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Build Your Own DVR

Posted by timothy on from the no-build-mine dept.

prostoalex writes "If you have an old computer that had been laying around for a while and are ready to spend a bit on hardware to make into a Digital Video Recorder, this article from Make magazine contains a step-by-step guide on building one. The author spent $150 on TV card and $70 on BeyondTV PVR software." (And with a Linux-friendly capture card, MythTV would save the builder $70.)

56 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. The guy is not so dumb as to waste $70 by putko · · Score: 4, Informative

    The author's description implies the guy could have saved money if he'd used free software.

    When I read this, I thought, why would someone who is smart enough to build a PVR waste money unnecessarily on software?

    From RTFA, it appears that because the software is bundled, he didn't pay the $70. It was "free as in beer".

    --
    http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
    1. Re:The guy is not so dumb as to waste $70 by bdc0 · · Score: 3, Informative

      An the author does has his act together. There are various common problems such as automation that he explains work-arounds to. Sounds like he actually used the stuff.

  2. More than $70... by jmcneill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The author spent $150 on TV card and $70 on BeyondTV PVR software." (And with a Linux-friendly capture card, MythTV would save the builder $70.)

    Lets not forget the license fee for Windows XP -- that's significantly more than $70, I'm sure.

    1. Re:More than $70... by nxtr · · Score: 3, Funny

      But in reality, who worries about their Windows XP license fee?

    2. Re:More than $70... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      People who don't want to go to prison?

    3. Re:More than $70... by homeobocks · · Score: 2, Interesting

      People in Canada. Woot!

      --
      MOUNT TAPE U1439 ON B3, NO RING
    4. Re:More than $70... by JWW · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A lot of MythTV users build their own machines.

      Buying the "Other" OS for that box is expensive.

      Also, my myth box has never been tainted by having ever had that other operating system touch its disks ;-), unlike the machines you buy from Dell or whoever.

    5. Re:More than $70... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Had you read the article, you would have learned that he had an "extra" license for Win 2000, and that is what he used. He mentioned upgrading to XP, but said that he didn't.

    6. Re:More than $70... by Blastrogath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sorry, we don't all have "extra" Windows licenses lying around.

      A lot of people don't have an extra computer lying around either. That doesn't mean nobody should sugest ideas for those of us who do.

      --
      "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." -Plato
  3. The author actually spent by Mantorp · · Score: 3, Informative
    $150 on the capture card and didn't have to spend $70 on the software because it came with the card.

    Yeah I admit it, I rtfa.

    1. Re:The author actually spent by dragon_imp · · Score: 2, Informative

      Of course, it would be nice if the article wasn't misleading. In this case, "bundled" does not mean "free as in beer."

      Hauppauge's PVR-250 comes bundled with both BeyondTV and SageTV -- TRIAL VERSIONS! Both have 30 day trial periods.

      I have 3 of the PVR-250 cards and I chose SageTV for my Home Theater PC

  4. The idea has some merit, but... by holyshitholyshit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. an old computer is going to be a big hulking mess compared to a DVR

    2. the DVR will use much less wattage

    3. the DVR doesn't cost much more anyway

    1. Re:The idea has some merit, but... by segmond · · Score: 3, Insightful

      who has a 1.8ghz lying around? My main PC workstations are 450mhz.

      --
      ------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
    2. Re:The idea has some merit, but... by kent_eh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      BUT...

      DVRs (like Tivo, Replay, etc)may be commonly available where you live, but the aren't everywhere.

      Here in Canada, the options for off-the-shelf DVR are:

      1) whatever your cable company/satellite proivider will provide.

      2) a set-top DVD recorder

      3) buy a used Tivo/Replay box on E-bay and hack it

      4) there is no 4

      --

      ---
      "I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
    3. Re:The idea has some merit, but... by KillShill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      you forgot #4

      the one that says you can record anything you want anytime you want and you don't have to watch the dvr's ads in addition to the commercials that are shown on tv.

      and #5 which says you can record it in any format you want and keep it as long as you want. and share it with others.

      also #6 which mentions that you won't be monitored 24/7 on your watching habits. nor will you be required to "phone home" to "update" the electronic program guide and coughhackwheeze upload your personal information coughhackwheeze.

