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Build Your Own Linux PVR
linuxwrangler writes "A few weeks ago Russell Pavlicek, Infoworld's 'Open Source' columnist mentioned a personal linux video time-shifter (PVR) he built. In response to reader requests he has now posted a page describing the project." Escaping the monthly fees of TiVo is a good motivation -- and the total cost here isn't bad either.
Any suggestions for a good remote that doesn't support the company with the worst pop-up/under ads ever?
The price of Tivo-esque devices is pretty cheap nowadays. Besides, I want it to work , out of the box with no BS.
I'd recommend the the Panasonic DVD recorder with PVR features instead of a roll your own POS.
After all, if one person posts the times of the programs that they want to record, then everyone can have automated recording like Tivo.
Any volunteers for this open source database?
The baby's fine -- please stop sending business cards.
Market this! I have the ability to make a machine for this purpose, and I know people that have done it several times over.
Why isn't there a company bold enough to at least make the hardware?
I'm sure there are legal issues but it seems like some company would have tried it by now.
If I build it myself, it won't start to think me gay (not that that's a bad thing...necessarily)
/. is getting more and more bizarre by the day.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
It's curious that there's no reference to Freevo.
So, for $100 more than the cost of a TiVo, which are now at $199 with a $50 rebate, he built a box that has 5 hours less recording time, a worse encoder,a fraction of the features, and how do you even begin to discribe the UI? Non-existant? I will stick to my TiVos.
Anyone out there use this one?
http://freevo.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
I always wonder that all that gets talked about is the Tivo. Im in Europe and there are many different PVRs avaialable here form small and big companies like Toshiba, Nokia, Panasonic and the like. Building one yourself is cool i bet but there are also many different harddrive based video recorders with timeshifting available. And no annoying subscription or anything like that.
Step 1: Sell your TV
Step 2: Cancel your cable/satellite/TiVo account
Step 3: Profit!
Oh...crap. I actually have a step 2.
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Open Source Shirts
For something /. worthy, check out New series 2 Tivo for $199
personal linux video time-shifter (PVR) mentioned a Russell Pavlicek, Infoworld's 'Open Source' columnist he built.
MythTV works quite a bit better than this one does. Check it out here.
Video Time-Shifter, goddamn, these arguements for Linux just get stronger and stronger everyday. I think I've seen it in action on /. before, always get these weird story repetitions. Mind you its got a bit too much bloat for my liking, why not just make a seperate video player, and a seperate time shifter?
Yeah, I'm tired of paying monthly fees to a company that treats its customers with respect. Screw these companies supporting Linux too. Man, when TiVo released the 3.0 version of their software with broadband support built-in I nearly puked.
If I hear another person complain about a monthly fee to TiVo, I'm gonna punch them square in the pie hole.
I think this is totally awesome, and I'd like to build one of my own, but theres just something nice about being able to pull a piece of hardware out of the box and have it work, no questions asked.
But, maybe this will lead to more hardware manufacturers building machines like this that don't have monthly fees. I mean, what's it cost to build and store a database of television schedules? Can that cost be countered by simple ads? Slashdot seems to be making a great thing happen with its small amount of ads. I would be glad to trade a monthly subscription for some possibly helpful advertising inorder to have a PVR.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
I actually tried to get this working with wintv pvr 250. Works decently however pretty unstable, and works more like a vcr.
:)
I ended up buying a replay tv 4504 for about 200 bux. works out of a box, can record all my shows, tv guide support, and network support. Now I download my videos, and burn them on to dvds or svcds for watching. Extremely painless, and extremely easy to setup 9 bux a month. worth it for me
The recording rate of the TV capture card appears to max out at 15 frames per second. If I were intending to archive these programs forever, I'd probably invest in a better card. But for timeshifting shows like the evening news from France (for my wife) and The Red Green Show (for me), 15 fps is adequate.
15 FPS, I'd hardly call that adequate for 30 FPS NTSC television, but to each his own I suppose.
This project is intriguing, but the 15 FPS and lack of ability to use at the very least VCR+ codes for one off show recordings is a bit of a pain. It seems like a better capture card could fix the FPS to a good quality 30, and someone has to be able to code a VCR+ decoder... I understand that it is a fairly simple algorithm, and it would make things so much nicer.
Just because I doubt myself does not mean I find your position compelling.
doesn't TiVo already run linux?
If i'm not mistaken, TiVo is pretty much a linux box running on PPC hardware.
With the current Christmas sales around the country, I'm sure you can get the real thing cheap.
Although he seemed happy with 15 FPS, that seems a bit anemic to me. Has anyone pulled this off with 30 before? A lot of the Linux PVR implementations I've seen don't really mention what rate they achieve.
I'm just wondering how viable the performance would be if I went out and bought a capture card and mini-ITX MB etc. before I try something like this.
So tivo costs a little and has ongoing costs, and there's the danger of the company folding...but man is this an ugly solution. I wouldn't want that plugged into my home entertainment system.
BTW - DigiGuide Can drive a PVR on your PC so you can get listings for as little as $12 per year. Get your PVR software sorted (Snapstream or showshifter) and you are sorted. DigiGuide supports well over 5,000 channels including USA, UK and Ireland channels.
And for the linux freaks (you know who you are and I'm confident you're reading this) DigiGuide now apparently works a treat under wine.
In his first article:
"I remember how the process used to go when I'd scope out solutions in the closed-source world. There would be brochures to peruse. There would be data sheets read. Maybe there would be crippleware demos to run. And then there would be a solution to buy.
Unfortunately, this takes time. Significant time. And in the Internet age, time is critical.
But in the world of open source, I had several options right on my Linux CD. I didn't have to waste time with endless marketing materials."
But you DID have to waste time compiling, testing, setting up, configuring, tweaking, this that and the other thing. I mean c'mon. I've seen (and used) several proprietary solutions that work great with *uncrippled* time-trial demos.
And then you had to waste the time searching for compatible hardware, testing that, taking it back to the store, arguing for a refund, paying 15% restocking, trying something else, etc, etc.
And then you get to the box itself. I'm sorry but a Celeron 400? Sure it might 'work', but not all that well. My p3 600 had trouble capturing tv quality streams without siginificant losses. And it at least had the benefit of UDMA/100 and a 133mhz FSB.
Meh, so some guy made a shitty (functionally and aesthetically) PC that runs linux and plugged it into his TV. Kudo's to you, sir.
