Using computer as HD tv redux

Have has several conversations here in past abt
installing an HD off air TV card in a PC and making a
TV/PVR from it.

It occurred to me that I never asked abt the remote
control features with said HD card.

Do they come with remote control and can one FULLY
control the computer just like a TV? Turn power off?
Change channels and adjust volumes, etc?

wrote:
Have has several conversations here in past abt
installing an HD off air TV card in a PC and making a
TV/PVR from it.

It occurred to me that I never asked abt the remote
control features with said HD card.

Do they come with remote control and can one FULLY
control the computer just like a TV? Turn power off?
Change channels and adjust volumes, etc?

The Remote Wonder that comes bundled with the HDTV Wonder controls all
functions of the PC except direct power off. You have to Start turn
off computer to actually turn it off. You can't turn on the PC from a
cold start. Perhaps there's something in the BIOS settings but it
really isn't an issue for me. Channel, volume, mute, skip
forward/backward, pause all work fine both on live TV and recordings.
We've had the HDTV Wonder for 20 months and it gets a lot of use as a
recorder/player in native mode (HD or SD) and for TiVo like use. I'm
currently working on a second system networked to the first.

The PC is not any whiz bang unit - Athlon XP 3000 on a Gigabyte board,
1 gig dual channel memory, ATI 9600 pro video card with a DVI link to a
Samsung DLP with a 720 engine and a 300 gig RAID 0 drive (twin 160 gig
IDE Maxtors).

I'd like to see a comparison between the Oppo DVD up-converting player
and the up-conversion done in the PC. The PC is very impressive in this
and it's hard to imagine improvements given the SD starting point. I
say this from the standpoint of working in broadcast video for 30
years.

GG

On Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:39:58 -0500, me wrote:

Have has several conversations here in past abt
installing an HD off air TV card in a PC and making a
TV/PVR from it.

It occurred to me that I never asked abt the remote
control features with said HD card.

Do they come with remote control and can one FULLY
control the computer just like a TV? Turn power off?
Change channels and adjust volumes, etc?

Some cards come with remote (usually at a much higher price) and some
don't. The 4 cards I've got in mine didn't (ATSC Air2PC Rev.02 at about
$25 each). Being the cheap sob I am, I just bought a couple of of Remotes
with IR receivers seperately at $4.99 each pair and used them. Actually, I
don't use them as I prefer the wireless KB, but my wife likes the remote
on her TV but uses a learning remote instead of the remote that I bought.
She has to manually turn the PC on. After that you can do everything with
the remote that you mention including shuting the system down. I haven't
even considered remote startup but that's possible too. But if you are
going to build a standalone DVR, more than likely you will want it on 24/7
anyway to record the shows when ever they come on. Just the other day I
noticed I had a new episode of Kyle XY that was recorded between 4:10 and
5:10AM as it wasn't in it's regular time slot the night before.

My system consist of my regular computer that I'm on now, which is the
master backend server with all 4 tuner cards in it. I can watch recordings
and or live TV here when I start the frontend software. No remotes on this
as it's on my desk and runs 24/7 as a server for MythTV, webserver, ftp
server, etc. In my bedroom, I've got another real cheap PC running the
frontend when I watch TV or recordings or use any of the other features
which are too many to mention. I've got a 19in CRT at 1600x1200 on it and
displays HD perfectly. My wifes Tv is an old 32in analog TV that I put
another cheap PC on and she can watch the same way except at a 480i
resolution. All frontends have the same capabilty as the orignal, meaning
anything you can do on one, you can do on all. The remote frontends run
over the network. The remote PC's are just basic bare systems with a video
card and whatever else you want to put in them. Although I threw some
spare small HDD's in them, they could boot over the network. And the best
part is that the only cost is the hardware. Even guide data is free over
the internet. My only cost for this machine if I bought the cards now
would be about $100 for a 4 HDTV tuner system. you can't beat that with
anything commercial, and even windows based would probably cost you that
much just for the software that won't do as much as I can now. yeah, I
like it if you can't tell.:-)

Former Tivo owner.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

Wes Newell wrote:


Some cards come with remote (usually at a much higher price) and some
don't. The 4 cards I've got in mine didn't (ATSC Air2PC Rev.02 at about
$25 each). Being the cheap sob I am, I just bought a couple of of Remotes
with IR receivers seperately at $4.99 each pair and used them.

Ok but how did this remotes you bought separately above
work with the video cards?

Maybe a dumb question...but wouldn't you have to buy a
certain video card that already is remote capable?

Actually, I
don't use them as I prefer the wireless KB, but my wife likes the remote
on her TV but uses a learning remote instead of the remote that I bought.

Yeah I could use a wireless keyboard but was thinking
abt the times I'm laying in bed and channels surfing or
watching "TV" on the home built PVR. In that scenario
it would much easier to use a remote rather than a
wireless keyboard

But if you are
going to build a standalone DVR, more than likely you will want it on 24/7
anyway to record the shows when ever they come on.

True. and with the new core 2 dual's coming out the
SHOULD be a lot less power hungry and generate a lot
less indoor heat, right?

I'm mindful of leaving on a PC 24/7 cause of electric
bill and heat generation.

Wes Newell wrote:


My system consist of my regular computer that I'm on now, which is the
master backend server with all 4 tuner cards in it.