      also there is #7 which states that you won't be FORCED to accept updates against your will (EULAs have no validity in any nation with a sensible notion of just law)

      lets not forget #9 which allows you to do anything you want in regards to the hardware guts of the machine (no cockamamie secret/proprietary HD file systems, protection/drm schemes etc)

      SOME people just want a digital vcr aka a DUMB hw module that does EXACTLY what the owner tells it to, and nothing else. no "related" shows you'd like, updating the EPG bs, etc.

      the above paragraph is only my personal wish but some others concur and are quickly insulted/modded down when they mention it. the other points i make though are valid for anyone with a sense of decency and justice.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
  5. Free pvr software by Dzimas · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Don't forget that one can get excellent free PVR software, too. In fact, I'm surprised that Make Mazazine didn't go this route -- far more the DIY style. I run GB-PVR (www.gbpvr.com), which can handle DivX, audio, etc. and has plugins for weather, cartoons, and is skinnable. It enables you to select free tv listing from zap2it which cover Canada and the USA, and also supports various XML listing feeds for elsewhere on the planet.

    I also recommend checking out the Hauppage (www.hauppage.com) PVR-150 through PVR-350 series, as well as their MediaMVP box, which allows streaming your tv across ethernet to your television. I suspect you could create a very useable system with free software for well under $100. Just be warned that you'll chew through about 2GB per hour of HD space. The old 30GB drive that's serving as my PVR storage doesn't really cut it in the modern world!

  6. If you can spare the time to get MythTV to work by mauriceh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Reliably?

    Myth has a long way to go yet.
    And some really awkward assumptions for defaults.
    "No, you should not see the cursor, that would be too easy to use"

    Free does not necessarily mean "best"

    --
    Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
    1. Re:If you can spare the time to get MythTV to work by w.p.richardson · · Score: 2, Informative
      Answer: Knoppmyth

      Problems solved.

      --

      Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!

  7. Re:Interesting but pointless by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, MythTV (for one) supports infrared control of an existing cable box, so you get all the channels on the PVR you just use the set top box's tuner.

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  8. And for $99... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can buy a TiVo that works out of the box...

    1. Re:And for $99... by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You can get dirt cheap inkjet printers and razor handles too.

  9. EFF shameless plug by NotoriousQ · · Score: 4, Informative

    In honor of Broadcast flag becoming law on July 1st, EFF hosts a Broadcast flag awareness and PVR building page with many resources on how to build you own. A good starting place to see many solutions and find many links

    --
    badness 10000
  10. Braindead way to do it. by loraksus · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html
    Assuming you have the right hardware, etc.
    If not, prepare to spend a couple hours finding drivers / recompiling / all that fun stuff.

    Maybe it is just me, but I don't feel like installing 3 distros and spending hours trying to get some hardware to work, sometimes "just fucking works" is nice.

    --
    1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcfv gbhnjmk,l.;/
  11. $150 too much by biryokumaru · · Score: 3, Interesting

    $150 is way, way, way too much. I got a fully functional TV tuner card that I use with mplayer as a DVR and it only cost me $6 (I got a good deal). But www.pricewatch.com puts capture cards around $20.

    --
    When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
  12. PC-based DVRs have massive drawbacks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. an old computer is going to be a big hulking mess compared to a DVR
    2. the DVR will use much less wattage
    3. the DVR doesn't cost much more anyway

    Amen, thank you.

    If I could get a DVR for the price of TV card + the software, and no more hassle, I'd buy one.

    In fact, it would solve the problem of getting digitised programs off a standalone DVR. However, as this would require leaving my computer all the time (wattage, noise), and more importantly, restrict what I can do with it (bad enough if you use Windows and want decent recording quality- means you can't run game X when your favorite program is on; I run Linux, and not being able to boot into that at will is a killer, straight off, for me).

    The 'old computer' is, as you say, still going to be bulky and noisy (and ugly), and quite honestly, if you want analog recording, you're going to need a pretty decent machine to capture at full resolution. The only machine I can dedicate to this (I use my laptop as a wireless X server for my main machine) is my old Pentium-233. *Way* too slow...

    So, buy a new PC. Cheap one? Still noisy, bulky, and power hungry; and no cheaper than a standalone box, if slightly more flexible.

    Shuttle-type case (nano-ATX where the *hell* are you?); getting expensive, and I'd have to start questioning the merit of not just getting a standalone DVR.

