games using the PVR).
So...PC PVRs aren't all that bad...at least Snapstream has a good PVR...I suggest it to those who like good software, it's well worth the cost.
internet like monkeys'
"No one does it quite right yet..."
Err, one company does. Stop comparing it to Tivo and just get a Tivo. It's made for its purpose and won't require countless hours of hacking and tweaking and kludging to work. I'm all for building your own and Open Source and blah blah blah, but now and then a product is actually produced for a decent price that does a great job doing what it was made to do.
(But for those who prefer a lot of hacking and tweaking and kludging, you can get a BASH prompt on it and go nuts fiddling with code to your heart's content.)
------
Today's Top Deals
When figuring cost, keep in mind that the PVRs are a device and subscription service wheras the PC solution is a one time investment.
Hauppauge has a new card that I've been looking into, and the Navis-Pro is also supposed to be good.
Similar cards were in the thousands of dollars a couple years ago. Now they're around $200... and falling. We're not long before its very easy, very good quality, and very inexpensive. We're not quite there yet though, and for now TiVo and the like and certainly the way to go.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
No one does it quite right yet...
Not yet but soon. Microsoft is working on their version of TiVo. You wonder why the Nforce2 has dual ethernet ports? Well, basically, Microsoft is going to take over the loose ends that are hanging in various markets.
Hollywood doesn't want you copying their crap, the cableco's don't want you using more than a single PC on their crap (without paying extra for it) and Microsoft doesn't want you doing anything without paying for their crap.
In the end, you get a set-top box with a built in web-server, network router, PVR features / AV features, gaming, etc, etc, etc. It is a wonderful idea and will likely take everything by storm. The cableco's will stick one of these MS boxes on your TV for free. In return, you'll be able to rent games and movies from them. If you want to add another PC - no problem - the system will automatically run a wizard which will register the system with the cableco, and most importantly - your bill.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Check out MythTV, from the author of Freeamp. It uses Linux, Qt, and a TV tuner card to provide an entire solution for dropping a box next to your TV. Here are a few features:
Other things such as support for various emulators are on the todo list. The frontend is rather pretty as well.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
I gots me one of them there ATI 8500 All-In-Wonder DV cards and I have to say I love it.
Two complaints tho';
1. The TV window has to be the active window for the remote control to work
2. I've had instances with the scheduled recording feature where I've set up the event, closed the scheduler interface (The scheduler still runs in the background), and when the time comes to record the program an error pops up saying that another device is using the tuner.
Somewhat frustrating, but over all the device is a lot of fun.
IMHO, as per
J:)
Oh well, no point in steering now.
Ah, but what if one could operate Tivo *from* a PC? Or even better, from any internet-connected PC anywhere in the world? Check out the The Tivo Web Project. There, you can also find info on hacking your Tivo to get a ppp or ethernet connection.
Personally, I can't imagine living without Tivo, but I hear that they (much like Major League Baseball) are conspiring to take over the world by collecting all sorts of sinister marketing information about my viewing habits. . . Should I be afraid?
boobip boobip,
d.
I do. ATI All-in-Wonder 8500 DV with RF Remote on the same computer as my Logitech RF Cordless Web Mouse. No Problems Whatsoever.
I'm sure they use some low level packeting, and I tend to be channel surfing when I'm using my Remote control so I'm not normally using my mouse. I've never noticed any issues.
J:)
Oh well, no point in steering now.
I remember being shown "current" research into this a couple years ago (winter 1999-2000) on a campus tour at Carnegie Mellon--anyone remember this? It was called "Informedia", and it promised to monitor closed captioning on all channels for keywords, and record the A/V stream as well as save the closed captioning.
Oh here we go, I found a link to it. Very interesting stuff. As it turns out, the use is to store this video in libraries...it would be recorded from WQED and similar educational stations and accessible for playback later. Very entertaining project, IMO.
Here's an early overview of the project.
"RATIONALE of the Informedia Digital Video Library Goal:
The Informedia(tm) Digital Video Library Project at Carnegie Mellon University is creating a digital library of text, images, videos and audio data available for full content retrieval. The initial testbed will be installed in several K-12 schools and students will use the Informedia System to explore multi-media data for educational purposes. The Informedia system for video libraries goes far beyond the current paradigm of video-on-demand, by retrieving a short video paragraph in response to the user's query.