I'd really like to do something like this, and use linux to do it. But this guy is full of it. I hate when zealots pretend to be informative.
Gimme a useful article, not a thinly veiled 'MS is TeH SUCK Liniz is tEH GODE!' troll.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Ive seen some good mods of VCR's, but they all seem to make some pretty nasty compromises.
Any ideas?
I call it my "tuxvo"
If you combine cron with vcr you can achieve good quality recordings using divx4/5 pretty much off the shelf.
Add an nVidia GeForce 2 MX w/TV-out and nVidia's kernel module you can save yourself the money for the scan converter.
That is, if you don't mind black bars at the edge of the screen. Otherwise go with the scan converter.
But IMHO nothing beats MPlayer for playback. YMMV
Oh and In Soviet Russia tuxvo records you.
I just got Tivo, and while I'm not a huge fan of the fee (I went box lifetime subscription), you have to remember that with the fee you get software updates and fixes and a really good, highly detailed program guide.
Tivos feature set goes well beyond just recording Sopranos on Sunday nights at 8PM.
I'm not saying an HDD-based VCR wouldn't be a good thing, I wouldn't mind having one, but don't compare it to Tivo -- it's not the same.
Basically, a video capture card, a minimal OS, and two dedicated storage drives capable of holding 24 hours of good quality B&W video each.
If something interesting happened yesterday, I can swap out the quiescient "yesterday" drive for a fresh disk (hotswap) and save/copy/analyse the old data, without having to mess with the running system or the currently active drive that is being used to save today's footage.
Seems simple enough, shouldn't even really need to have an OS, just enough smarts to capture frames and write them to disk. I've heard of people converting old TiVo units to this purpose, but no dedicated hardware that fits my description.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
DirecTivo is the best... it has a satellite decoder built right in... now show me how to build one of those, and I'll be impressed... but until then, I can't easily change channels on my sat reciever with my pc, and I don't feel like forking out huge amounts of money for two tv tuner cards and two sat receivers just so I can watch one channel and record another...
Tivo still has a place in the market... shrinking yes, but it's not cost effective to try and replace it's functionality... at least not yet...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
Bullshit! Apparently he doesn't have a wife that feels the need to carry on a conversation right in the middle of a critical part of the show. ;-)
and likewise, the rewind feature comes in handy so you can reply what you just missed when the "conversation" started, before you could pause
Hey this little project looks like a cool undertaking, I think I'll build one for myself. Snarf.
Read the page. There's a link to Freevo.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
The total cost of the system is around $350 (assuming you can find a suitable base system for a hundred bucks). You can get a 40 hour tivo with lifetime sub for a hundred bucks more ($250+250-$50MIR) and not have to do anything but open the box and plug it in.
It may be nice to have a box and software that *potentially* can work like a Tivo... for the Linux gods. But I have to ask in the name of all the rest of the mortals, where's the GUI? Can we just set this up ONCE and then avoid any kind of hacking? Or is this flawed with the problem of many OSS packages, lack of usability for those who doesn't want/are not able to bother?
IMHO this is the main reason why OSS has not skyrocketed yet, because many people would prefer to pay an extra $100 than having to write batches every time you want to record a TV show or any other kind of menial task.
I know instances of OSS with good interfaces exist. But GUI usually seems to have a very low priority, unfortunately.
The ENIAC Demo Competition
With all these homegrown tivo like PVR's is that if you have digital cable or a satellite you are going to miss out on recording a ton of stuff. With satellite at least you can get a box with the decoders built in. For cable I just recently got the new Scientific Atlanta 8000 box for time warner and it works pretty well, but it is Tivo-lite and has some problems sometimes. But its still WAY better than using a VCR. All it needs is a network jack so I can get 2 boxes and share their recordings. Oh it doesn't do hdtv either.
Don't bother trying to compare the, ahem, device in the article with a TiVO. They're light-years apart. Come back later with a REAL home-built PVR that is at least within one order of magnitude of the functionality and quality of current PVRs.
So what % of TiVo sales goes to GNU/Linux? Or is Tivo just riding on Linux's back?
Anyone out there know?
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
While the main appeal to most people to purchase a TiVo is its timeshifting ability, there is far more to its featureset than just the way it pauses live TV. Anyone who thinks that TiVo is just a digital VCR hasn't really looked at one closely enough to understand the flexibility that it grants you.
"And I don't like the concept of having my destiny linked with the fortunes of the supplying company. I don't need a US$300 doorstop if the TiVo company should someday fail. Hey, if Enron and Worldcom can end up in the toilet, you have to allow for the fact that no one company will be around forever."
I think TiVo has stated that should they go under, they'd supply the current users with some facility to allow the units to continue to function.
"It should also be capable of creating images that can be burned on Video CDs (VCD)."
This is an ability I know someone has hacked into their TiVo. In addition, the new version of WinDVD allows you to view a stream at 1.2x the speed of broadcast, letting you shave down a 60 minute program to 30 minutes or so (after eliminating commercials).
"My God...It's full of ads!" -Fry, about the Internet, Futurama
Plus it's progressive scan, so actually losing 75% of the original 60 frame interlaced NTSC source. This system was definitely designed by a computer guy, not a video guy (as honorable and deep a form of geekhood as any).
:).
He really wants something that can do interlaced capture, like MPEG-2 or some of the higher profile versions of MPEG-4. I believe this is supported in the current CVS of Xvid, at least experimentally. MPEG-4 would give a LOT smaller file sizes than MPEG-2 at the same quality.
Or, since VCD is his goal, he could capture straight to ffmpeg in a VCD compatible profile. Or use SVCD MPEG-2, which would be higher quality, and could still fit a half-hour show on a 800 MB CD-ROM.
Windows Media 9 has great, free, integrated capture that can do interlaced, but that'd be hardly Linux friendly
My video compression blog
Both companies have seen the market for this data shrink as more people move to Dish Network and DirecTV, systems which have their own in-house listings service, bundled with the decoder boxes.
While there is (limited) competition in the TV listings market, and the profit margins are thin -- it takes a lot of time and effort to not only collect and validate the information from various sources and put it into a single standard format, but also (attempt to) clean up errors, typos, and general inconsistency across all the different data sources.
I have heard hints that TMS is considering offering "hobbyist" licensing for their local lineup and listings, perhaps eventually giving a free/cheap service to get "legal" access to the same online listings database as is currently offered for some smart remote controls.
