If all that's wanted is a single SD tuner machine with svideo output, comparable to a tivo, it can be put together for about the same cost as a tivo with lifetime subscription and HMO. And it'll do a ton more.
Yah, my total cost isn't $60, but I still think it's a good value for what it gives.... Why must I feed the trolls?
The PC components probably cost me around $1200. A similar system could be put together much cheaper. I spent nearly $200 on the case alone since I wanted a case that looked at home in an entertainment center. I also went with low-noise fans and power supply, etc. The tuner cards were the bulk of it, HDTV tuners aren't cheap - nearly $300. The SD tuners are Hauppage PVR-250s, which go for around $100 each. A gyration (waive in the air)mouse and keyboard cost about $120. I also had to get a VGA->component transcoder to output the display to my HDTV.
A single tuner, standard def setup could be put together using a Hauppage 350's Svideo out, and run on an Epia motherboard for probably around $600.
Now, as for setup.. it's not too hard with Sage. The difficult part is in getting sage to work with a standard IR remote control. This required girder and USB UIRT, which isn't something for the faint of heart. But I've got it all controllable by my old TiVo remote (those peanuts are REALLY comfortable and laid out well.)
Anyhow, my setup is definitely on the higher end of what's possible. If you're happy with just keyboard and mouse control, only want one tuner, and find svideo output acceptable, you can put together a much less expensive setup. Especially if you don't mind have a PC that looks like a PC in your entertainment center.
SageTV supports the Hauppage card fully, and allows for watching a show in progress like you're talking about. In fact, I did this just last night with the cubs game. Starting watching 20 mins late, FF'd all the commercials, and caught up to live around the 7th inning. And the scheduling interface beats the pants off TitanTV. If you're still using the Hauppage software, you don't know what you're missing.
How does it know to not record programming that sucks if you can't give something a thumbs-down or equivalent?
You can flag a show 'don't like' but unlike tivo, you don't have to use the thumbs up. Merely watching shows will tell the software that you like it. This intelligent recording doesn't record related shows, or shows with a similar word in the topic, so I don't get things like 3 hours of 'house & home' on the shopping channel because I watched 'this old house.' It's much more intuitive than TiVo and requires much less thought and input from the user.
Putting aside the fact that you can pay a one-time fee for TiVo's service...your integrated schedule is not free. Maybe you don't pay for it, but someone is paying. How sustainable is such a setup? Out of curiousity, who produces your guide data?
Well, the software costs $59.95, but beyond that initial purchase price I pay no monthly fee, and I don't have to pay an additional fee. I suppose you're right that I'm paying for it upfront, but at $60 for the software and the guide data, it's certainly less painful than paying $300 for a lifetime tivo subscription. The people who make sage (Frey Technologies) get their guide data from zap2it - the same provider TiVo uses. I don't know what their costs are but I don't really care either.
There's also a plugin which allows for import XMLTV data, so even if Frey or Zap2it were to go under, I'd be able to get data into the application.
Good questions, you really ought to give the website a glance. It explains far more than I could possibly squeeze into a post here.
I'm a tivo convert, whose converted away from tivo
on
Book Review: Hacking TiVo
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I no longer use my old Series 1 tivo. The hacks are nice, but with something based on a PC, the sky's the limit.
Currently, I'm using SageTV It's a PC based DVR software package. With it, I can currently;
- Record two standard def stations, and a high def station at the same time while watching a fourth video of any type. (Obviously, this requires having two tuners and an HDTV tuner.) - Record standard TV to MPEG-2, MPEG-1, or just about any other format. This makes it easier to make VCDs, DVDs, or just play the program back on a standard PC. - Playback using Dscalar to deinterlace the video. - Play DVDs - Play DivX - Record shows as favorites (just like season passes) or let SageTV record things based on my past viewing habits (much like tivo's suggestions only I don't have to bother with thumbs up and down buttons) - Do all of the above with an integrated schedule, which is free. No need to pay a monthly fee. - Play and manage my MP3 library (I think you can do ogg, ape, etc. with some tweaks to the config) - Stream video and audio to another PC over my LAN.
I'm sure I'm missing much more. This thing does way more than any tivo, even a hacked tivo, and it's constantly being expanded. It surpasses TiVo and ReplyTV in every way. I've even found it to be more flexible than MythTV and Showstopper (though they do have a few benefits in some areas.)
Wow, a new/. low. A one-line comment saying "I couldn't have put it better myself" tagged onto a cut-and-paste parent post gets modded as "+1 Underrated".
The results returned by this thing seem to be fairly irrelevant.
When searching for 'food' with my office location I received the following results;
-Food allergy and intolerances, fact sheet -Oriental grocery stores list for my area -Sources of free or low cost -Food science publications & journals -Thoughts on Food Safety -History of Hannakuh foods -Oriental grocery stores list (again) -foodandwine.com's best new chefs list
Admittedly, 'food' is a pretty lame search, but I would've hoped to see a couple restaurants and grocery stores in the list.