(Why is this project needed, why now)
Vast digital libraries of information will soon become available on the nation's Information Superhighway as a result of emerging multimedia computing technologies. These libraries will have a profound impact on the conduct of business, professional, and personal activities. However, it is not enough to simply store and play back information as in commercial video-on-demand services. New technology is needed to organize and search these vast data collections, retrieve the most relevant selections, and effectively reuse them.
The Informedia Library project proposes to develop these new technologies and to embed them in a video library system primarily for use in education and training. The nation's schools and industry together spend between $400 and $600 billion per year on education and training, an activity that is 93% labor-intensive, with little change in teacher productivity ratios since the 1800s. The new digital video library technology will allow independent, self-motivated access to information for learning, exploration, and research. This will bring about a revolutionary improvement in the way education and training are delivered and received."
"I may be quite wrong." - Socrates
I disagree. I've got a Dish Network PVR 501 that works wonderfully.
- All the guide information comes down through the sat signal.
- The hard drive stores the raw MPEG bitstream, not a recompressed version.
- The quality is therefore identical to the live sat broadcast.
- I have a 10-second skip back.
- I have a 30-second skip forward.
- Live pause is perfectly integrated.
- The guide search works great now.
- Built-in on-screen caller ID.
The only things I miss are the ability to change out hard drives for a bigger model, and the ability to dump a show to CD or DVD. These features I can live without. This little box works great.Now if I can just get caller IQ I'll be all set.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOADING...
READY.
RUN
It seems to me that the key missing element is some sort of database of listings. It seems that it ought to be doable -- we have freedb's of CD track names, for example.
A computer with a PVR card is a more complicated replacement for a VCR, and unless you want to edit or share the video, it doesn't give you many advantages. If you just want to watch the show you're going to miss because you're going out, a VCR is a better solution.
TiVo is a lot more than a VCR -- you program it, and you never miss your favorite shows again. You have a pool of programs waiting for you, a queue of shows you like that's available whenever you have the time to watch them.
Imagine coupling all of the funcationality of TiVo with a p2p system -- so you could even get shows that you forgot to record, or earlier episodes of a show you've just discovered.
Kazaa lets you do things that go a long way towards proving the potential of this technology. You can tell kazaa to get some specific episode of south park, and it will, although it might take awhile. But the selection of shows available on kazaa is pretty poor.
If a p2p system shared all the shows that people recorded for themselves, then everything would be available. We'd all end up in jail for copyright violations, but there'd be a lot of good video on the network.
Better yet, the system would be international. We could watch British shows here in the States, or Japanese shows, or whatever.
This stuff has a lot of potential to be insanely great.
For the needy, I just made cipherpunk44:cipherpunk44
cipherpunk:cipherpunk used to be the magic account available almost anywhere, but it seems that some careless fellow changed the password for that account on the NYT web site.
:wq
Is the ATI TV Wonder USB. Anyone have any experience with or feelings about this one? I don't watch enough TV regularly to justtify actually owning a TV, but it's not a medium to which I want to lose access.
r *
*muttermutterdon'twanttomissstartrekmuttermutte
So given that the ATI USB TV tuner is the same price as Hauppage's but seems to be better feature-wise, does anyone have any grounds on which I shouldn't get it?
Cheers,
Karma: T-rexcellent.
Has your buddy downloaded the 1.0.1 software update they just released a few days ago? I think it's supposed to improve a fair amount of things.
~Philly
I have been working on this very thing the past feww months, and have found that while there is an associated learning curve, there are advantages to using a PC to record over a TiVO.
Since my job requires some travel, I have found that it is a definite boon to collect movies. Using my workstation as a PVR, I am able to capture to the hard drive, do some postprocessing and write a DivX to a 700MB CD-R which I can then take with me and watch on business trips. And its all perfectly legal, since I am archiving for later viewing. On the other hand, getting the same from a TiVo requires modifications of questionable legality. In addition, I can make backup copies of my DVDs on 700MB media so I don't have to risk leaving my DVDs in a hotel room somewhere.