So how many computers total do you have?

And they are ALL running Linux, right

And some you use the monitors to watch TV but on some
you have the computer hooked to standard TV, right

wrote:
Wes Newell wrote:


Some cards come with remote (usually at a much higher price) and
some
don't. The 4 cards I've got in mine didn't (ATSC Air2PC Rev.02 at
about
$25 each). Being the cheap sob I am, I just bought a couple of of
Remotes
with IR receivers seperately at $4.99 each pair and used them.

Ok but how did this remotes you bought separately above
work with the video cards?

Maybe a dumb question...but wouldn't you have to buy a
certain video card that already is remote capable?

Actually, I
don't use them as I prefer the wireless KB, but my wife likes the
remote
on her TV but uses a learning remote instead of the remote that I
bought.

Yeah I could use a wireless keyboard but was thinking
abt the times I'm laying in bed and channels surfing or
watching "TV" on the home built PVR. In that scenario
it would much easier to use a remote rather than a
wireless keyboard

But if you are
going to build a standalone DVR, more than likely you will want it
on 24/7
anyway to record the shows when ever they come on.

True. and with the new core 2 dual's coming out the
SHOULD be a lot less power hungry and generate a lot
less indoor heat, right?

I'm mindful of leaving on a PC 24/7 cause of electric
bill and heat generation.

The remote is not linked to the tuner card. In my case with Win XP, the
remote mimics the mouse so you can run any software with the remote.
The ATI remote has additional dedicated buttons for volume, channel etc
that work with the ATI software. I assume the remotes interact with
Linux in a similar fashion.

BTW last time I checked, you can get an HDTV Wonder with remote for
$120 from the ATI site. I got the second HDTV Wonder on eBay for $78
total.

GG

On Thu, 03 Aug 2006 11:11:52 -0500, me wrote:

Wes Newell wrote:


Some cards come with remote (usually at a much higher price) and some
don't. The 4 cards I've got in mine didn't (ATSC Air2PC Rev.02 at about
$25 each). Being the cheap sob I am, I just bought a couple of of Remotes
with IR receivers seperately at $4.99 each pair and used them.

Ok but how did this remotes you bought separately above
work with the video cards?

Maybe a dumb question...but wouldn't you have to buy a
certain video card that already is remote capable?

You're confused. The remotes actually have nothing to do with anything.
They are seperate devices that just simulate KB key sequences. They are
controlled with LIRC I have posted instructions on how to install them in
the mythtv newsgroup. these are the ones I used.

http://tekgems.com/Products/tg-pbr.htm

But if you are
going to build a standalone DVR, more than likely you will want it on 24/7
anyway to record the shows when ever they come on.

True. and with the new core 2 dual's coming out the
SHOULD be a lot less power hungry and generate a lot
less indoor heat, right?

I'm mindful of leaving on a PC 24/7 cause of electric
bill and heat generation.

Any of the newer Intels or AMD's use very little power at idle. Mine
records 4 shows at once and only uses about 5% cpu load.at 800MHz.
Playback is where the cpu load will go up considerably. STill, if you want
to shut it down when not in use, you can certainly do so. mine has always
run 24/7 anyway. At least since about 1990, so there wasn't any extra
electricity use to speak of for me. I actually saved since I disconnected
2 other DVR's and and 3 VCR's which are no longer used or needed.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

On Thu, 03 Aug 2006 11:14:30 -0500, me wrote:

Wes Newell wrote:


My system consist of my regular computer that I'm on now, which is the
master backend server with all 4 tuner cards in it.

So how many computers total do you have?
And they are ALL running Linux, right

3 and yes, they all run linux. This one has been running as a server for
years. I just installed newer kernel for it to support the tuner cards.
the others are both running Knoppmyth. Takes about 15 minutes to set them
up using the Knoppmyth install CD.

And some you use the monitors to watch TV but on some you have the
computer hooked to standard TV, right

Correct. If you want 21" or less, a cheap CRT monitor is as good as it
gets. While the old analog Tv gives an excellent picture, it is hard to
read when using it as a PC unless you increase the font size. Shouldn't
have that problem with a real HDTV.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

On Thu, 03 Aug 2006 11:11:52 -0500, me wrote:

True. and with the new core 2 dual's coming out the
SHOULD be a lot less power hungry and generate a lot
less indoor heat, right?

One thing I should mention. You don't need hardly any power on the
server with the tuner cards in it unless you are going to use it for
playback also. And even then, you don't really need a lot of power by
todays standards. A 754 Sempron 2800 would work Ok. Actually, that's what
one of my frontends is.:-)
the point I'm trying to make is don't go hog wild with the latest and
greatest CPU unless you're also going to use it for something that does
require a lot of power. Otherwise, it's just wasted money. A video card
card with hardware support for decoding mpeg2 removes a lot of load from
the CPU. I use FX5200's in all mine and they work fine for me.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

Wes Newell wrote:

if you want
to shut it down when not in use, you can certainly do so. mine has always
run 24/7 anyway. At least since about 1990, so there wasn't any extra
electricity use to speak of for me. I actually saved since I disconnected
2 other DVR's and and 3 VCR's which are no longer used or needed.

Doesn't having say a 200 watt power supply generate a
lot of heat in a small home?