Turning my computer into a Tivo unit...
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Turning my computer into a Tivo unit...
Well, last night I finally sat down with my tv tuner card, my usb rf remote, and my cool new dvr software to begin assembling my tivo computer. Life had other plans though. Remote installed smooth as silk. Went to install the card only to find the jack for the cable line was loose and thus I'll have to send it back. Went to install the software and watched as one cd drive just began sitting and clicking at me while the other began to make a horrid grinding noise. Apparently, I want a new computer for christmas...
My posts in no way reflect that of anyone else nor are they in any way official.
Really good how to:
http://www.makezine.com/extras/4.html
an extra bit for copying to DVD:
http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthr ... ge=1&pp=15
I'm basically taking this same route as the first link goes with a few less complexities. Right now you can pick up the software and hardware for about $120-150 through snapstream.com. The software is BeyondTV and the hardware is a Hauppauge PVR-150. Plus, currently, you get the Firefly remote free, which is a really nice multimedia RF remote.
Plugin the remote sensor via usb, tell windows to look at the cd for drivers. Poof it's up and running. Shutdown the pc, install the card, restart, tell windows to look for drivers on the CD. Poof it's running. (I haven't gotten this far but) Install BeyondTV, tell it to use the PVR-150 and poof, you have a TiVo.
Now for digital cable, you'll need to run the output from the box to the PVR-150, and then slap the IR blaster from the pvr to the cable box. With some satellite configs you can use a serial cable to link to the sat cable for channel changing.
I do believe this is limited to one channel of recording per PVR-150 (and if you have digital or sat, you'll need additional boxes), but for regular cable stations that's $100 per additional channel (which two is usually more than enough for most people).
The nice thing is that you can now take shows and burn them to dvd, no matter what type of tv you get.
One other note, in order to watch shows you've recorded on a tv, you'll need a decent video card with s-video/component out (or a convertor from vga cable to however you attach it to the tv). Sound will come from the soundcard, so there's a bit of cabling that will need conversion to component as well.
http://www.makezine.com/extras/4.html
an extra bit for copying to DVD:
http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthr ... ge=1&pp=15
I'm basically taking this same route as the first link goes with a few less complexities. Right now you can pick up the software and hardware for about $120-150 through snapstream.com. The software is BeyondTV and the hardware is a Hauppauge PVR-150. Plus, currently, you get the Firefly remote free, which is a really nice multimedia RF remote.
Plugin the remote sensor via usb, tell windows to look at the cd for drivers. Poof it's up and running. Shutdown the pc, install the card, restart, tell windows to look for drivers on the CD. Poof it's running. (I haven't gotten this far but) Install BeyondTV, tell it to use the PVR-150 and poof, you have a TiVo.
Now for digital cable, you'll need to run the output from the box to the PVR-150, and then slap the IR blaster from the pvr to the cable box. With some satellite configs you can use a serial cable to link to the sat cable for channel changing.
I do believe this is limited to one channel of recording per PVR-150 (and if you have digital or sat, you'll need additional boxes), but for regular cable stations that's $100 per additional channel (which two is usually more than enough for most people).
The nice thing is that you can now take shows and burn them to dvd, no matter what type of tv you get.
One other note, in order to watch shows you've recorded on a tv, you'll need a decent video card with s-video/component out (or a convertor from vga cable to however you attach it to the tv). Sound will come from the soundcard, so there's a bit of cabling that will need conversion to component as well.
My posts in no way reflect that of anyone else nor are they in any way official.
One other note. Since the card and the cd didn't work, I've been working on shipping it back. Snapstream only has e-mail customer support, but so far this has been by far the best customer support I have ever dealt with. My first contact with them about the issue was yesterday morning and I'm already shipping the parts back and they've credited me for shipping costs.
It may take a few days longer to get the parts, but they haven't hassled me at all over it which really reduced the whole stress of things not working right away. Then again, I didn't yell at them initially either. I was nice and explained what I had encountered and any verification I'd done as far as the CD not working.
It may take a few days longer to get the parts, but they haven't hassled me at all over it which really reduced the whole stress of things not working right away. Then again, I didn't yell at them initially either. I was nice and explained what I had encountered and any verification I'd done as far as the CD not working.
My posts in no way reflect that of anyone else nor are they in any way official.
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Lambic
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Glad to hear you like it and that it is working for you.
Someday I will have a central video recorder and server
Its nice to hear someone I know have this easy a time with it. I think being willing to spend the money to do it right helps.
(wrong being $7 video capture card w/out drivers from computer show, free beta software and an old tired computer
)
Someday I will have a central video recorder and server
Its nice to hear someone I know have this easy a time with it. I think being willing to spend the money to do it right helps.
(wrong being $7 video capture card w/out drivers from computer show, free beta software and an old tired computer
)