This guy watches Red Green. I was shocked to see that none of the pics on his site had a stitch of duct tape.
girl is naked, take a movie
girl is looking, picture cutie
you buy thing from pop up banner
you get wallet, purchase camera
WE MUST DESTROY X10
WE MUST DESTROY ALL INTERNET AD
WE MUST DESTROY X10
WE MUST DESTROY ALL INTERNET AD
window pop up on the screen
taking control of my machine
making all internet user insane
x10 profit goes down the drain
girl is naked, take a movie
girl is looking, picture cutie
you buy thing from pop up banner
you get wallet, purchase camera
WE MUST DESTROY X10
WE MUST DESTROY ALL INTERNET AD
WE MUST DESTROY X10
WE MUST DESTROY ALL INTERNET AD
the economy failing is x10 fault
popping up window is computer assault
window popup again and again
only solution is crush x10
WE MUST DESTROY X10
WE MUST DESTROY ALL INTERNET AD
WE MUST DESTROY X10
WE MUST DESTROY ALL INTERNET AD
WE MUST DESTROY X10
WE MUST DESTROY ALL INTERNET AD
WE MUST DESTROY X10
WE MUST DESTROY ALL INTERNET AD
Man builds house by pushing large stones into a big pile.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
--"It's Bradford Company, slash your last name, dot your first name"
Sure you say you can do a Tivo cheaper. Maybe. But to me, the advantages of doing this outweigh the advantages of Tivo. I personally don't care for the thumbs uping and thumbs downing. I know what I want to watch and I don't want it recording anything else. Couple other folks mentioned the Freevo project and that interests me alot. But a lot of folks forget what you could do. You could hack the program a bit and add a button that lets you Zap a show to a standard DVD-R. You could use NFS and make a similar pc with a WiFi card in it, but minimal hard drive and a TV out card and have the view your recorded shows on any tv. Or start watching it in the living room, pause and go to the bedroom to finish. You could run samba and then mount a disc and setup a doze machine for your kids and they can watch Seasame Street in their room (no TV needed). I could go on, but I would have a rather long post. The advantages far outweigh they nice package Tivo provides.
Gorkman
So what % of TiVo sales goes to GNU/Linux? Or is Tivo just riding on Linux's back?
Why should any of it? Isn't the point that they should be putting the source back out for people to benefit from? And if they are doing this, aren't they fulfilling the gpl and any requirements and/or obligations they have to the OS community?
Thus linking to a page about application development. I'm pretty sure that's not the programming in question. Automatic linking is generally a mistake.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
The principle is simple, because the TV is just a fixed frequency monitor that takes RGB and timing signals. The circuit only converts the timings. This means a little extra work on the software side, as you have to configure X for the TV's resolution and frequency. Unfortunately some video boards (such as mine) have a lower limit on the frequency and the circuit won't work well. Otherwise it might be worth the hack :-)
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Seems the missing piece in all this is supported MPEG-2 encoding hardware. Then one could use a really low-power (read: quiet) CPU to run it all.
Are there any cards out there worth looking at?
Ah, but in fact 29.97 is an approximation itself. The actual value is 30000/1001.
:).
As long as we're being geeky
My video compression blog
They release their changes to the Linux kernel, but that doesn't amount to much. Most of the software work that TiVo has done is in the form of closed source applications that run on top of Linux. So basically, they're leeching off Linux. I'm fine with that as long as they adhere to the GPL, but it's not something that is going to gain my loyalty.
Which brings me to the question: are there any (cheap... goes without saying) TV tuner cards out there that can output MPEG2 or MJPEG in realtime? I'm thinking of building such a PVR box with multiple tuners ("just 'cause"), and I think the bandwidth requirements might be too much for multiple cards, especially if you want to do good quality capture (30fps?).
He goes through all the trouble and expense to make a basic TV "Time Shift" device with Linux, and then sumbits a picture of it sitting on top of a VCR!!! Granted, that's old tech "time shifting", but he obviously knows how to set the clock on the damn thing, so it probably could "work just fine for his needs" as well.
Let's see, what else could we make with Linux to do the same job as a tool we already have?
Wine, music and cinema are the three great creations of humanity. -T'Ian Han
It seems like the real voodoo cool trick that is unavailable on any of these systems and is available on Tivo and ReplayTV is the ability to pause live TV. Personally I think that's one of the best features of the system. Actually, pausing live TV isn't the cool part, it's letting a show queue up all the commercial time at the beginning, while you do something else, then go in and skip all the commercials. I'd love to flip a recorder on for the first 90 minutes of monday night football, then go do something else, and come back to a commercial free game.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
What type of encoder (for linux) is available out there which can convert .avi format to .mpg or .bin/.cue ?
The NetTopBox project claims to be working on this, but I haven't seen any results yet.
Looking for an alternative to XAWTV's streamer utility, I happened across MPlayer's 'mencoder' utility which can grab from v4l too.
My 'rec' script now contains something like:
-oac mp3lame -lameopts br=160:cbr
-ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4
-ofps 29.97 -o $f.avi &
So simple and yet so useless. 15fps? Man that sucks ass.
The thing is that it is much easier to sit down and do a CLI quickly and get the kinks worked out than it is to develop a usable GUI. I've tried to do a similar project to this, and doing it all command line makes life much simpler in the beginning. Eventually, yes, having a nice GUI would be good, but if a hacker can throw together the box with a CLI and be happy with what he's got, isn't that okay?
If somebody wants a nice GUI, they'll write one. As somebody else pointed out, there's the freevo project which has what appears to be a very nice GUI.
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From my figuring, the author spent $300 building this super-widget. So, he saved $250 over a new TiVo with a lifetime suibscription.
:)
For that, he sacrificed a whole lot!
* 15fps
* poor video quality (vertical lines) on top of the 15fps
* No 'live pause'
* No watching one program while saving another
* No guide, etc.
For me, the tradeoff isn't worth it. Even if TiVo fails as a company, I suspect that the community will come up with a network-hack for getting scheduling information.
And even if you lose that, you still have a better-quality recorder with an easy interface, more features, that's running linux.
It only compares if you wanted to play around building a PVR for personal humor. It doesn't make sense as a solution, though
Steve
So, going to build us a VCR, then? Sure, this thing isn't as convenient or functional as a Tivo, but to that I have three comments:
1) there is something to be said for the experience and enjoyment of building something like this yourself even if you could go out and buy something equivalent
2) this is clearly a first effort on low grade hardware. Given a little better performing hardware, or maybe just a hardware mpeg encoder, this machine would surpass a basic VCR.