    For me, the latter are likely to come down in price to mass-market breakthrough price by the end of the year; the main problem is getting the video off them. But that in itself isn't enough to persuade me to spend more on the 'cheap' option of a new PC.

    On the other hand, maybe I just don't care enough about TV to consider the ultimate flexibility that a new nano-PC based solution would give to be worth the money. I'll wait for my cheap off-the-shelf box and use my VHS recorder in the meantime.

    1. Re:PC-based DVRs have massive drawbacks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      (all prices in Canadian $$$'s)

      My DVR is on a dedicated IBM NetVista desktop box (P4-1.4Ghz, 256MB ram) I got refurbished for $200. It has a 180watt power supply which is whisper quiet and has more than enough to juice for the components I have inside. It's currently got a 200GB hard drive I picked up for about $100, an Asus E616 DVD rom drive for $40 (the quietest region-free DVD drive made I think) and a low end ATI radeon card with TV-out for about $50. For capture, I use the Plextor m402U, which cost me $129, also in Canadian funds. Last but not least since I have a satellite dish, I picked up an IR blaster for about $20. Grand total about $400 Canadian. Then I threw MythTV on there and now I have a DVR that is better than anything sold on the market today. Best of all since the Plextor divx encoder does it all in hardware over USB2, I can add a second or third with almost zero extra load on the machine.

    2. Re:PC-based DVRs have massive drawbacks... by The+Vulture · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Some people like the simplicity and cheapness of a commerically available DVR. Some people prefer to build their own. I say, to each their own. Building a DVR isn't for everybody, and it can be quite expensive.

      My reasons for building my own (using MythTV):
      1. I can put in multiple tuners. Two tuner units came out six months ago at best, if my memory serves me correctly. I've been using two tuners for over a year now, and I now have three tuners in my machine (a PVR-250 and a PVR-500). This is very convenient when there's three shows on at the same time that I want to watch. (A typical Tuesday night at the moment has Law and Order: SVU, The Shield and Masterminds all on at the same time, 10PM). The scheduler in MythTV can accomodate that fairly well with only one or two tuners, mind you.
      2. The user interface on a lot of the DVRs that come from the cable companies is awful. It's slow, full of ugly colors, and unstable
      3. I use my MythTV machine as my file server as well. So, I was going to have the PC on 24/7 anyway.
      4. MythTV plays back DVDs also, not many DVRs currently do that.
      5. I have complete control over the unit. I can skip commercials at will. I don't have to worry about my DVR expiring shows on me (except when I run out of disk space). My demographics aren't sent to some company. My DVR doesn't pop up ads on me.

      I picked MythTV because it met my needs. If a Windows program worked well for me, then I would have used that, just to make it simple.

      -- Joe

    3. Re:PC-based DVRs have massive drawbacks... by kfhickel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      wrong, wrong, wrong.

      The power of a PC based DVR (I use BeyondTV myself even though I have a linux server in the house too), is not that you put one next to every TV. That would be "stupid". Instead, you put one in the basement where you don't care if it's noisy, then you put a $90 MediaMVP box from Hauppage on each TV, and wire it to a switch.

      Compare that to putting a TIVO on 4 TV's, even if you get the box for free, it's $1200 for the lifetime guide access (which is free with BeyondTV), and then more money if you want the home networking option so that you can move programs from one TIVO to another.

      Now, my setup cost more than $1200 (but not that much more), but then my BeyondTV machine is also my X-10 house controller machine, is a 3.2ghz p4 hyperthreaded with 1gb of 800mhz dual channel ram, a 100gb 7200rpm disk for the OS and 4 seagate ata133 7200rpm 300gb drives in a stripe set for the data volume. It's also my backup server. And I can watch any program from any TV in the house.

      I've got right aroun $1500 in the machine, including the OS and software licenses and 4 MediaMVP boxes for a total cost (not including network switches, etc) of $1820 (I got a deal on the MVPs) for 4 TVs, and I could have another TV for free if I put the server next to a TV.

      4 TIVOs would cost more like $2000 (200/box plus 300 guide fee) and would have a lot fewer features and much less storage, and some amount more for the networking option.

      So....

    4. Re:PC-based DVRs have massive drawbacks... by gad_zuki! · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >Two tuner units came out six months ago at best, if my memory serves me correctly.

