Turning a Netvista into a networked DVR

[egibbs]

Not sure if this belongs in the Desktops forum or here, but 'll stick it here for now.

I'm tired of my VCR. I want a DVR, but after looking around at the out of the box options (TIVO, etc.) I find none that suits me.

I don't want to be locked into one proprietary program guide, don't want TIVO's pop up ads, etc. The biggest gotcha is that I want it to be on my home network.

Linksys is selling a "Media Center Extender" set top box that lets you stream recorded video from a Windows XP Media Center PC to any TV, and control the Media Center PC with a remote in the room where the TV is. Nice but I don't have a Media Center PC. I wonder if it will work with plain XP Pro and DVR software?

I do have a Netvista (6794-CBU) that I don't use for much, and I'm not afraid to tinker.

ATI, Happauge, etc. will sell me a TV card that provides DVR functionality, and they come with software to control recording and playback, a program guide application that can control the recorder, DVD burning tools for programs I want to keep, etc. The ATI kit even claims to be able to stream video to another PC over the network (and provide remote control functionality) provided the other PC also has a Radeon class card and I download an app to it. I'm not sure, but I think the ATI Mobility FireGL in my T42p might meet the requirements.

I could also load Linux on the Netvista and use one of the open source DVR apps - some of them look pretty good. But I'm not sure about the networking support.

What I'm looking for is ideas, experiences from others who have done something similar, opinions on various TV cards, Opinions on closed or open source DVR software, etc.

Any help appreciated,

Ed Gibbs

[bhtooefr]

A Media Center Extender only works with the PVR software included with XP Media Center Edition.

However, this will do the job QUITE nicely. It's actually CHEAPER than XP Pro (because it's based on Home, not Pro...) - $129 vs. $150. They'll ship a Molex cable splitter with it for free so that they can say that it came with hardware

[egibbs]

Thanks for the info - I had seen XPMC on ebay and was wondering how they were getting around the "only with a MC PC" requirement. Not sure if I trust MS not to implement a Media Center Genuine Advantage program next though.

I think I found a better solution - Happauge makes a MediapMVP set top box, it's only $109 (1/3 the cost of the Linksys box), works with any flavor of XP, and it's Linux based (hackable!). It only has a wired ethernet port while the Linksys has both wired and wireless capability, but wired is fine with me.

So my current plan (still evolving) is a Happauge WinTV-PVR-150 TV card($99), a Maxtor 200 GB drive ($74.95 right now at Staples) plus a couple MediaMVP boxes, and for less than the cost of a good TIVO I have a real PVR and video lan.

From what I've heard the PVR software included with the Happauge is crap, so I'll probably spring for BeyondTV or SageTV as well - SageTV sounds nice because it's client-server based - you can get client software to install on other PCs in the house that will connect to the PVR to schedule recording or watch recorded shows.

The only concern I have is that there are a lot of posts over on tv-cards.com disparaging the Happauge boards, but no one really says what is wrong with them other "they are crap." But then I've read many reviews of the Happauge boards that say good things. I'm not sure if it's just that the tv-cards.com folks are more orientied toward high end video and the Happauge boards are definitely consumer oriented, or if there really is something wrong with them.

Anyone have experience with the Happauge WinTV-PVR cards?

Thanks,

Ed Gibbs

[bhtooefr]

I know the Happauge boards ARE Linux-friendly. They're not GREAT quality, from what I've heard, but it's passable.

BTW, that is a LEGIT copy of XP MCE - it's just an OEM version. Windows Genuine Advantage will consider it genuine because it *is*.

[egibbs]

Following up with a status report.

Last weekend I installed a Happauge WinTV-PVR card and a Seagate 300 GB drive in the old girl, and fired her up. Whole process took 1.5 hours including loading the software (see below) and I was happily recording.

It would have taken less time, but I intalled the drive first, booted it up, partitioned and formatted it and made sure it was being seen, then took it all down again to install the card. I could have done them both at the same time but was being extra careful.

For anyone considering the same, here are a few tips:

Toss the Happauge CD in the trash. Go to their web site, download and unzip the latest driver before you install the card. When the Found New Hardware wizard comes up point it to the unzipped driver.

I installed the WinTV 2000 application, as well as the IR Blaster and IR Remote control software, even though I probably won't use them.

I did not install the WinTV Scheduler application - consensus on the net is it's crap. Instead I downloaded a trial of BeyondTV, verified it worked nicely, and then purchased an unlock code for $59.99.

At the default "Good - DVD ready" quality setting a 300 GB drive offers about 160 hours of recording time. At "Best - DVD Ready" that drops to about 100 hours.

I also got a trial of BeyondTV Link, which lets me access the BeyondTV on the Netvista from my laptop. Works well - I can do anything on the laptop that I could do sitting at the Netvista, including watching live TV or recorded shows, setting up recordings, etc. Very cool.

The MediaMVP set top box is on order from Happauge, should be here later this week. Once I get it I should be able to do the same on a normal TV using a remote, though I suspect I will need to use the Happauge software rather than BeyondTV.

All in all a very easy, trouble free project that is working really well and has greatly enhanced my entertainment options. I've already started building a library of Futurama episodes.

Ed Gibbs

[BillMorrow]

ed,

thanks for the good report..

if you have anything to add, or updates, please keep up the interesting report..

a question..
did you consider a raid 1 for data security..?

[egibbs]

a question..
did you consider a raid 1 for data security..?

Actually, I'm eying the one remaining free slot for a raid-0 controller, so I can add another couple drives and have a terabyte or two for 60's sitcoms.

Truthfully, I'm not too concerned about the security of the data - anything I really want to keep will be burned to DVD, the rest is just transient until I get a chance to watch or delete it.

Update - I got the set top box last night. As I suspected it only works with the Happauge software, which is pretty ugly but functional for watching recorded content. It won't let you bring up the program guide and watch live TV through the network though (or at least I haven't figured out how yet), so you can't pause live TV, or decide in the middle of watching a live show that you want to record it.

The BeyondTV client I put on my laptop does let you do all those things and more, plus it's pretty. So I'm hoping BeyondTV will strike a deal with a set top box maker to include their software, in which case I'd ditch the Happauge box.

One problem - The small TV we had in the bedroom only had an RF input (old junk) and the Happauge box only had composite and S-Video outputs. So I swapped the junky old bedroom TV for the nice new big one in my wife's sewing room. BAD IDEA, now she won't talk to me. I'll probably swap them back tonight, and I'll either have to get an RF modulator or a nice new 52 inch Plasma.

Ed Gibbs