3) unlike a VCR, this is all digital so he can send the recordings to friends without quality degradation. He can archive the shows conveniently in a database on his computer and search for old shows he wants to see. It gives somebody a lot of power to manage the shows that can't be had from a VCR.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
So do they not use gcc? I thought anything that was developed with gcc or included it's libraries also had to be OS (just a question, I have no idea)?
As for "leeching" off of Linux, how many people who actually use Linux (or any GPL code for that matter) have actually contibuted, regardless of whether or not they make any money from it (note that I would consider those who use it for their job someone who is making money from it).
If they utilize the tools available, don't break the rules governing it, and produce a good usable product, why not support them?
"a personal linux video time-shifter"
Wow, I wish my linux box could shift time. Then I could waste my time on slashdot and still get these final Compiler projects graded on time!
From the picture, it looks like he programmed the time into his VCR too, since it says something other than 12:00.
Vote for Pedro
If they utilize the tools available, don't break the rules governing it, and produce a good usable product, why not support them?
Because we're irrational slashdotters! Linux gud, Winders evil! Stealing is OK as long as it doesn't make baby Linus cry!
we are building a religion
a limited edition
we are now accepting callers
for these pendant key chains
Go read the GNU FAQ sometime.
To find this load of kludged together hardware and software on a website with the designation... "Linux Professional Solutions"
*chuckle*
Yuppers, I'm doing kinda-sorta the same thing. Got my TV tuner card. Video card w/TV-out on the way. Only diff is that I use an "external tuner" to decode stuff, and thus use an infrared dongle (funny word) to tell it what station to shoot too. Oh, and I also have a nifty RF mouse from Logitech so I can scroll around and the like. That is all.
"In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al
It can record two shows simultaneously. You can even watch a previously recorded show while it records the other two.
So NERR!
Actually it wasn't gcc the compiler, but rather the libraries that I was curious about. With M$, you are granted a license to use the libraries for whatever purposes, I wasen't sure if the libraries that came with gcc also stated the same (since some third party libraries are clearly GPL).
I don't need a US$300 doorstop...
He's talking about the thing he built, right?
we are building a religion
a limited edition
we are now accepting callers
for these pendant key chains
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group _id=67473
Albiet, the parser gets Canadian channels, would be easily changed to get free ones from tvguide.com or gist, etc.
There are exemptions for that, so no, stuff built with GCC does not have to be GPL.
Yep, Linux has a lot of leeches. Like I said, I don't have a problem with that.
There are reasons to support them. But their contributions to Linux source is not one of them.
The one benefit of a home-made PVR is that you can program the start time and end time very specifically.
I don't know if TIVO has time offset features, since they're not available in Canada, but I do know that no two stations synchronize their clocks nor start and end on time as per electronic schedules. For that matter, it's quite possible that the clock on my PVR could be off by as much as minute.
I've always found that I've had to give my VCR 2 extra minutes on the start time and end time just so I don't miss anything important at the beginning or end of the show (especially the clip for "next week's episode"). This can especially be a pain the behind if you are trying to tape two shows one after the other on two different channels.
Maybe someone with a TIVO can let us know if you can override the electronic tv programming schedule?
Everyone who thinks this is a good idea seem to be people who have never actually used a Tivo and don't really "get" all it does.
Or prove me wrong. Is there anyone reading who uses a Tivo and is interested in switching to this?
If you can't really use a TiVO without a subscription, all this BS from people saying this build-your-own PVR is no good is just that, total BS, FUD. It makes you wonder if these comments were actually posted BY Tivo.
I would love to purchase or build a PVR. But I have absolutely no interest in adding to my monthly bills. That seems to me the whole point of this discussion, a do-it-yourself PVR that does not leave you dependent on a company. All these comments saying it isnt as good as TiVO are totally off-topic and are just clogging up the discussion.
the company with the worst pop-up/under ads ever
Just as MP3.com is only one vendor of MPEG audio files, X10.com is only one vendor of devices that follow the X-10 power-line data communication protocol.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Go get one of these cards, ins/outs galore, coaxial in, monitor, all on one card. It comes with software for time shifting and all the usual pause rewind etc live tv features too. Probably the coolest thing is the RF remote, its gotta mouse on it, sort of. The 7500 is going for a little over $100 these days.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
While we're on the subject, does any one know if it's easy to do this sort of project under windoze? (and before you start up the flame throwers, I promise I'll get round to tring linix Real Soon Now, I promise, ok?)
I can't believe that this made /. only 15fps recording wtf?
:) My computer can do a great job at it (ie 25fps on PAL), granted it is a 1800xp - but my setup also has to invert the colors to decrypt the cable tv I watch :)
Where is the real time mpeg4 encoding? thats what you want - why implement a tv recorder on something that doesn't have the grunt to pull it off and paint it as being a great achievement?
Hint - Record using either transcode or mencoder for real time mpeg4 encoding
Need a remote control? - check out lirc - costs about $10 to make a simple serial adapter that can use 95% of generic remote controls.
Rock and roll fantasy.
The libraries are licensed under the LGPL, which allows closed source applications to link to them.
There are extra features hidden behind a password. I guess it's hacker-friendly in a twisted way -- there's now a distributed project to brute-force the password.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
I've been working on a PC-based Tivo-like system for a couple of months now and have published some (hopefully) useful information here.
One critical factor is the choice of a "smart" or a "dumb" capture card and deciding whether you want to be able to export your recordings to DVDR/CDR disks in DVD/SVCD/VCD format.
If you just want plain Tivo-like functionality then you can use DivX as your compression method and get reasonable results with a software-based realtime encoder.
I've compared the two options and reviewed the Pinnacle PCTV card (dumb BT8x8 capture) and the Hauppauge PVR-250 (smart -- it has onbard hardware MPEG encoding).
Is this stuff any good? Here's a clue -- hardware companies should stick to making hardware and leave the software writing to software professionals. This clearly hasn't happened in the tuner/capture-card industry.
Most of the work to date has been done under Windows but I'm currently working on using this hardware config under Linux and will update the project site accordingly.
However, if you want to then export your DivX files to DVD/SVCD/VCD you're going to get sub-optimal quality because you're transcoding between two lossy formats. Since the stuff I like to keep for posterity on CDR/DVDR is more than likely going to be material like good movies or music concerts, I have opted to use an MPEG1/MPEG2 encoder and avoid re-encoding.