As for the cost issue, if you have a system with the right specs (a modern PC should pretty much do it), then the only additional cost should be a tv capture card, which can be had for $20 or $30 US. The only thing that one could point out is the time cost and the learning curve involved in making the hardware and software do what you want it to. But it is that way with anything. If its worth doing, you're probably going to have to teach yourself.
--Storm
I listen to talk radio, and I want to be able to record broadcasts for later listening.
Are there any solutions out there for doing this? I'd need AM support.
I'd love to be able to use my radio just like a TiVo.
I ditched my vcr months ago. Just get a tv capture card with the bttv848 chip for video in [I recommend the winTV-FM, as it also has a stereo decoder and sound capture dsp on the card, leaving your existing sound card free, about $50 street]
Then, all you need is a good audio sync maintaining capture program like NewVideoRecorder and a good MP4 codec, and you're set! Oh, you probably need a least an athlon 1800 or equivilant, to do realtime 640x480 encoding capture with good deinterlacing. Much weaker systems can easily handle 320x240, which isn't much worse than vhs. Add in a few 80gig drives, a fast CDR, and you've got entertainment bliss.
Did I mention that the hauppage card comes with a remote, and it too is supported. So, sit back on the couch, with the computer hooked up to both record and play to your big screen tv, easily controlled by a remote.
It's being done right now, today, on peoples linux boxes. I've been doing it for over 4 months!
The only bad thing is that, currently, I still find the best application for editing commercials out of shows I want to archive, to be virtualdub [a win32 app]. It runs under wine, sure, but it still kind of hurts to have to do it. At least it's GPLd, though.
---
the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
None of this software holds a candle to Showshifter. Easily the best PVR software for windows. You can do any of the options talked about in the article and you're not locked into any single codec like MPEG-2 or any proprietary remote control. One of the problems mentioned was the quick use of hard drive space which can easily happen when using MPEG-2. With showshifter you control the codec used. DivX or WMV8 sure do a better job at keeping the file sizes down than MPG. I've used this software for over a year and am very happy. If you plan on trying to use your PC/TV as a PVR you should take the time to evaluate Showshifter, just like the reporter should have. I think he might have had a better experience.
-Mike
I've got a complaint of my own. I don't wanna give up by Geforce, so when I bought my ATI, I had to buy a PCI card. Well, the ATI card doesn't do *any* TV or video capture unless it's the primary card. That plays hell with all your desktop settings and getting games to work and so forth. It would be nice if you could pop it in as a second card and it would just work.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
...the magic is in the software-hardware combo, and the money is in the hardware.
Plus supporting only their hardware means many fewer support headaches.
Now, maybe something like TiVo-on-a-PCI-card and TiVo software that only works with that card would fly from a technical standpoint, but then the ability to trade shows would be accessible to the average user. Jack Valenti would pop a vein in his forehead. Right now, it's possible to extract the video from a TiVo only if you're willing to futz under the hood, so the majority of TiVo users can't do it, so it's not THAT big of a concern-- like MP3 trading on Usenet and FTP was, before Napster came along.
And then we're back to support issues. You put a PC TiVo kit on the shelves at CompUSA, you have to hire people to help Joe Idiot User who can barely work Windows but now expects to get his PC and cable box talking nicely to each other.
~Philly
So, will the MPAA sue the NYT on DMCA grounds? After all, the only reason one might want to turn a PC into a PVR is because one is an Evil Content Pirate(tm).
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
"The NYTimes ran this story in today's paper about how to turn the PC into a bread cooking device (a la Toaster)... It's got pretty thorough coverage of PC-based hardware with the conclusion "the Toaster outshines the PC-based systems by being easier to use and by offering more built-in intelligence." Conspicuously absent are El Gato's Ez-Toast for the mac and SnapStream's Personal Toasting Station... Anyways, the real question is whether PC Toasters will *ever* get there. No one does it quite right yet..."
Maybe we should focus less on "can it be done?" and more on "does anyone care?"
...that if anyone can probably pull off the seamless, user-friendly integration of PVR and personal computer, it will probably be Apple.
