Building A Low-Budget TiVo Substitute?

thepuma writes "Since I'm cheap, and don't want to pay monthly fees to Tivo, I am researching building my own low-budget Personal Video Recorder and player. Free software options include Freevo and MythTV. Hardware options are the main cost factor. How would you go about building the perfect low-budget PVR?" We've looked at similar questions before, but the guts of such a system (both hardware and software) have been improving -- MythTV, for instance, now supports Hauppauge's PVR-350 card. How would you build a system like this now?

Comments

Re:sure just buy a tivo if all you want is a PVR..

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

First off, I hate the abbreviation "digicam"; it seems far too similar to digimon. Now, you don't want to go making people think you like anime, do you?

Second of all, why would I only be able to view photographs taken with a digital camera? Wouldn't any photograph that's been encoded in a digital format be viewable, given the correct software? For instance, 35 mm film can be processed and then digitized through the use of what we in the know call "scanners" - would you like to know more?

Re:Don't do it for cost

[Arcturax]

What about control?

Want to skip commercials? Want to NOT deal with corporate slime like DirecTV who sue people for buying smart cards even when they had no intention of using them for stealing DirecTV signals?

Want to NOT support a company who fires off legal threats at fans of the device who want to hack and extend it's capabilities?

Want to burn your shows to DVD-R/VCD and share with friends?

Want DRM free equipment?

Then you will be better off spending the extra time and money building your own device.