Can I use an old PC as a DVR

Note: I'm OTA only, and I'm spoiled by digital programming. I have a
Sony HDD250 and I'd love to get another one but Sony doesn't make them
anymore. Used ones on eBay are selling for more than I paid new. In
my mind, "USED" = "Probably_Has_Problems".

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?

"NadCixelsyd" wrote in message
oups.com...
Note: I'm OTA only, and I'm spoiled by digital programming. I have a
Sony HDD250 and I'd love to get another one but Sony doesn't make them
anymore. Used ones on eBay are selling for more than I paid new. In
my mind, "USED" = "Probably_Has_Problems".

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?


If you supply more information about the 4 year old PC it would help in
making a assessment about how worthy it might be for use as a HD DVR. The
video card is important as well as the CPU.

NadCixelsyd wrote (in part):

Note: I'm OTA only, and I'm spoiled by digital programming. I have a
Sony HDD250 and I'd love to get another one but Sony doesn't make them
anymore. Used ones on eBay are selling for more than I paid new. In
my mind, "USED" = "Probably_Has_Problems".

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?

Recording digital broadcasts, including HD, is not a difficult task
even for an older computer. Watching it is another matter. Most PCI
tuners and probably all USB ones expect the computer's CPU and video
system to do the decoding and display, and that can be too much for an
older computer (and some newer ones). I recommend the MyHD MDP-130
(or MDP-120 or -100 if you can find a used one). These cards decode
MPEG-2 transport streams in hardware and have their own outputs,
bypassing the computer's video card. The -100 does ATSC only and has
only analog out (RGB or component, can go to a VGA monitor). The -120
can have an optional DVI daughtercard. The -130 has all that plus a
clear QAM tuner, which wouldn't help you. For use as a DVR, the
company recommends a minimum 800 MHz computer. Windows XP preferred,
but it will work with 2K and 98SE, with some limitations.

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:29:27 -0700, NadCixelsyd wrote:

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?

You can buy a new PC today that won't be good enough, so without knowing
what CPU it is, it's hard to say. A 50GB drive will only get you about 6
hours of 1080i storage time. I've got 3 MythTV boxes with 4 tuners in one
and 1 in each of the others all networked as 1 master and 2 slaves. I use
the old air2pc ATSC tuners you get get on ebay for next to nothing these
days. Last 2 I got for under $20 each. Just search for air2pc. I haven't
seen the sony, but mine works well enough that I record up to 6 shows at
once. All my PC's are AMD, and the slowest I used was a Duron 1600 clocked
at 2GHz and it worked fine for playback with an Nvidia FX5200 video card.
I did get it to work for playback clocked down to 1200MHz using XvMC
decoding in the FX5200, but I wouldn't recommend running anything that
slow. If you're using Intel, I'd guess a 2GHz P4 might do.

--
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 26 Apr 2007 12:29:27 -0700, NadCixelsyd
wrote:

Note: I'm OTA only, and I'm spoiled by digital programming. I have a
Sony HDD250 and I'd love to get another one but Sony doesn't make them
anymore. Used ones on eBay are selling for more than I paid new. In
my mind, "USED" = "Probably_Has_Problems".

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?

Look here. Very good info.

http://revision3.com/systm/mythtv

On Apr 26, 2:29 pm, NadCixelsyd wrote:
Note: I'm OTA only, and I'm spoiled by digital programming. I have a
Sony HDD250 and I'd love to get another one but Sony doesn't make them
anymore. Used ones on eBay are selling for more than I paid new. In
my mind, "USED" = "Probably_Has_Problems".

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?

I think most of the Sony units are fine. The reason people are
selling them will vary, but there are newer products. Dish
subscribers might want the dish dvr, tech-heads are building HTPCs,
and many Sony owners believe the built-in TV guide is going away with
the analog shutoff.

They sell for a lot of money because the closest thing you can buy is
a Tivo series 3 which is even more money and has a monthly fee.

A 4 year old PC is probably not adequate for HD playback, and the disk
is definitely too small. You can throw a bunch of tuner cards and a
larger disk in it and it will record multiple shows easily. For
playback you'll need a stronger computer. I built one. It costs
more, but it looks like it belongs in my living room. Figure $400 -
$500 to build one. I use mythtv, but only one box.

"mogator88" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Apr 26, 2:29 pm, NadCixelsyd wrote:
Note: I'm OTA only, and I'm spoiled by digital programming. I have a
Sony HDD250 and I'd love to get another one but Sony doesn't make them
anymore. Used ones on eBay are selling for more than I paid new. In
my mind, "USED" = "Probably_Has_Problems".

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?


A 4 year old PC is probably not adequate for HD playback, and the disk
is definitely too small. You can throw a bunch of tuner cards and a
larger disk in it and it will record multiple shows easily. For
playback you'll need a stronger computer. I built one. It costs
more, but it looks like it belongs in my living room. Figure $400 -
$500 to build one. I use mythtv, but only one box.


I use a 5 year old P4-2.4GHZ. I can do analog PVR and capture HD at the same
time PVR analog and SD or PVR HD. Displaying HD is the hard part and takes
about 50%CPU. I've heard of people using as slow as P4-1.8GHZ for just HD
PVR. A DX9 compliant display card is required for Windows. A large secondary
drive is a very good idea. 8GB/HR eats up a lot of space.