:-)
Think about it, they have, or will have, a lot of the pieces. They could make (possibly even in partnership with TiVo) a set-top box that connected with the Mac via Rendezvous and AirPort (possibly 802.11g) and some special software on the Mac side. Hell, throw in a web interface or make the control app highly AppleScriptable so people like me can roll their own.
I'm just kinda tossing this out there, I haven't really given it that much thought.
~Philly
Currently, none of the commercial PVR manufacturers support HDTV. So, if you want to record Digital TV, you need to build your own. By the way, Digital TV is great for PVR's, no compression is needed, the TV program is an MPEG2 stream - making the PVR's job easy. This is very similar to the PVR's for DirecTV.
There are a few choices for HDTV PVR cards:
Telemann Hipix - They have a semi-open source project for their Windows drivers. Availability seems to be a problem.
AccessDTV - Has some nice features, like pausing live TV. But, they have some drawkacks - Locked video files, so they can only be played back on the same machine - and their PVR guide is a subscription service.
MyHD - Newer card, some nice features like DVD vob playback (scaled to 1080i or 720p, looks great!)
Hauppage WinTV-HD - Not sure if this is still sold. Not well supported if it is.
Pop one of these into a computer system, add a big hard drive to hold those HD programs (~ 9GB/hr), and off you go.
I use the MyHD card, and I have been using the DVD scaling feature as much as the HDTV reception. I copy my DVD's to the hard drive of my system, and now I have a pretty nice video library, with immediate access - no swapping disks.
offsetting the subscription cost is the significant additional energy cost to keep the PC running--
Even if you figure it (conservatively) at an additional 100 watts, it comes to something like 35 cents per day-- which comes out within about a dollar per month of the monthly subscription fee
Essentially, the PC solution has you paying your subscription fee to the power company instead of Tivo
In addition to being able to upgrade the hard disks, which I think most people know about, you can buy an ethernet card for TiVos that allows you to upgrade your (first generation TiVo or DirectTivo):
- Acquire guide data over broadband, rather than over the phone line
- Allow most of the user interface, including scheduling of programs, to be run via a web interface that runs on the box.
- Allow the MPEG data to be transfered directly from the hard drive. With some tweaks, you can direct the TiVo to record 720x480 video, which is directly DVD compatible! (See the forums). In the case of a DirecTiVo, the MPEG data is that which was stored directly off of the satellite...).
Note that all but the last are supported (or at least not discouraged) by TiVo corp. The latest version of the software (3.0) even includes the required ethernet drivers.ECS K7S5A Motherboard (SIS 735 chipset)
Duron 950 running at 1050Mhz (Soon to be an XP 2100+)
256mb PC133 SDRAM
Windows 2000 SP2
ATI All-in-wonder Radeon 7500
Sound Blaster Audigy OEM
60 Gig 7200 RPM WD IDE hard drive
DVD-ROM
CD-burner, 24x
Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse (very nice!)
32 inch RCA TV being driven off S-video
Harmon Kardon A/V reciever with dolby 5.1 speaker setup.
Latest ATI drivers and MMC 7.7
This is what I'm able to do with this system as it stands:
Watch DivX movies from CD on my TV instead of a computer monitor.
Record TV shows and movies to MPEG-2 format at up to DVD quality. I can then do any damned thing I want to with the files. (Obviously I can copy them accross our lan)
Record TV shows and movies in DivX format (only 320x240 till I upgrade the cpu). With 60 gigs of space I can record for three days continuously at this setting and the results are significantly better than VCD format.
Needless to say I can record things in MPEG-2 format and re-encode them to DivX for burning to CD using flaskmpeg.
Once I get a DVD burner I'll probably just burn them straight to DVD's.
The only downside to this current configuration is that only the video is compressed, the audio is saved in PCM format. Current systems aren't quite fast enought to do real time capture and encoding of audio and video at DVD quality levels. Obviously this will change within a year or so. Whether the software will also change is hard to say but I suspect that it will. I'd love to be able to just record a movie straight to DivX and dump it on a CD.
The software that comes with the AIW features all kinds of tivo-like stuff such as the ability to pause live tv, view TV listings online, and schedule record times. I don't really use these but they are there. You don't have to pay a subscription fee either.