Re:What kinds of advanced searches?
on
Practical RDF
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
You're not thinking outside the box. What the world really needs is searching along the line of "All the pr0n since yesterday with red-haired women."
You can probably find a trail version of Cubase VST, and it'll let you use the VST plugin quite easily. Or you can try getting your hands on the standalone version of Autotune, but i'm not sure if that one is available as a trial.
Autotuners have been around and in use for a few years now. Aside from the obvious use of being able to correct pitch on a performance, they also have other uses.
For example, autotuners can be used to change pitch during performance in ways that vocalists simply cannot. A good example (well, most people will know it anyhow) of an autotuner and vocoder used in combination is in Cher's song "Believe"
Antares Autotune is probably the most popular autotuner, and is said to be what Cher's track actually used. It's available in DirectX, VST, and several other versions and has a free trial version for anyone who's interested.
Verizon seems to be not caring about Nextel trying to copyright a generic technical term.
The article linked here talks about a trademark verizon is trying to obtain. The article was also corrected, because it initially called it a patent. Now this article links to it and calls it a copyright.
Seriously, there's enough confusion about the differences between these things without the/. editors' incompetence clouding the issue.
Lots of people have said this already, but failure is a part of life. Being able to pick up the pieces and persist is what seperates the great and/or successful from the mediocre. Read up sometime about Milton Hershey Prior to founding Hershey, the candy company, he went bankrupt at least once, and started several other failed companies. The part that made him successful was his persistence and drive to succeed. After his many failures, he eventually had success and established one of the largest corporations the world has seen.
(nothing spells "immersive StarWars universe" like running for 5 minutes towards a large city and suddenly warping back out in to the field where you started - repeatedly).
And nothing spells "invalid argument" like mentioning bugs that are already fixed.
They aren't designed with the intention to be addicting. In fact, Raph Koster, the creative designer for both UO and SWG states on his website how concerned he is that the current generation of MMORPGs may be addicting.
Check out this guys site, he really have pretty grand visions of the future, and seems truly tortured that so far some limitations of these games haven't been overcome.
How can you criticize customer support for a game that hasn't launched yet?
I mean seriously, they don't HAVE any actualy customers of anything other than a box with shiny plastic circles, which is purchased from a reseller in most cases.
If you'd bother to look at the SWG web site, you'd see that the pricing is clearly displayed. I think it may be poor wording on their part, but they probably mean that you'll choose your pricing plan at that time.
I know it's off topic, but I just wanted to point out that divers don't use pure oxygen. To do so would be extremely dangerous as pure oxygen is toxic. Even when administered medically, it mixes in with the surrounding air and so doesn't reach the lungs entirely pure.
Anyhow, divers use either compressed air, or Nitrox or Trimix. Compressed air is the most common, the others have their own risks and require training and understanding to use properly.
Well, I don't exactly seek to avoid MS. I look for the best solution. I don't use the system they mentioned here, because in my mind SageTV is much better.
I've yet to see anything on Linux (MythTV, Freevo, etc.) which is as feature complete as Sage.. and drivers under linux for Haupaugge cards, HDTV Cards, etc. are in pretty sad shape. I know there's some preliminary 3rd party Hauppage 250 drivers, but they don't work real well yet. I don't think there's a single HDTV tuner card that'll run under Linux.
So yah, using Linux would be nice... having a system that works is nicer.
The article mentions Snapstream, which allows recorded video to be streamed to remote machines. However, Snapstream isn't, in my opinion, the best solution.
Sage TV allows similar streaming to any PC on a LAN, including anything connected to a TV or HDTV. In addition, it's got most of Tivo's bells and whistles. Fast Forward, Instant Replay, Integrated Episode guide, etc. It'll even allow recording of as many channels as you'd like (limited only by how many capture cards you decide to cram into your PC.)
In a future version, it'll have HDTV recording, and will probably get there a while before Replay, TiVo, etc, and at a far lower price. Linux support is in the works, and I'm personally hoping for a Pocket PC version too, but we'll see. I'm pretty sure it'll run on Tablet PCs now..
The icing on the cake is that you can record into any MPEG format you want. Mpeg2 for easy DVD creation, Mpeg1 for VCD, etc..
All in all, it's a great product. And no, I don't work for them. I'm just a happy customer.
Slashdot Mirror
If all that's wanted is a single SD tuner machine with svideo output, comparable to a tivo, it can be put together for about the same cost as a tivo with lifetime subscription and HMO. And it'll do a ton more.
... Why must I feed the trolls?
Yah, my total cost isn't $60, but I still think it's a good value for what it gives.
