Help on a psuedo-HTPC

A

AGampher

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 20, 2003
Messages
109
Hey guys,

I'm wanting to take my server and add the capability to record shows, store them, and play them back (preferably with a remote). I've read through quite a few posts here and on other forums, but I think most are way beyond what I'm looking for. Some people say I need a decoder as well as an encoder, i.e. the Hauppage line, others say all I need is an all-in-wonder to record and then send mpgs to my tv via the svideo output.

I want cheap, and a good enough reception to play on a regular tv (i.e. not HDTV or Plasma, just the regular square TV). Opinions?
 
I'd pick up a Hauppauge PVR-150 and use something like SageTV along with a good remote like a Snapstream.

The AIW cards suck in general for what you pay for them.
 
valve1138 said:
I'd pick up a Hauppauge PVR-150 and use something like SageTV along with a good remote like a Snapstream.

The AIW cards suck in general for what you pay for them.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I need video out on the card, like s-video or RGA.
 
it's best to do 2 cards. one for input, one for output. get a PVR-150 or 500 for input to record. Then use a fx5200 or something for output.
 
What you're going to need for your server:
Hardware-
TV tuner
Some way to get the recordings on the server to your TV


So what you're going to do first is get a TV tuner and install that into your server. At this point I'm wondering how you're going to accomplish getting the video from the server to your TV, are they in the same room or do you have the notion that you can string an svideo cable from the basement to the living room? Before I can continue (atleast comfortably) this will have to be addressed.
 
CrimandEvil said:
What you're going to need for your server:
Hardware-
TV tuner
Some way to get the recordings on the server to your TV


So what you're going to do first is get a TV tuner and install that into your server. At this point I'm wondering how you're going to accomplish getting the video from the server to your TV, are they in the same room or do you have the notion that you can string an svideo cable from the basement to the living room? Before I can continue (atleast comfortably) this will have to be addressed.
Click to expand...

The plan is to run the cat5 to the server instead of running s-video to the TV. I.E. the server will be sitting right next to/behind the TV. I don't think you can run s-video half way across the house like you can cat5, right?
 
If the server is going to be in the same room as where you'll be watching TV then you have to pay alot more attention to noise levels, nothing turns the spouse off more then trying to watch a movie with a PC whirling it's little fans along side it.

So yeah get an NV video card cause they have noticably better svideo quality, something in an FX or higher I would go for a 6200 myself.

And pick up two TV tuner cards, believe me you'll need two at the very least. Now you want to pick out some software, I would suggest going with SageTV and I'm pretty sure most here would suggest the same thing.

Since these cards record video into MPEG2 you're going to need an MPEG2 codec to encode the video, the best one out there is NV's (now called) Purevideo decoder (BTW guys NV just updated it) so I would get that.

http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/cPath/54/products_id/145
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/pName/hauppauge-wintvpvr150mce/cName/pvr-cardstv-tuners
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_in...trol-for-windows-xp-mce/cName/remote-controls
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125201

That should do ya fine.
 
A 6200 is a good card, I'm up to 3 of them now in my various HTPC's.

And you can get them in fanless versions which is pretty slick.

S-Video quality is pretty good too, on my 24" Sony it looks decent.
 
CrimandEvil said:
If the server is going to be in the same room as where you'll be watching TV then you have to pay alot more attention to noise levels, nothing turns the spouse off more then trying to watch a movie with a PC whirling it's little fans along side it.

So yeah get an NV video card cause they have noticably better svideo quality, something in an FX or higher I would go for a 6200 myself.

And pick up two TV tuner cards, believe me you'll need two at the very least. Now you want to pick out some software, I would suggest going with SageTV and I'm pretty sure most here would suggest the same thing.

Since these cards record video into MPEG2 you're going to need an MPEG2 codec to encode the video, the best one out there is NV's (now called) Purevideo decoder (BTW guys NV just updated it) so I would get that.

http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/cPath/54/products_id/145
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_info.php/pName/hauppauge-wintvpvr150mce/cName/pvr-cardstv-tuners
http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_in...trol-for-windows-xp-mce/cName/remote-controls
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125201

That should do ya fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions. Why 2 tuners? I doubt I will ever record more than one thing at the exact same time. We don't watch near that amount of television. Is Purevideo decoder a free download? What does it do exactly? That remote and one of those hauppage cards are for xp mce, which I don't have. The server will be running 2k pro. Sorry for the noob questions, but I am seriously very new to the audio-visual scene.
 
2 tuners help when csi and ER overlap on a Thursday night. It also means you can timeshift one show (or watch it live) while recoring another.

I'd probably suggest the PVR500 if you want to go dual-tuner - it'll take up one less slot.
 
Those cards aren't -exactly- for MCE, I'm running two MCE cards under XP Home just fine. They were made with MCE usage in mind which is why they come with an FM input, AV jacks on the back, lack of crappy bundled software, no remote (it's assumed you'll be using the MCE remote with MCE) and a cheaper price tag.

Support for the MCE remote is as simple as your software supporting it, alot of them do since it's a pretty good remote.

Why 2 tuners? I hardly watch TV (about three to four shows a week) but with two tuners you can watch one channel live while recording another, record two shows that are one at the same time, or make sure that time doesn't get cut off when your recording two shows back to back. I can't tell you how much a second tuner has helped with that last one, it really sucks to see either the end of a show or the beginning get cut off because one show starts alittle earlier then the other or that one show runs long. You may think that you don't need a second tuner but believe me two tuners is like using 512mb or memory in an XP box, it should be considered a minimum requirement.

The NV codec is $20 but notice that you get it with the SageTV bundle.
I'd probably suggest the PVR500 if you want to go dual-tuner - it'll take up one less slot.
Click to expand...
The only problem with that is that he might be running a POS VIA chipset mobo.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Those cards aren't -exactly- for MCE, I'm running two MCE cards under XP Home just fine. They were made with MCE usage in mind which is why they come with an FM input, AV jacks on the back, lack of crappy bundled software, no remote (it's assumed you'll be using the MCE remote with MCE) and a cheaper price tag.

Support for the MCE remote is as simple as your software supporting it, alot of them do since it's a pretty good remote.

Why 2 tuners? I hardly watch TV (about three to four shows a week) but with two tuners you can watch one channel live while recording another, record two shows that are one at the same time, or make sure that time doesn't get cut off when your recording two shows back to back. I can't tell you how much a second tuner has helped with that last one, it really sucks to see either the end of a show or the beginning get cut off because one show starts alittle earlier then the other or that one show runs long. You may think that you don't need a second tuner but believe me two tuners is like using 512mb or memory in an XP box, it should be considered a minimum requirement.

The NV codec is $20 but notice that you get it with the SageTV bundle.

The only problem with that is that he might be running a POS VIA chipset mobo.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the response. I am running an ASUS NFORCE A7N266-VM/LAN/AA in my server box. Cheapest solution with 2x tuners, 1x remote, 1x software package and 1x video output (i.e. gpu) would be?
 
I do something similar with VLC Media Player (freeware).

I have my HTPC which has a video capture card (composite inputs). I then use VLC to capture and broadcast the video on my network. You can specify codecs and quality to suit your needs. You can even configure it to broadcast so you can watch TV at work if you like :D.

Then on any machine connected to my LAN I can open up VLC and watch TV. This is especially nice with my laptop :cool:.

VLC can also be configured to save the video to a file, either on the server side or with the client. It's not as elegant as say Sage TV where you could schedule it to record a particular channel at a particular time, but hey it's free.

Anyway, not sure if this is what you're looking for or not, but I thought I'd make you aware of this option. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top