A card and HDD are easy to install. Software install and use will probably
not be as easy as your used to but are certainly doable. Software is
probably more important than which card. If using Windows I suggest getting
one that works with the WatchHDTV programs.

http://watchhdtv.net/default.aspx

"Captain Midnight" wrote in message
...
"mogator88" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Apr 26, 2:29 pm, NadCixelsyd wrote:
Note: I'm OTA only, and I'm spoiled by digital programming. I have a
Sony HDD250 and I'd love to get another one but Sony doesn't make them
anymore. Used ones on eBay are selling for more than I paid new. In
my mind, "USED" = "Probably_Has_Problems".

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?


A 4 year old PC is probably not adequate for HD playback, and the disk
is definitely too small. You can throw a bunch of tuner cards and a
larger disk in it and it will record multiple shows easily. For
playback you'll need a stronger computer. I built one. It costs
more, but it looks like it belongs in my living room. Figure $400 -
$500 to build one. I use mythtv, but only one box.


I use a 5 year old P4-2.4GHZ. I can do analog PVR and capture HD at the
same
time PVR analog and SD or PVR HD. Displaying HD is the hard part and takes
about 50%CPU. I've heard of people using as slow as P4-1.8GHZ for just HD
PVR. A DX9 compliant display card is required for Windows. A large
secondary
drive is a very good idea. 8GB/HR eats up a lot of space.

A card and HDD are easy to install. Software install and use will probably
not be as easy as your used to but are certainly doable. Software is
probably more important than which card. If using Windows I suggest
getting
one that works with the WatchHDTV programs.

http://watchhdtv.net/default.aspx

Does a agp video need more than 32 mb of onboard memory? I have seen
other cards in a good price range with 256mb. I get the HD on all the
channels sometimes and none of the channels most of the time.

On Apr 26, 3:21 pm, [email protected] wrote:
NadCixelsyd wrote (in part):

Note: I'm OTA only, and I'm spoiled by digital programming. I have a
Sony HDD250 and I'd love to get another one but Sony doesn't make them
anymore. Used ones on eBay are selling for more than I paid new. In
my mind, "USED" = "Probably_Has_Problems".

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?

Recording digital broadcasts, including HD, is not a difficult task
even for an older computer. Watching it is another matter. Most
PCI
tuners and probably all USB ones expect the computer's CPU and
video
system to do the decoding and display, and that can be too much for
an
older computer (and some newer ones). I recommend the MyHD MDP-130
(or MDP-120 or -100 if you can find a used one). These cards
decode
MPEG-2 transport streams in hardware and have their own outputs,
bypassing the computer's video card. The -100 does ATSC only and
has
only analog out (RGB or component, can go to a VGA monitor). The
-120
can have an optional DVI daughtercard. The -130 has all that plus
a
clear QAM tuner, which wouldn't help you. For use as a DVR, the
company recommends a minimum 800 MHz computer. Windows XP
preferred,
but it will work with 2K and 98SE, with some limitations.

One BG limitation is the 4gig max file size of FAT 32. Right now I
have 15 files 4gigs and those are just 1 hour TV shows. I've had no
problems with a Sempron 2500 on an inexpensive ECS motherboard with
512 megs of RAM. It doesn't take a rocket to record and play. I'm
using FIC powered by ATI 9600 new video cards I got on eBay for $82
total for 2 cards. 500gig drives at Fry's 2 weeks back for $120 - this
week SATA for $110.

GG

"Bernard S" wrote in message
...

"Captain Midnight" wrote in message
...
"mogator88" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Apr 26, 2:29 pm, NadCixelsyd wrote:
Note: I'm OTA only, and I'm spoiled by digital programming. I have a
Sony HDD250 and I'd love to get another one but Sony doesn't make
them
anymore. Used ones on eBay are selling for more than I paid new. In
my mind, "USED" = "Probably_Has_Problems".

So I was thinking of taking my son's 4 year-old PC and turning it
into
a DVR. Are the ATSC tuners for a PC adequate? If so, which ones
work
best? Since my son's PC only has about 50 gb, I assume I'll need
more. Are an ATSC tuner and more disk space easy to install? More
importantly, will they work as well as my HDD250? Is a 4 year-old PC
powerful enough to handle the task if that's all it does?


A 4 year old PC is probably not adequate for HD playback, and the disk
is definitely too small. You can throw a bunch of tuner cards and a
larger disk in it and it will record multiple shows easily. For
playback you'll need a stronger computer. I built one. It costs
more, but it looks like it belongs in my living room. Figure $400 -
$500 to build one. I use mythtv, but only one box.


I use a 5 year old P4-2.4GHZ. I can do analog PVR and capture HD at the
same
time PVR analog and SD or PVR HD. Displaying HD is the hard part and
takes
about 50%CPU. I've heard of people using as slow as P4-1.8GHZ for just
HD
PVR. A DX9 compliant display card is required for Windows. A large
secondary
drive is a very good idea. 8GB/HR eats up a lot of space.

A card and HDD are easy to install. Software install and use will
probably
not be as easy as your used to but are certainly doable. Software is
probably more important than which card. If using Windows I suggest
getting
one that works with the WatchHDTV programs.

http://watchhdtv.net/default.aspx


Does a agp video need more than 32 mb of onboard memory? I have seen
other cards in a good price range with 256mb. I get the HD on all the
channels sometimes and none of the channels most of the time.


HDTV Wonder requires 64MB(DX9 compliant) video card and WinXP. Extra doesn't
hurt.