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Home-Grown TiVo Stories?

Posted by timothy on from the cheap-and-perfect-preferred dept.

PolyDwarf writes "I'm in the process of figuring out how I'm going to build a homegrown TiVo machine (i.e. a computer sitting next to or in my home electronics stack). My question for is "What's worked best for you?" Most solutions I've researched are great if you have regular cable. However, satellite systems and digital cable boxes seem to present a special challenge, in that the software on the PC needs to know about an IR connector that is then hooked up to the front of the digital cable/satellite box. Who has done a solution like what I'm researching? What cases/processors/memory/TV Card/IR transceiver/OS/software/etc worked out for you? Did the end result justify the pain and hassle?"

5 of 460 comments (clear)

  1. Freevo and linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Freevo and linux have been working pretty well for me. Just setup xmltv and go.

  2. Mini-ITX form factor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    A great place to look for small form factor machines is over at mini-itx.com, great small form factor stuff. For software, freshmeat.net and a bit of scripting is your friend :D

  3. mythtv by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    mythtv.org looks promissing, version 0.8 works well, dunno about the receiver stuff as I just have cable.

    1. Re:mythtv by Col.+Klink+(retired) · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, I'm very happy with mythtv. With the 0.8 release, it's split between a front-end and a back-end. You can record all your programs on one machine and watch the recordings (or live TV) from any front-end machine, even if the front-end machine doesn't have a tuner card of its own.

      Mythtv also has hooks to execute any command you desire to change the channels. Plus a web front-end (mythweb) for viewing program info and recording a program or deleting old recordings.

      It doesn't recommend stuff for you to watch and it won't think you're gay if you tape Will & Grace.

      --

      -- Don't Tase me, bro!

  4. Read avs forums by scootr1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s= &forumid=26

    They'll be your friend.

    Regular cable is best, just because of TV tuner cards.

    Also check out http://www.mythtv.com if you want to go the linux route.