The PC components probably cost me around $1200. A similar system could be put together much cheaper. I spent nearly $200 on the case alone since I wanted a case that looked at home in an entertainment center. I also went with low-noise fans and power supply, etc. The tuner cards were the bulk of it, HDTV tuners aren't cheap - nearly $300. The SD tuners are Hauppage PVR-250s, which go for around $100 each. A gyration (waive in the air)mouse and keyboard cost about $120. I also had to get a VGA->component transcoder to output the display to my HDTV.
A single tuner, standard def setup could be put together using a Hauppage 350's Svideo out, and run on an Epia motherboard for probably around $600.
Now, as for setup.. it's not too hard with Sage. The difficult part is in getting sage to work with a standard IR remote control. This required girder and USB UIRT, which isn't something for the faint of heart. But I've got it all controllable by my old TiVo remote (those peanuts are REALLY comfortable and laid out well.)
Anyhow, my setup is definitely on the higher end of what's possible. If you're happy with just keyboard and mouse control, only want one tuner, and find svideo output acceptable, you can put together a much less expensive setup. Especially if you don't mind have a PC that looks like a PC in your entertainment center.
Girlfriend has it. Even with the limitations, it's better than using an old VCR, and suits her needs fine.
SageTV supports the Hauppage card fully, and allows for watching a show in progress like you're talking about. In fact, I did this just last night with the cubs game. Starting watching 20 mins late, FF'd all the commercials, and caught up to live around the 7th inning. And the scheduling interface beats the pants off TitanTV. If you're still using the Hauppage software, you don't know what you're missing.
How does it know to not record programming that sucks if you can't give something a thumbs-down or equivalent?
You can flag a show 'don't like' but unlike tivo, you don't have to use the thumbs up. Merely watching shows will tell the software that you like it. This intelligent recording doesn't record related shows, or shows with a similar word in the topic, so I don't get things like 3 hours of 'house & home' on the shopping channel because I watched 'this old house.' It's much more intuitive than TiVo and requires much less thought and input from the user.
Putting aside the fact that you can pay a one-time fee for TiVo's service...your integrated schedule is not free. Maybe you don't pay for it, but someone is paying. How sustainable is such a setup? Out of curiousity, who produces your guide data?
Well, the software costs $59.95, but beyond that initial purchase price I pay no monthly fee, and I don't have to pay an additional fee. I suppose you're right that I'm paying for it upfront, but at $60 for the software and the guide data, it's certainly less painful than paying $300 for a lifetime tivo subscription. The people who make sage (Frey Technologies) get their guide data from zap2it - the same provider TiVo uses. I don't know what their costs are but I don't really care either.
There's also a plugin which allows for import XMLTV data, so even if Frey or Zap2it were to go under, I'd be able to get data into the application.
Good questions, you really ought to give the website a glance. It explains far more than I could possibly squeeze into a post here.
I no longer use my old Series 1 tivo. The hacks are nice, but with something based on a PC, the sky's the limit.
Currently, I'm using SageTV It's a PC based DVR software package. With it, I can currently;
- Record two standard def stations, and a high def station at the same time while watching a fourth video of any type. (Obviously, this requires having two tuners and an HDTV tuner.)
- Record standard TV to MPEG-2, MPEG-1, or just about any other format. This makes it easier to make VCDs, DVDs, or just play the program back on a standard PC.
- Playback using Dscalar to deinterlace the video.
- Play DVDs
- Play DivX
- Record shows as favorites (just like season passes) or let SageTV record things based on my past viewing habits (much like tivo's suggestions only I don't have to bother with thumbs up and down buttons)
- Do all of the above with an integrated schedule, which is free. No need to pay a monthly fee.
- Play and manage my MP3 library (I think you can do ogg, ape, etc. with some tweaks to the config)
- Stream video and audio to another PC over my LAN.
I'm sure I'm missing much more. This thing does way more than any tivo, even a hacked tivo, and it's constantly being expanded. It surpasses TiVo and ReplyTV in every way. I've even found it to be more flexible than MythTV and Showstopper (though they do have a few benefits in some areas.)
Wow, a new /. low. A one-line comment saying "I couldn't have put it better myself" tagged onto a cut-and-paste parent post gets modded as "+1 Underrated".
I couldn't have put it better myself.
Which project is it?
Google seems to handle that query just fine actually.
& ie =UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Tea%2C+hot%2C+Earl+grey
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient
The results returned by this thing seem to be fairly irrelevant.
When searching for 'food' with my office location I received the following results;
-Food allergy and intolerances, fact sheet
-Oriental grocery stores list for my area
-Sources of free or low cost
-Food science publications & journals
-Thoughts on Food Safety
-History of Hannakuh foods
-Oriental grocery stores list (again)
-foodandwine.com's best new chefs list
Admittedly, 'food' is a pretty lame search, but I would've hoped to see a couple restaurants and grocery stores in the list.