There are also a couple of video samples demonstrating the differences between the three most popular options:
1. Realtime MPEG capture using a dumb card
2. Non-realtime encoding using TMPGenc
3. Realtime MPEG capture using a hardware encoder.
There's a heap more to do on this project but it's coming along quite nicely.
This TV-Now thing looks to be a better bet. It's not free but that (to me) is not a bad thing--you'll have somebody to complain to if it doesn't work or the listings are incorrect.
However, it's REALLY NICE to have the program guide, the thumbs up/down, and the automatic selection.
What we need is an open website that has accurate TV listings, plus a suggestion engine. For example, people who like to watch Christopher Lowell also like to watch reruns of Dynasty, etc.
Best Buy can have you arrested
I tried Tivo - it sucked. The Tivo couldn't change the channel on my DirectTv receivers (RCA). I still like the PVR concept and was thinking of trying to get it working using freevo and DirecTv. Has anyone else tried this combonaition (I haven't seen any posts on the web concerning this combonation.) Thanks - Tony
the networks will probably want to kill me for this, but....
As long as we're making our own PVRs, do any of them have the ability to use XML edit scripts to cut out commercials? Fast forward and 30-second skip and all are nice, but they always miss and you have to back up. It wouldn't be to hard to just distribute exact timing. In theory, everyone records The Simpsons on their computer, some kind soul goes through and marks the start and end time for each commercial break, and makes this file available on the net. The edit file includes the station it was captured from (different stations could theoritically use differnt length breaks), and some signature derived from the content which can be used to synch up the times. There's a slashcode site where they're posted, and you get modded based on how accurately you annotate the commercial breaks (meaning the networks don't distribute commercial-only edits (although... superbowl)). Then the rest of us get home a few hours later, grab an edit script off the web, and watch the show hassle free.
I've wanted this for most of my life. And now that it's becomming technically possible it's probably illegal (or will be). sigh
Obviously.
My motivation was not only to avoid the TiVo monthly fees, co-branding activities and privacy intrusions, but also to record movies and store them long term... hard drive space is still cost-competitive with DVD-R media, and you can't beat the random-access ease. Right now I'm up to 450GB, about two-thirds full. The last drive I added was a 250GB Maxtor for $299 after rebate. Even if the cost equation changes, I can always dump the least-watched movies off to DVD since they're stored in DVD-compatible MPEG-2. I don't think I could keep adding drives to a TiVo, let alone play games on my TV off the same box, etc.
ATI's RF remote is also pretty cool and it works around the house. I just wish gatos worked for me, and that ATI's HDTV adapter didn't require an 8500-series card... though I'll probably end up getting one of those just for that.
You can tell it to start and/or end on time, early, or late. I've used it for shows that ran a minute or two longer than expected. I don't know how far you can shift, though... I've only had occasion to use one or two minutes.
As other's have pointed out, this guy partially duplicated the functionality of a PVR for more money than he would have spent. Why is this a good thing?
What using a computer gains you over a PVR is extensibility. If you add an optical drive (DVD or combo DVD/CDR) then your machine doubles as a DVD, CD, and VCD player. You can even start gaming on the machine rather than buying an expensive PS2, Xbox, or Cube.
Instead of having shelves of black boxes to get all your jollies, you can integrate most of the capabilities you want into a single, clean aluminum case and even add some new ones.
Don't build it, buy it!
The folks at TiVo worked hard to develop and manufacture their product, and this pirate just goes and makes his own, basically taking food from the mouths of TiVo engineers.
Making your own stuff goes against the ideals of Corporatism!
1) Earn!
2) Consume!
3) Discard!
TV Guide has online listings... for free... I'm sure someone could figure out how to make use of it.
you'll have somebody to complain to if it doesn't work or the listings are incorrect
Isn't this one of Microsoft's reasons for avoiding free source projects? How is this any more relevant here than with source code? Do you really think they are going to pay much attention?
Infuriate left and right
He watches the Red-Green Show!
No wonder he practically pieced this thing together with Duct Tape!
What next? A Linux based Lawn-mower made out of an ol washing machine?
And I thought I was the only one that gets too tired to stay up late enough to watch Red Green.
I just put together something like this for myself under Windows.
;).
Works like this:
Athlon 1200 with a cheap 1394 interface card sitting beside the TV with a Canopus ADVC-100 Analog/DV transcoder sitting on top. The output of my satellite receiver goes into the canopus box, then out of the canopus box into the VCR/TR.
I've written a simple winbatch script to remote control the "Scenalyzer Live" software to run the firewire interface and capture the video incoming from the ADVC-100. Hopefully the Scenalyzer author will add some command line switches to the software as well so the winbatch script can go away (not particularly elegant, but it works).
Remote controlling the whole thing with a Logitech wireless keyboard / mouse works very well.
When the script is finished capturing, winbatch exits. Once a day (early in the morning), virtualdub fires up at low task priority and automatically recompresses the captured file down to a much smaller DIVX5 file and deletes the original DV media (if that option is set). Since it's at such a low priority, it's not a big deal if another DV cap starts as virtualdub gets virtually no CPU time (ya, pun, ha, I know
If I choose not to delete the DV file, I can watch it back through the ADVC box into the TV. Most times I'll just go with the virtualdub file which looks very nice at 3/4 resolution and 30fps (deinterlaced). Can also be easily archived to CDR/DVD-R as well.
The interface isn't particularly elegant at the moment, but it works, can run mostly in automatic mode, and has the advantage of also being able to listen to MP3s, watch DiVX media, and of course, network to all of my other machines.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
The problem with this guy's effort is that he's doing things the hard way.
My own Tivo-like PC project has so far taken a more pragmatic approach and evaluated a number of hardware and software options.
It would seem that Windows, given the proliferation of PVR hardware and software available for it, is the better option for such a task. (Yeah, I hate to say it).
As part of my project development I've reviewed two capture/tuner card options: a dumb BT8x8 card which relies on the host PC's CPU to do all the hard work, and an affordable tuner/capture card that has an onboard MPEG1/MPEG2 encoder in hardware.
The differences can be quite dramatic when you're looking to build Tivo-like functionality on a PC platform -- but there's no clear winner because both have pro's and con's.
However, using the card with the hardware encoder I can capture at 720x576 or so with no dropped frames while the host CPU sits comfortably at about 12%-18% utilization.
I can even carry on using the PC for other tasks without any real perceptable effect on either the recording or the interactivity of the desktop.