      Not true. My old hughes tivo has been doing two tuners for three years now. I paid next to nothing for it (well under $200) when I got DirecTV and am floored by what people are spending on DIY approaches. To each is own indeed, but when the DIY costs twice as much as a stand-alone its a geek hobby like case-moding or building the fastest and latest and greatest for idle cycles or the occasional game.

      >The user interface on a lot of the DVRs that come from the cable companies is awful.

      I can't speak for other brands, but my Tivo has a great interface and remote.

      >My demographics aren't sent to some company.

      You can opt-out of Tivo demographic data. Call em.

      >My DVR doesn't pop up ads on me.

      Mine doesnt either.

      Granted, if you want a file server, DVD burner, etc then go the DIY approach, but the commercial products certainly are not as bad as you make them out to be.

    5. Re:PC-based DVRs have massive drawbacks... by ColaMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Your argument against is actually the beauty of PVR's.

      TV full of crap? Get your PVR to record the few shows a week you actually like, that are often on at stupid hours. Then you can sit down at your lesiure and put on whatever you like from what your PVR's recorded over the last few days.
      Use a PVR as to filter out all that garbage, and suddenly TV is a lot more tolerable.

      This is the main reason I have a PVR. It (MythTv) also holds my entire audio collection, about 100 DVD's and 2500 digital photos.

      --

      You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
      There is a lot of hype here.
    6. Re:PC-based DVRs have massive drawbacks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Instead you spend your time reading discussion that have absolutely nothing to do with your interests just so you can jerk off to the superior feeling you get by telling everyone how much better you are because you don't own a television? Good plan.

    7. Re:PC-based DVRs have massive drawbacks... by eufreka · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Compare that to putting a TIVO on 4 TV's, even if you get the box for free, it's $1200 for the lifetime guide access (which is free with BeyondTV), and then more money if you want the home networking option so that you can move programs from one TIVO to another.

      I know I should let this pass, but for posterity, let me correct a couple of points:

      I bought 3 tivos a year ago for $50 each (direct from tivo by weborder). I then purchased 3 usb ethernet adapters for $20 each to add them hardwired to my home network. I then signed up for month to month guide service for a total of $27 (13 for first, 7 each for the others).

      So first year cost is/was $534. Second year will be just the 324 in service...for a total 24-month outlay of $858.

      So what do I get for that? All the basic DVR stuff (at tivo quality); full MultiRoom Viewing (which allows me to move shows among the different tivos...even when halfway watched); Photo and Music server in all 3 rooms; the ability to schedule recordings remotely over the internet; and tivo2go from all three devices to a PC for archiving OR legal DVD burning (there are ways to do it with what you have, but you can throw in another $50 for Sonic MyDVD, which hooks straight in).

      Total cost of $900 for 3 tivos for 2 years of use (including the hardware) Even if I added a 4th ($70 for box and ethernet; $238 for 24 months of guide, etc.) the REALWORLD comparison is $1200 versus your $1800 investment.

      Oh, and as an aside, I would love to watch your $1500 machine playback 4 separate streams, and simultaneously record 4 separate programs AT ONCE (because my setup is doing it everyday)! And even if it could, I still have $600 for my next "next" thang.

  13. GOPchop for removing commercials? by Bryce · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since this uses the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR, I wonder if GOPchop can be used to delete out the commercials? GOPchop 1.1.6 just came out, adding a bunch of patches, and it sounds like the 1.2.0 release is around the corner. Also planned is adding some commandline operation mode, so in theory if you had a way to detect commercial breaks, maybe it could be set up to auto-skip? That'd be a neat trick.

    1. Re:GOPchop for removing commercials? by sokoban · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, one littel trick I ahve found to get rid of commercials is to Use Closed captioning as an indication. Most shows are closed captioned. Most commercials are not.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
  14. How to get a FREE DVR by AgNO3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Call current provider and say, "I'm thinking of switching to another provider because they will give me a free dvr. If you can match that I will stay with you." That's how we got our Dish netowork DVR. Which does 2 tvs. Recently talked to comcast about switching to them but said we want dvrs for 4 rooms. They said yes. (we want on demand feature from comcast) So will probably switch to Comcast when our dish contract is up in a month. Only reservation is that we hear comcast dvr sucks. Dish's is pretty nice.