You're not thinking outside the box. What the world really needs is searching along the line of "All the pr0n since yesterday with red-haired women."
You can probably find a trail version of Cubase VST, and it'll let you use the VST plugin quite easily. Or you can try getting your hands on the standalone version of Autotune, but i'm not sure if that one is available as a trial.
Autotuners have been around and in use for a few years now. Aside from the obvious use of being able to correct pitch on a performance, they also have other uses.
For example, autotuners can be used to change pitch during performance in ways that vocalists simply cannot. A good example (well, most people will know it anyhow) of an autotuner and vocoder used in combination is in Cher's song "Believe"
Antares Autotune is probably the most popular autotuner, and is said to be what Cher's track actually used. It's available in DirectX, VST, and several other versions and has a free trial version for anyone who's interested.
Verizon seems to be not caring about Nextel trying to copyright a generic technical term.
/. editors' incompetence clouding the issue.
The article linked here talks about a trademark verizon is trying to obtain. The article was also corrected, because it initially called it a patent. Now this article links to it and calls it a copyright. Seriously, there's enough confusion about the differences between these things without the
Lots of people have said this already, but failure is a part of life. Being able to pick up the pieces and persist is what seperates the great and/or successful from the mediocre. Read up sometime about Milton Hershey Prior to founding Hershey, the candy company, he went bankrupt at least once, and started several other failed companies. The part that made him successful was his persistence and drive to succeed. After his many failures, he eventually had success and established one of the largest corporations the world has seen.
2) I've never played MMORPGs prior to this...
1) Its not Star Wars. Its EQ in Space...
If you've never played MMORPGs before, how can you compare SWG to EQ?
There was an Xbox version planned (and PS2 in fact..) they had the logos on their site for a few years.
Here's an article on the hold from gamespot.
(nothing spells "immersive StarWars universe" like running for 5 minutes towards a large city and suddenly warping back out in
to the field where you started - repeatedly).
And nothing spells "invalid argument" like mentioning bugs that are already fixed.
They aren't designed with the intention to be addicting. In fact, Raph Koster, the creative designer for both UO and SWG states on his website how concerned he is that the current generation of MMORPGs may be addicting.
Check out this guys site, he really have pretty grand visions of the future, and seems truly tortured that so far some limitations of these games haven't been overcome.
How can you criticize customer support for a game that hasn't launched yet?
I mean seriously, they don't HAVE any actualy customers of anything other than a box with shiny plastic circles, which is purchased from a reseller in most cases.
If you'd bother to look at the SWG web site, you'd see that the pricing is clearly displayed. I think it may be poor wording on their part, but they probably mean that you'll choose your pricing plan at that time.
I know it's off topic, but I just wanted to point out that divers don't use pure oxygen. To do so would be extremely dangerous as pure oxygen is toxic. Even when administered medically, it mixes in with the surrounding air and so doesn't reach the lungs entirely pure.
Anyhow, divers use either compressed air, or Nitrox or Trimix. Compressed air is the most common, the others have their own risks and require training and understanding to use properly.
Well, I don't exactly seek to avoid MS. I look for the best solution. I don't use the system they mentioned here, because in my mind SageTV is much better.
I've yet to see anything on Linux (MythTV, Freevo, etc.) which is as feature complete as Sage.. and drivers under linux for Haupaugge cards, HDTV Cards, etc. are in pretty sad shape. I know there's some preliminary 3rd party Hauppage 250 drivers, but they don't work real well yet. I don't think there's a single HDTV tuner card that'll run under Linux.
So yah, using Linux would be nice... having a system that works is nicer.
What are you talking about? Microsoft has nothign to do with SageTV. It's produced by a small company (like 2 guys small..) called Frey Technologies
Maybe you're thinking of media center or something..
The article mentions Snapstream, which allows recorded video to be streamed to remote machines. However, Snapstream isn't, in my opinion, the best solution.
Sage TV allows similar streaming to any PC on a LAN, including anything connected to a TV or HDTV. In addition, it's got most of Tivo's bells and whistles. Fast Forward, Instant Replay, Integrated Episode guide, etc. It'll even allow recording of as many channels as you'd like (limited only by how many capture cards you decide to cram into your PC.)
In a future version, it'll have HDTV recording, and will probably get there a while before Replay, TiVo, etc, and at a far lower price. Linux support is in the works, and I'm personally hoping for a Pocket PC version too, but we'll see. I'm pretty sure it'll run on Tablet PCs now..
The icing on the cake is that you can record into any MPEG format you want. Mpeg2 for easy DVD creation, Mpeg1 for VCD, etc..
All in all, it's a great product. And no, I don't work for them. I'm just a happy customer.
Check it out, download the free trial...