After reading an interesting article online how a guy built his own home theatre pc, I decided I wanted my own! Well, I had my old pc laying around just collecting dust, so I decided I'd use it for recording tv, much like tivo.

All you really need is a tv-tuner card for your pc, and the software to do it. The software I use is called showshifter (www.showshifter.com), and it's great. For those of you know what I'm talking about, this program will encoding the tv signals to divx in realtime. In short, divx is high quality, low file size video encoding. The program is $50 for the standard version, and $80 for the 'plus' version (apparently with better divx support). I have a 30 day trial, so I'm going to use it and probably get the $50 version.

Anyways, my PC that I'm using is then hooked up to my tv. So the shows that I record can be then watched on tv instead of my pc monitor. I have a PIII 650, 192M RAM, and 38G of storage. I wouldn't reccomend anything slower, as it takes 50-80% of my cpu usage while 'recording'.

The software allows you to schedule times that you want to tape every week, every night, etc. There is also a program guide via the internet that you can apparently 'click and pick' what you want to record. I haven't tried it, but it sounds cool.

Anyways, I'm going to be buying a wireless keyboard and mouse so then I can control everything from my couch.... I'm such a lazy bastard!

 

hahahahaha


anyways it sounds like a good idea, hope it works out!!!

 

ATI is the best product for these types of applications. Currently running a 7500 all in wonder pro, love the record feature of the card.

 

So - what do you all think is the minimum sytem requiremens for effectively running one of these tv tuner cards? I'm interested, but my mojo is a few years old, and I might need to upgrade a bit.

I'm about 80% full on the hard drive space (only a tiny 10 gig drive) - that hurts.

But I've got a PIII, 733 mHz, and 128 MB ram. The ram is so cheaply upgraded now, I think I'll be doubling mine soon.

Can I do this if I upgrade or expand my HD space? Any ideas on cost for for a nice big HD upgrade?

~HH

 

It would be cheaper to get a new videocard.

You would need an:

ATI 7500 All in wonder pro(comes with a remote) (120 bucks) (AGP 4X videocard)
1 or 2 stick(s) of 512 RAM (cost is dependant on what type)-You do not really need this to make the tuner work but it helps the computer.
Seagate 80GB 7200rpm EIDE Hard Drive Barracuda IV ST380021AI - RETAIL (110 bucks)

So around 300 to 350 to really make your computer go for another 1.5 years.

Go to:

New Egg

Pretty cheap components.

 

I heard yesterday on freshgear that DTVTivo's service is being reduced in half. Now monthly service will be 5 dollars. Not fair for other tivo users.

 

Like SEA_P5 said, get an ATI all in wonder card for your primary vid. card, and then get at least another 128M ram, and get a nice 40+G hard drive. You should be able to get all of that for around $300 +/-. The processor should be fine, seeing I'm only running a 650