Man, there are inpatient treatment centers for people like you.
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
I gladly pay my monthly Tivo fee. It's worth every penny. Tivo is one of those things that you don't know how you ever got along without it.
All you MandrakeClub members who are interested in Freevo and MythTV need to head over to the RPM-voting section of the Club and vote for Freevo and MythTV.
o ad &name=RPM
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/modules.php?op=modl
Freevo is on the first page, and Myth TV is on the 3rd.
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
He can't have a disk larger than 60G, bios trouble. (Coupled with above, he has lower capacity than even old tivos.)
Is a troll?
BIOS concerns are only a problem for boot. He used a floppy because he had one or because he wanted more drive space on the IDE. It has nothing to do with disk size once you have booted. For instance, my old 486 was limited to two 540MB IDE hard drives by BIOS, if and only if I were running some inferior operating system that does not check for itself like those from M$. That did not stop me from booting off a 540MB disk and having as large a second drive as I could afford to stick on. I'm told that a boot partition can overcome this problem too, but I have not bothered. Nor have I tried to boot off a compact flash card, though that's also an option. A PC that old does not generally suffer from inferior hard drives, and I've got enough 540MB disks. Please don't give people false impressions and confuse people about hardware versus Linux limitations.
On the plus side... I have fun playing with my toys too.
You should play some more! Can you export your movies from your Tivo via X windows to any PC in your house? Can you ftp chunks of movies you like to other computers? He can. I'll bet he can also change his programing from work through secure shell if he hears about some kind of "can't miss" TV program. Sometimes a "shoddy substitute" you build yourself does much more than some what the entertianment industry will let you buy.
It's strange to see so many negative posts. This article encouraged me to look into video recording again. I failed miserably, but one day I'll get it. The site is bookmarked so I can follow along later.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Just pay for the damn Tivo already.
Pay the fuck up!
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
When the MilitaryInfotainmentIndustrialComplex sues TiVO and friends into a smoking hole or otherwise makes them their bitch, his PVR will still retain 100% of its functionality and won't be spying on
him or spamming him either.
Instant TiVO.... Oh wait, for Linux .....
Try, http://gatos.sourceforge.net/ or ftp://ftp.xig.com/pub/3Ddemos/extras/README.xvamp
... Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed...
I completely agree. There's a lot of criticism from people that have never used a Tivo. I used to be one of those on-the-fence people that never thought it was an ok idea, but I would never need one. Pausing live TV just didn't seem like it was that good a feature. I saw the displays at the store, but didn't really think much of it. It wasn't until I actually sat down and used one that I understood its true power. I could sit here all day and explain to you how good a Tivo is but it's nearly impossible for you to gain the understanding you would if you spent one day with one, recording shows and playing with the UI. So before many readers go out and try to build their own Tivos with Mountain Dew and duct tape, I encourage them to find a friend who has one and use it to understand what they should be shooting for. It'd be great to permanently archive shows to CD/DVD and do all kinds of crazy stuff, but sometimes it's just nice to be able to buy a component that works. You can use that old PC with a radio card and spend a few nights writing code to turn it into an awesome clock/radio that will play mp3s or grab streaming radio for the morning news, but it might just be better to buy that $19 Sony clock radio.
Aw, damn ... I knew that Preview button was there for a reason!
Time Warner has started to offer their own PVR for $5 a month. It includes two tuners (for recording two shows at once), it can hold 50 hours, it works directly with an on-screen guide, and I highly doubt TW is going out of business anytime soon. Hopefully more cable providers will pick up on this venture.
Escaping the monthly fees of TiVo is a good motivation -- and the total cost here isn't bad either.
You don't have to pay the monthly fees with a tivo, you only have to if you expect the built in tv guide functions to work. The total cost of a tivo is bought on sale when they are clearancing the old units is around $100 or so.. the total cost of using an extra computer to do pvr stuff is significantly more.
If anyone's interested, there's also an article on this is the November 2002 Popular Science.
The ATI All-In-Wonder suite (hardware and software). Yes it is Windows only, but its really the most feature rich and simple alternative to TiVO.
I honestly don't know why more people haven't heard of it.
Key features include
- the ability to save to VCD or DVD format
- a cool RF remote control that lets you control your desktop as well
- Auto download TV listings from GemStar
- Can zoom in and choose your own close-up
- Hot Words - real-time notification when selected words are detected in programming e.g
select baseball and when the word is uttered on any channel it will let you know, allowing you to record anything baseball related - Crazy eh?
- And my favorite - Picture in Picture on crack -
view like 30 channels at the same time each in their own litte windows tiled on your desktop. Major info overload!
And a bunch of other stuff like bundled video editing etc
Check it out here or here
a beowulf cluster of these
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
I want to junk the Radeon so I can capture video for real, what's the best card to get for Linux support, those WinTV cards?
SHN is a lossles compression format used by most traders. There are compression/conversion/etc. utilities and plugins for players on Mac, Linux, and Win, I use them for audio output to my sound system.
If you actually started watching at the beginning of a program, and you want to watch something else during the commercials, are any of these options at all useful with satellite TV? Could I even use a dual-tuner TiVo with two satellite receivers on top of the same TV, or am I stuck shelling out $550 for a DishPVR 721 (they won't even let you lease one yet, and even if you could you wouldn't be allowed to modify/upgrade it)?
Must... escape... $4.95... monthly... fee!!!!
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Fuck tivo and their goddam monthly fee! Punch away dipshit!
I went with the VIA EPIA 800, which features an 800 MHz VIA C3 CPU with on-board TV-out (and much more) for a mere US$120. And it's tiny for a full-featured computer, just 170mm x 170mm.
Plus, it has built-in audio, on-board Ethernet (though I've plugged in a wireless PCI card), USB, etc. -- great for a project like this. And it runs GNU/Linux like a champ.
I put it in a US$90 black mini-ITX case so it doesn't look like a computer -- it looks like an A/V component, fitting right in with the VCR and the cable box.
Finally, it runs very cool and very quiet (or it will once I remove the noisy hard disk and make it boot off the network instead) -- just one small CPU fan required. The CPU isn't that powerful -- mostly around the speed of a 600MHz Celeron, and the FPU is a little weaker than that -- but it's plenty of power for me.
There's a lot more info about this and similar hardware at mini-itx.com. I think a big market is developing around these little boxes.
``Life results from the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators.'' -- Richard Dawkins
What's wrong with you people? For years, everyone whined that Linux was being ignored in the server market, in the embedded market, etc.