I also play DVD's on this system and the output as good or better than any console DVD player. ATI's DVD software does an excellent job and the S-Video output on the AIW looks absolutely fabulous on my TV. It has no flicker and is sharp and clear. I can sit in front of my coffee table with my cordless keyboard and mouse and websurf. I can also play video games such as Max Payne thanks to the not-too-shabby 3D capabilities of the 7500. It has a wireless remote control as well.
At this point I just need a slightly faster computer and better software and this system would kick the living shit out of anything that a Tivo can do. AT this point it already does do better than what a Tivo is actually meant to do.
How much did this cost me?
Motherboard and current CPU: $99 Fry's special
Memory: $45 (I already had it)
Case: $59
HD: $89
CD-Burner: $59
DVD-Rom: $40 (I already had it)
Floppy: $12
SB-Audigy: $60
ATI AIW: $150
Wireless KB/mouse: $80
Total: $693
I don't know what a Tivo costs these days, but I'll bet you I got more bang for my buck by far.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
Your cable network will NEVER support descrambling of digital channels, and pay channels on your PC :-( But, with the TIVO DirecTV tuner, you can record all channels. The PC PVR market will never be serious until we can record Six Feet Under, Sex in the City and Queer as Folk off the pay channels when we're not home!
"I can only be impressed to a certain point if he's using Me for anything."
This is not a troll, there's actually a good point here. PVRs need to have really good uptime, something that nobody will claim with Windows ME.
Windows 2000 is a good PVR OS. The uptime on my PC-PVR was well over 2 months.
For some reason, NTSC doesn't get translated to RGB very well at all. I've never seen a capture card with tuner that looked good on PC. For some reason you need a much more expensive solution.
I never did fully understand that. TV studios have capture cards that do it wonderfully w/o tuner. I know those cost ridiculous amounts of money tho.
*hopes for Digital TV soon.*
But Steve should realize that a very important part of the 'digital hub' would be a device I can use to capture TV shows, copy them to my Mac, edit out the stupid commercials, and eventually have a nicely-edited library of The Outer Limits, The New Twilight Zone, The Simpsons, etc...
For media playback in a HTPC configuration, I would recommmend Zoomplayer for Windows.
I'm not sure about any possible MacOS offerings...
For a linux based system I've not seen anything that works too damn well in the particular setup. Xine seems best as is, but to truly be cool for HTPC, another interface would be designed. Until I found Zoomplayer, it looked like my solution would be a custom interface to mplayer or xine, but with ZoomPlayer, it looks like Windows is still the best choice for HTPC...
I would love for someone to give evidence to the contrary, however,,, I like having solutions that I can tweak for my indicual taste..
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I got a SPAM from snapstream, about half an hour ago, announcing a 24 hour sale, aimed at slashdot readers. Grrr.
captured my movie or television program using AVI... then I took some software that came on my computer and I rerendered the presentation as an MPEG
That's not the best way it can be done, though. The best way to watch TV is being able to schedule recordings from a searchable listing, and schedule recurring recordings and recordings that match a certain field, say actor, show name, sport, or language. The best way to watch TV is having a list of tv shows on your computer that you can watch at any time. Not whatever's on now. To be able to automatically burn them to CD, or automatically transfer to your laptop, or or auto pc, or handheld PC in a lower bitrate form(snapstream does this). Being able to schedule these things from the web so you can do it from another computer, and even being able to stream the files to another computer.
I have a friend who has DSL but not cable. If I had the same, I would want him to be able to schedule tv shows on my computer that he wanted to watch, and then be able to watch them from his computer by streaming them over the internet. Content, free and legal. The new snapstream quartz is supposed to do this.
Here is how I do PVR, and I can ensure you, it is more logical than buying a $299 package
More logical? Only when your logic is that you don't want to spend any money. My motivation, OTOH, is to not spend all the time looking up, recording, encoding and copying TV shows that I want to watch. I just want to watch them. The ability to do that is worth something to me, and if it's not worth it to you then so be it, but I have to respectfully disagree.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go scan in and archive and index all my pictures to my FTP site. I wish I had a program that would do that for me, too.
Synergy is your friend
It's just so hokey, tho, the way you have to plug the TV sound output into the microphone jack to have it sampled.
It just doesn't give a very solid impression