Build your own DVR

[Ghoulish Delight]

In a fit of wishful thinking, I've been trying to devise a way to put together an affordable DVR. I've explored a few options, and so far I like
this guy (http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+Analog+PVR+%28cable_antenna%29/PCTV+Pro+USB) the best. It's the easiest way to go.

Technically, I could just buy a couple of those and hook them up to my laptop. Voila, dual tuner DVR. But it would mean sacrificing my laptop to that use. So that's where the real cost comes in, building a system.

It doesn't need to be particularly high powered, this kind of application is pretty non-intensive. So here's the way I see it (prices are based on some quick research at online discount outlets I know of):

Barebones system (case, motherboard, power supply, etc.): ~$80 for what I need
CPU: A 2.8GHz CPU should be plenty of power, another $80
RAM: 1GB should do it, $70
Tuners: 2 of the pinnacle tuners I linked to above (hey, If I'm gonna do it, it's gonna have dual tuners) - $200
TV Out Card: Don't want to watch TV on a computer...plus I don't want to buy a monitor. Doesn't have to be particularly powerful - $60
Sound Card: $10 (holy crap, when did sound cards get so cheap!?)
Storage: 200GB should be good to start. ~$80 (less if I find a good deal)

Adding fudge factor for tax and other incidentals (I may want a keyboard an mouse to leave attached to it, and I'll probably need a couple cables here and there to complete the setup) and the total is around $600.

Not bad, not great. There are DVRs out there for less than that, but either they require a montly fee, or they're not as fully featured as this solution (single tuner, no commercial skip, etc.).

I don't know why I'm posting this. I'm not going to do anything about it and I'm not even positive the useability will be all that good (how much can be done with the included remote, how much requires pulling out the keyboard/mouse?). But it would be a fun project...and maybe once it's time to replace our desktop, I can salvage the old one for parts.

[Alex]

You might find this article of interest:

http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200512.ars


I have a WINTV PVR2 from Hauppauge for my laptop. It works well enough for the limited times I want to record something. The one I have is USB so it can't give great storage resolution but good enough. When I have some money I'll be giving strong consideration to building an HTPC of my own though first I want the 400-DVD jukebox so I can get them off the shelves.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Good link. Looks like WinTV is a good option, with its dual tuner. That'd save a few bucks, which I could use to pay for a wireless adapter. Otherwise, in reading this, it looks like I was pretty spot on with the requirements. Save for the extra $ they recommend for quieter equipment (our ReplayTV is pretty loud. The distance and the cabinet it's housed in make it a non-issue for us), their budget system is pretty much exactly what I had in mind. We don't have HDTV (heck, we don't even have digital cable...or a cable box. Just good old analog coax coming out of the wall), so the boost in processor and video power they suggest would be unnecessary for us.

[Gn2Dlnd]

Can a dish network dvr be modified to record a standard cable signal? Or is the guide information an issue? I wonder if I could just use it the same way I'd use a vcr, by setting the time and channel I want recorded. Thoughts? Expertise?

[Ghoulish Delight]

I don't know the particulars of your DVR, but...

IF it does have a "record X time" function, independent of the guide info, you should be able to do exactly as you describe. Just hook the cable up, make do without the guide, and you should be golden.

[tracilicious]

Michael recently tried to program a dvr for us using MythTV for Linux. We had all the spare parts except for the tv card, so the cost was low. Something went wrong, I'm not sure what, but we the sound didn't work and 1 gig of memory wasn't nearly enough. He hasn't messed with it since, so I'm not sure what we'll do. He's no newbie to programming either.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Yeah, I looked into the MythTV route too...and I was put off by just such a possibility. I have too much experience with Linux to expect such things to go right. I know that, when tuned and configured properly, I'm sure a Linux solution would outperform a Windows solution...but I also know that the "tuned and configured properly" bit is far easier said than done.

[tracilicious]

I must say though, that the MythTV interface was way impressive. You could sort by all kinds of things, it gave you the weather, and lots of other things that I can't remember.

[Moonliner]

I've been very happy with my Snapstream (http://www.snapstream.com) setup. It only has a single tuner bit the software is capable of more.

[€uroMeinke]

Hmmmm a project for when Lisa switches platforms - If only I watched TV

[Tramspotter]

Make it a linux box and that 1gig should do ya better than a Microsoft solution. Just check the hardware you will add with your distrabution and the hardware mfgr's you use have linux drivers. The Differences in DRM alone should be reason enough for you to make Linux your media center of choice.

[Betty]

We recently bought a new dell computer that came with windows media center. We have it hooked up to the tv along with an xbox 360, cable box, hd, stereo and a dvd/vcr player - and a Tivo.

I have the capability to record on the computer but I just don't trust it. It's consistantsy varies. Although I think my husband finally worked the bugs out I just can't let go of Tivo. It's ability to record so many things that I don't have to remember to tell it to do - and although I think I can do it with media center in a similar way - I just love Tivo so much I must continue to pay them - I guess. Now that I type it out it seems a bit hard to justify.

I do know that the quality of recording is better on the tivo on our big screen tv - but that might just be a recording setting on the computer.

[CoasterMatt]

If you're going Linux, I'd suggest NVidia gfx cards - they have better driver support.