Suddenly, a few years ago, TiVo produced a Linux-based PVR. They even (*GASP!*) encouraged hacking it!
Now, you want to "avoid the service cost?"
Brilliant. Take one of the few companies that stands to actually make a successful business based on Linux, and attempt to put them out of business because you're too cheap to pay $12 a month for the service, to support a company that has supported the Linux community over the years.
What, exactly, is the reason for not wanting to support TiVo? Besides being complete skinflints, that is...if you can't afford $12/mo., you shouldn't be spending $300-500 for a luxury item like a PVR in the first place.
.@.
Yeah, if this guy thinks watching TV is his "destiny," he's a bigger addict than I am.
Showshifter w/ TitanTV for scheduling on extra hardware I had laying around (750 Athlon, 256mb PC133, 40gbhd, WinTV PCI, 8mb AGP video card w/TV-Out) and it works great. Granted its on a windows machine. But I dont get any dropped frames and every hour of recording takes up about 700-800mb
on Showshifters best quality, I love it.
"But the cars are all flashing me, bright lights are passing me, I feel life passing me by" - Stiff Little Fingers
This guy has already been working on something similar and already has quite a nice gui. He even got an article in Popular Science a few months back. Seems to have done a much better job too IMO.
Well I have been pondering this same thing. I own a tivo but i never got a subscription. it worked ok but I slowed down on using it. Now I getting back into recording some tv. I also have an All-in-wonder card. it works ok with windows.. I want to create a box that would be a nice little unit that would sit on the tv and let me change channels, record shows ans movies, and in the furture record the info on a dvd drive.. I found a cool box called the MINI Q p4 .. i t has 5.1 surround, s-video, 10/100 mb nic, firewire, usb 2, and much more. also includes a IR remote. with the small case design i am pondering purchasing it and installing a mpeg2 card or if there is one out yet is a divx card. I have searched for that and still can not find one but i am looking.. I also am considering that haughpauge(sp) card witht he fm tuner and tv.. with mpeg2 compression.. that would be a killer little PVR/ MP3player tuner everything..
did you guys noticed whats the channel count on those tuners? i checked out Haupage and All beautiful spanky new radeon. i it found very disturbing that the actual channel count on the tuners is only 125 channels! everyone who has cable knows that theres way more bullshit channels than that!
Dude, if my girl's thong is as big as her t-shirt, I don't think I want to see her in it :)
It all goes downhill from first post
Although for a while Borland was trying to pull precisely this trick with their development tools.
Why don't you folks sit down and I'll show you how to build an embedded Linux or Win32 PVR.
We are proud to introduce our Matrex Station to the Slashdot community.
This is a perfect example of a device that will be banned, and the actions by the builder outlawed if Jack Valenti/Sony/MPAA/Hollywood Reps succeed in their push for broadcast flags.
What happened to Dmitri/Adobe will also happen to anyone trying to build this device, or contribute code or other help.
The deadline for comments is Friday.
See:
Declan McCullough asks "Why have you not written to the FCC?" and Slashdot responds
Um, considering the *CARD* costs more then the tivo, and a computer that would be able to use this card costs easily as much as 3 years of tivo service it's not really an alternative to tivo. It's more like an upgraded tivo that's for computer people, this wouldn't be useful for the "Average person" however, I'm debating getting this card to archive FROM my tivo if the dazzle dvd creation station thing doesn't work :) But for most buyers this is overkill and too much work to watch their favorite tv show.
I will be glad to answer any questions in regards to the validly of our device and code.
http://freevo.sourceforge.net
EXCELENT PVR software, i've used it. Actually, i haven't tried the recording part, but everything i have tried (playing movies, mp3s, photo gallery) was worked great. Has an awsome interface too. It would be GREAT for one of those anandtec boxes.... the sv24 or whatever it is.
I'm not drunk, I'm just in touch with pi.
No, this joke is definitely way past its 'best used before' date. Sorry about that, everyone. Please move on.
Money for nothing, pix for free
What's needed is something that will announce all kinds of real-time content. Video streams, audio streams/ radio/TV satellite / time sensitive media files etc. etc... The ADVANTAGE of having a networked computer on top of your TV is not it's ability to record Friends on Thursdays.. It would have to give you access to content you otherwise would not be able to enjoy. When you want to enjoy it ofcourse. TiVo is great but it doesn't tell me about or give me access to some streamed lecture i want to watch. Or an internet radio show i might like and have no idea about. What about a Flash Demo available for a week from some online studio? XMLTV needs to look beyond TVGuides and into the entire world of available realtime / time sensitive media. We need a guide that incorporates MPEG-7 standards, is distributed and 0fcourse realtime like the media we are consuming. I like TV because it is easy. But even the guides on my SAT are to much work. Give me idiot box access to EVERYTHING. A nice Filter that lists all content(streams/TV/radio/etc...) i might be interested in. Also.. that PVR is pretty shite. No disrespect.. I have a linux powered front door mat i should submit to Slashdot.
Tivo costs, what, 12 bucks a month? That's well under what I make in an hour. If I watch one, one-hour TV show a week, I get back 20 minutes of time that I'd otherwise spend watching some insulting, hysterical commercial.
:)
I know most of the people who read slashdot aren't old enough to have kids, but those of us who are consider an hour or two a week of extra free time to be worth a *lot* more than twelve bucks.
I won't punch you, but I will send you to bed with no dessert.
It would be very useful to be able to control all the stuff that currently has a remote, from a computer.
I would guess that anybody attempting to collate TV listing information and distribute it will rapidly find a DCMA warrent being served.
Got to love those legislators. The things they will do to protect us from our evil selves.
Hang on, does this finally mean i don't need to plug the tivo into the phone socket? It can finally go into my network?
Cat got your tongue? (something important seems to be missing from your comment ... like the body or the subject!)
is one that I am currently experimenting with: Allwell Set-Top Boxes.
I bought one through my employer, and the cool things about these boxes are:
Can be seen here.
Only problem is the display driver, the video chip is a Tvia 5005 and so far I had no succes in finding drivers for Linux... VESA FB works well but it could be much faster/smoother/use real PAL resolutions if I had the correct drivers. If anyone knows where to get them, please tell me !
Sound works fine BTW, but I don't remember what chip that was... CX5530 ?