    --
    OMG Ponies!!! with Glitter!!!! I miss Pink :-(
  15. Re:Interesting but pointless by JWW · · Score: 2, Informative

    It also recently got firewire support for use with cable boxes that have firewire output

  16. Re:probably better to just get the real thing by The+Vulture · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, MythTV can be a bit of a pain to setup, and yes, driver support for some cards is bad.

    I know that I'm going to sound like a total ass for saying this, but... You need to do some research.

    If you read the mythtv-users mailing list, you'll find that the PVR-250 seems to be the best supported card (unfortunately, unless you have one of the newer ones). PVR-150 support is iffy, but I have a PVR-500 and a PVR-250 (one of the first generation ones) working fine, with a driver that is listed as "testing" in ATrpms.

    I have absolutely no problems setting up MythTV, in fact, it's basically copy/paste. Why?
    1. I use supported hardware
    2. I use ATrpms for the RPMS (on Fedora Core 3)
    3. I follow Jarod Wilson's MythTV HOWTO at http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv/, which the community contributes to in order to keep it up to date
    4. I read the mythtv-users mailing list (and the -dev list, and ivtv and atrpms-devel as well, but most users don't need to do that).

    -- Joe

  17. In my experience... by grolschie · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is currently no PVR software that allows capture to DVD. The ones that offer DVD burning, do it after the capture. Time consuming, not convenient. You still can't get close to the convenience of a box-top DVD recorder.

    Also, just don't buy a TV card (or AGP card with TV tuner) made by ATI. You'll have nightmares with drivers and ATI software like the rest of us ATI users do.

    1. Re:In my experience... by fm6 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Even if the software supported that feature, it would be a mistake to use it on most systems. DVD burning is something you have to do all at once, unless you're short of coasters. Running a lot of CPU intensive processes, such as recording and TV show and encoding it to DVD format, has a high liklihood of causing a fatal interruption. Maybe you could do it on a high-end system -- but a consumer DVD recorder is a lot cheaper.

    2. Re:In my experience... by gabebear · · Score: 4, Informative

      All modern DVD burners have burn overrun protection

      I've never seen a DVD burner without buffer underrun protection, but whenever I've ever burned something to fast and actually made use of that protection the DVD that it makes is either really picky about what drives it will work in or it will be a coaster. I've noticed the same thing with CDRs/CDRWs.

      Buffer underrun is nice, but it definately has serious drawbacks.

    3. Re:In my experience... by grolschie · · Score: 3, Informative

      Geez I wish I'd read this 3 days ago. I bought an ATI tv wonder pro thinking it had ok driver support but in my haste, I didn't realize the "pro" part of the name implied it had a completely different chip inside, the os driver is barely a hello world program, and of course ati driver support is shit.

      Yeah man. I bought an ATI Radeon 8500DV because it had a reasonable chip, TV encoder, real-time h/w mpeg encodering, teletext, firewire, etc. What a POS it is. I get rhythmic static coming through on all Nicam Stereo channels (using a roof aerial even) which makes the TV unwatchable. The problem is not there all the time, occasionally it will be fine. No logical cause that I can locate though.

      Their MMC software is flakey at best. Locks up, poor setup, etc, etc. Upgrading your drivers even to the latest WHQL drivers cause major nightmares. NEVER again will I buy ATI, or another TV tuner card. A box-top DVR with HD will be the go.

      I wrote a long rant at ati.com but the session timed out before I could submit and now I'm all pissed off and now am seesawing between trying to help write the driver and just jacking out 150 on a different card.

      Yes! Yes! I know the frustration. It happened to me. I had a couple of tickets open at ati.com. One issue was with their 98SE drivers which could not install properly. After frustration I upgraded to XP. They closed the ticket as being solved, yet upgrading OS when they should've fixed their software is not a solution for everyone.

  18. Editing fun by TheMediaWrangler · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I use a 3rd party capture card for DVR just so I can make funny edits to clips from the shows that my friends watch. Can't do that with Tivo.

    --
    People should not fear what they do not understand; people should fear because they do not understand.
  19. Re:Interesting but pointless by g8way · · Score: 4, Informative

    MythTV now supports capturing TV from a set-top box through Firewire-which would also save you the expense of a TV tuner card.

  20. ReplayTV by Mochatsubo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Before building your own PC-DVR, you should take a long look at Tivo or ReplayTV.