It is a bit pricey to get DVB-T/S/C cards right now, especially the DVB-C digital cable cards, but if you are able to get digital TV, the VDR software has all the necessary features, and because there is no re-encoding of video stream, the reception quality is preserved. Program guide is streamed along with the programs. Almost only available in Europe though.
The writer has VDR in his links too, but this is it again: VDR. Slashdot article about it can be found in here. I think the software has evolved and the availability of DVB cards has improved a bit since then so that if you passed this option last time it might be worth it to check it out again.
Now, you want to "avoid the service cost?"
Yes, it is called choice.
You know, that thing Free software is about?
Besides being complete skinflints, that is...if you can't afford $12/mo., you shouldn't be spending $300-500 for a luxury item...
When you demonize someone who has made a choice you disagree with, you come across as an obnoxious zealot.
Your comment, and the other comments in this thread which personally insult the guy who made this PVR and then took the trouble and the bandwidth costs to share it with everyone, make many people ask themselves:
"Hmmm, the Tivo seems kind of cool, but some of the most vocal users are such vicious, immature dicks.. maybe I don't want one."
If Linux itself ultimately fails to take over all computing, it will not be due to any technical fault or deficiency. It will be because immature, foul-mouthed shits who insult anyone who disagrees with them have driven undecided people away.
Tivo is not a world wide corporation. For some of us the DIY approach is the only one viable.
USians...
I wanted a dedicated gaming box, so I put together a system with a Celeron 400 and a Voodoo3. Sure, it only plays games at 5fps and it cost twice as much as a PS2, Xbox or Gamecube, but it runs Linux. I said it runs Linux!
Sigh. I get the essential coolness of hacking things together, but this is such a poor solution that I really can't see it as anything other than a big fat waste of time and money.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
This is absolutely nothing better than a good shell hack.
I havent seen one for awhile, kudos!
Scott.
Hmm,
I'm not impressed.
My own creation is a lot better:
full PAL resolution, full FPS, and
no fans whatsoever -> zero noise.
It's at:
http://www.stolk.info/server/
Bram Stolk http://stolk.org/tlctc/
C'monnnnnn I know you do it. Or what about all those Yoga shows! Admit it!
It's an easily accessed preference on TiVo. I don't know why you would do it, but TiVo lets you do so. I think perhaps you'd better know what you liked and didn't like about TiVo if you had one or had extensively used one.
Two of my friends have network cards in their TiVos. Both can program their TiVo over the internet. One can write DVDs from his TiVo contents. One is a wireless card.
Anyway, I respect people wanting to do their own PVR. But just note that it is a long way from just a PVR to a TiVo.
I see many posts here complaining about this guy's home made PVR. They are all complaining about the lack of features or this and that. It's a work in progress folks and it's just been started! Grow up!
I wonder if these same complainers were complaining in 1993 about Linux kernel 0.9x "Microsoft has more features!" "Microsoft has a better GUI!" "Why should we spend all the time configuring this Linux thing when we could just spend $300 and buy Windows".
The arguments are identical. Cut this fellow some slack for daring to build something that you won't even attempt.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
First off, call me flaimbait -- but this article is not news and doesn't matter. How many years have people been using PC's as a PVR? Even myself, not even really a geek, running Windows 98, was doing this 3.5 years ago. The system was great, P2 400, DVD drive, TV out/Capture card, 2x 10 gig hard drives. At the time, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, hell ATI has been writing software to convert a PC into a PVR for how long? Hey, and it's free if you buy an 'All in Wonder' series card. I guess I should have wrote a lame web page about it so I could get /.'d. :)
Once I moved up to satellite, my little video box was rendered useless except for doing manual recording. The image quality of captures off compressed digital sources also didn't look as nice as analog cable captures did since the video is being converted/compressed/encoded an extra time..
Then a friend let me use his Tivo for a few days.. This was pretty much the same, digital broadcasts looked too grainy when played back through the Tivo. Plus, it couldn't do anything to tune the satellite without spending money. You can say in nerd talk "THAT IMAGE IS A-OK" but when you are using a 36" (or greater) tv, the flaws in compression become more noticable, especially in action scenes.
So, after giving back the Tivo I decided to try out M$'s Ultimate TV unit for DirecTV. All I can say is "wow!". Picked it up for $129 and it came with $150 of mail-in rebates. Sure, it's only 30 hours, but:
a) the image quality of recorded programs is great since it captures and records the actual compressed signal as decoded by the tuner. This gives you the benefit of compression without the additional quality loss by taking the compressed content, converting it to analog, sending it over to be captured digital again, recompressed, etc.
b) pause live tv
c) purchase an upcoming PPV event and have it record automatically with about 5 key presses on the remote
d) $9/mo instead of $12/mo, plus there are no retarded banner ads, popups, program suggestions, etc. It just does what I tell it to do, nothing else.
e) 5 hours/mo free internet access (wheeeeeeee!)
f) UTV has dual DTV tuners (requires a dual LNB on the dish and two cables to the unit), thus can record two programs at once, record one program and watch another, etc. I know this doesn't sound like much, but the first time you find yourself in the situation of having
Nerd factor is low on Ultimate TV units, since they are bound to DirecTV and have no means to upgrade the drive or attach it to a network. Mind you, I get more features and don't ever have to deal with stupid popups (like tivo owners deal with).
Along with the lower nerd factor of the UTV unit, I think you'll have a better chance of getting laid than the average Tivo owner. More often than not, I've noticed Tivo owner's homes tend to have a funny sour milk smell, full ashtrays, and never seem to change the kitty litter. P U
Anyway, I'm so happy with the darned thing. If you need a PVR the whole family can use, I'd suggest this box. You might have to get one off ebay, though, I am not sure if they are still being manufactured.
One comment on the nerd that built his PVR for $400+ to record 2 shows: You could have saved yourself a wad of cash just to download the shows off Usenet. A perl script + cron would have saved you some $$$..
Much love,
Victor
I followed your link and that product looks very cool, especially for the price.
Since it just plugs into a serial port, I'm wondering if it can be easily used with Linux...
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Here are a few to look up on google:
nvrec
ffmpeg (use with nvrec for best results)
transcode (nvrec and native mode)
mencoder (part of mplayer)
vcr
streamer (xawtv package: not very good)
mjpegtools (slow for s/w cards)
rte (haven't used)
There are many more. The best solutions use the very fast ffmpeg MPEG4 or MJPEG codecs.
http://blog.grcm.net/
[ I'm posting this without +1, as it's already offtopic. ]
Paging NumberSyx. See here.