    For example. A 40GB ReplayTV unit is $99 + $299 activation. From there you can upgrade hard drive to a huge capacity for the cost of a bare drive. It takes 5 minutes to set up. The interface is serviceable. The GUI is adequate. Video quality is good. There are programs to get files from the Replay unit to your PC.

    It just works. And for god sakes it is just TV. You might save some money but you gotta ask yourself if it is really worth the time and energy.

    -w

    1. Re:ReplayTV by cheekyboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If everyone just buys things and never makes things, then we will become a dumb society with idiots everywhere depending on corporates with our skills being zero.

      Go tell your grandma to not spend 4hrs making that sweater or scalf, its only $8.99 at walmart, why waste 4hrs.

      Yes if your a rich prick with $180,000 in the bank, go buy all the shit you want. But many many people are not rich and have tonnes of hours on their hands and tonnes of skills too but perhaps no job for many reasons, perhaps they are disabled, or in a bad location, or need to take care of a baby.

      Besides do you really want to buy more chineese stuff and fund the chineese army?

      --
      Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  21. Set top boxes by way2trivial · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Unless I'm mistaken, all set top boxes that can record as they go- can't fit nearly the same length of video on a DVD as a PC can that encodes after the fact, for the simple reason that they can't pick the VBR

    (this was at least the case for some first gen machine I looked at)

    I'd rather have 2 hours & 10 mins of DVD that took 2-4 to encode, than 60 minutes recorded in real time...

    --
    every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
    1. Re:Set top boxes by bigbigbison · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm not sure if you are tlaking about PVR's that have dvd burners or set-top dvd burners, but my set-top dvd machine can burn anywhere from 1 hour up to 10 hours on a disk (Although I've never tried more than the 4 hour setting since even at that setting it starts to look as bad as vhs).

      --
      http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
  22. My MythTV experience by DrJohnnie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I put together a mythtv system from an old computer; it was a way for me to learn more about linux.

    But, then after the motherboard went bad (bad caps.) I bought a new motherboard, processor, and memory ($159.) It wasn't "pretty" enough (girl friend didn't like the case next to the TV.) So I bought a silver stone case and power supply ($190.)

    Can't forget the two tuners; pvr-250 ($120) pvr-150 ($60.)

    Total $529...

    My ReplayTV, refurbished 5040, $350/with lifetime service.

    I paid $179 more for a homemade pvr and some linux experience. Not to mention a fun and frustrating hobby.

    I think it was worth it, but my girl friend prefers the replay.

  23. My DIY PVR by xchino · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For most people I would recommend just buying a tivo or something off the shelf like that, but if you're a true geek you're going to want a mythtv system. I spent about ~$1,000 total on mine, but it's the nicest PVR me or my friends have ever come across. It's actually more of a media center than just a PVR. Here's the basic setup..

    First I didnt want some clunky beige case sitting beside my TV looking akward, so I opted for a home theater PC case, specifically this one.

    I've got two Hauppauge PVR-500's, which are dual tuner cards, so I have a total of 4 tuners (this way I can record 4 different shows at once if they happen to be broadcast simultaneosly. This comes in handy durin g prime time when you would otherwise be forced to pick between different shows.

    The rest of the hardware is nothing special, a soyo kt400 mb, 512M ram, athlon 2100+, and a geForce fx 5200. Not a top of the line system by any means, but not bad at all. Probably overkill for doing the PVR stuff, but I do alot more with it than just that.

    The software is where it really gets interesting. I use gentoo on most of my machines, and this one was no different, mythtv as well as several plugins are already in portage and installed hassle free. MythTV acts as my front end to TV, weather, DVD's/Movies, Games, etc. I scripted a little GTK frontend to all my emulators and roms, so my PVR is also a NES, SNES, SMS, N64, PSX, etc. (now you see why I needed that GeForce :P) It server as my fileserver and mp3 jukebox, and can stream all of it's data (video,tv,music) to any other PC in my house. I can browse tv listings and schedule show recordings through a web interface from anywhere.

    So all in all I spent about 4 times more than a Tivo and got about 20 times more out of it. Not a bad deal I'd say...

    --
    Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
  24. Surprised with Responses by gradster79 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While a PVR has been just out of reach for me in the past couple months, I have a great desire in building one. I was assuming that when I clicked on this thread I would see all kinds of people telling all the different creative solutions they had to making PVRs and the ways to do it. Instead there is a big discussion on whether a PVR or a TIVO or cable provider solution is better. I thought that most of the Slashdot users were all about bringing down "the man". So most people sided with TIVO? I've seen plenty of Google criticism here on Slashdot, but no one mentioned in this thread anything about Google and TIVOs potential partnership. I also assumed most Slashdot readers would have an older 1Ghz machine lying around doing nothing that they could devote to being a TIVO. Not to mention the option of having the all sacred open source software that is so loved her on Slashdot.

  25. Re:Make that $398 by LetterJ · · Score: 2, Informative

    The DirecTV Tivo's are $5/month for all of the Tivo's in your house. The boxes are $99 at full price. However, $200 just got me 3 DirecTV Tivos, 1 regular receiver, all 7 coax runs installed and the rest of the installation. If I'd only wanted 1 Tivo instead of 3, it would have all been free for taking a $40/month TV package which I pay for anyway.

    --

    The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
  26. Re:You missed one big drawback by Afrosheen · · Score: 2, Informative

    "MythTV doesn't do DVD or DVD-ROM burning itself yet, "

    Uh, yeah, it does. Five seconds with google just proved it.

  27. MythTV and a Small Form Factor can work well. by JustinCredible · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I built a MythTV box using an Asus Pundit.
    http://www.asus.com/products/desktop/pundit/overvi ew.htm
    The Pundit is a small form factor all in one that looks a lot like any other home theatre component when turned on its side and is quiet too. While it can be a nuisance to set up MythTV, once it is working, it will continue to work well. You just have to make sure all your hardware is linux compatible and works together well.

    There are a lot of nice things you can do with it. Watching any movies or music is simple as they can just be transferred over via a wireless network. SAMBA can be used to share stuff. Emulators for lots of different systems can be used. You also don't have to pay for any service like you do with TiVo or the other companies. Of course, it will record TV as well.

    The main complaints I saw were it would be noisy, unable to record more than one channel at once, ugly form factor, bad UI, and bad tv listings. The pundit isn't noisy or ugly. MythTV will record more than one show at a time, you just need another tuner. MythTV also has a very nice UI, MUCH better than the regular cable DVRs I have seen. Listings come from Zap2It and are very reliable.

    I think the notion is that you just build a DVR out of the scrap that is in your closet. If you do that, sure, it will be ugly and loud. But if you spend a little more for a pundit or similar system it will work out very well.

    A big problem is HD recording though. I will be getting a DVR from my cable company to record HD now because getting HD recording to work with Myth looks scary and expensive. So if anyone wants to buy a slighty used MythTV box, email me at QwQw at earthlink doot net!

    1. Re:MythTV and a Small Form Factor can work well. by chip33az · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have a PC that I use as a server for the house and it also has MythTV installed on it.

      I have wanted to get a small PC for the kitchen since I have a TV there and watch quite a bit of TV during dinner.

      I'll have to look at the Pundit. I was interested in the VIA EPIA since Fry's Electronics sell the mobo, but they don't sell a case for them ARGH! The model I was looking for was quiet since it is fanless, but still has MPEG2 decoder for playback.

      Perhaps I'll have to check another Fry's in town...

  28. This isn't totally pointless but... by DaedalusLogic · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It costs me $71.40 to rent the DVR on top of my usual cable subscription... (yes, which subsidizes the DVR cost...) but at $71.40 a year, HDTV capability and no up front or program listing costs... It's worth the money. Now if I wanted an extra DVR for just grabbing regular television you bet I'd tinker with a homebuilt solution. It's a great learning exercise, but not for everyone.

  29. GBPVR!!! by jsrockford · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm surprised there is not more talk about GBPVR (www.gbpvr.com). I use it on my everyday workstation with a Hauppauge PVR-250 in conjunction with a networked Hauppauge MediaMVP connected to my TV. From my couch I can pull up the GBPVR server on the MediaMVP, select what to record or watch, check the weather, read Slashdot headlines, listen to Net radio stations, and more. Free (as in beer) software with great support and lots of additional development community plug-ins. When I was looking at building my own PVR this software was the only package that had it all. I don't need a dedicated box, doesn't slow down my system, is feature rich and works seemlessly with the MediaMVP...what more can you ask?