PVR or TV viewed on desktop Solutions

XeonJr · Post by **XeonJr** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 5:50 pm

I have been looking into PVR(Hard disk recorders) as a means of recording TV. The 2nd option is recording straight to my PC.

I have been wondering about the signal strengths from our antenna settup. VHF/UHF signals come from the antenna down into the house via a shielded cable which is connected to a singal booster box. The signal used to run through our VCR and then to the TV. The VCR used to further boost the picture quality until it died last year

. Now the boosted signal goes straight to the TV and is of average quality.

Can anyone explain how the VCR altered the picture quality? Would I be right in assuming a PVR solution would also do the same?

PVR solutions weight in at around $700 for standard definition (only have analog TV so HDTV is pointless

.) Alot of PVR solutions come with DVD recorders. DVD recorders alone are $250 so $450 just for an added Hard Disk seems steep

What sort of PC Solution would be more cost effective and provide same quality TV viewing as the old -->booster-->VCR-->TV(or monitor) settup?

THX in advance

Josh

roid · Post by **roid** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 11:47 pm

get a Digital Reciever card xeon. that's what i'm gonna do.
it'l work with your analog TV, since your PC will still output an analog signal to your tv. think of it as a digital set-top box converter thingy in your pc.

signal loss will probably not be a problem this way.

and your pc will still output an analog signal to your tv anyway, this will not change. with the digital tuner card i think of it as cutting out the process of converting it from analog to digital for use in the pc, (it will still need to convert from digital to analog for use in the tv though, but this is your videocard's problem and has nothing to do with the reciever, no matter what one you get).

this is the one i'm looking at http://www.gamedude.com.au/prod_show.ph ... capAVdvb_t
it also has an AV and s-video input, so you can hook it up to your normal analog VCR. (it will prettymuch also turn your PC into a digital set-top box).

- i'll just need that,
- and a videocard with a tv output, since i don't have one. (i plan on REPLACING the home's vcr with this, so it'l all be hooked up to the family's main TV)
- look around for (free) better software that records in xvid etc formats (most bundled stuff only records in mpeg or M$formats).
- and then later maybe a dvd burner.

all up, way less than $700AU.
a digital tuner card plus a dvd burner is $300
do you have a videocard with a TV out already?

oh, and are you planning on making a seperate dedicated pc for this? (you won't need to, but a salesman advised me that it's quite cpu intensive).

XeonJr · Post by **XeonJr** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 1:42 am

I spent a bit of time cruising around looking at STB's. They seriously aren't worth the cost. I was also looking at that AverMedia AVerTV DVB-T earlier (quoted at $125.) I have never heard of the brand and couldn't seem to find any product reviews

My 2.6 gig box has just been revamped into a Unix e-commerce server so I will be using my 3.5 gig winXP box for TV recording. I don't have a great deal of HD space so I think I will pickup a 200 gig sata maxtor or 2*120 gig seagates for raid purposes. I have a 5900XT which has tv-out but I think I will be using my monitor for viewing.

I also checked out widescreen LCD TV, PLasma TV and LCD monitors but they are asking too much

Sligar · Post by **Sligar** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 8:14 am

Check out

http://www.htpcnews.com/

Lots of good info there. I'm using a hauppauge pvr350 card with the FM tuner, it works pretty well I think. The software for it is just ok, though. A lot of people go with SageTV and other 3rd party PVR programs. If I was thinking about getting a card now I would take a hard look at the HDTV options out there, hauppauge makes one and there are others too. Why not future proof your rig? Apparently TV stations are/will be required to send HDTV signals over the airwaves for free, don't know if they are doing that everywhere yet or not. But if you're going to be watching it on your computer monitor, then you'll be able to display HDTV resolution.

As far as the monitor goes, how about a projector? If you're going to spend big bucks for a tv sized LCD, why not get a projector with a 100 inch diagonal screen? The cost is similar. Makes for a great movie experience, I also play doom3 and descent on mine. They are getting cheaper and better all the time. Get exhaustive info and reviews on projectors here:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/

STRESSTEST · Post by **STRESSTEST** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 12:01 pm

Hauppage PVR-250 here. Difference is sound on the 350. Your best bet is to get the 250, and a Chaintech CT-AV710 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 103&depa=0

It's a cheap card, yes I know. But it will flat out school any other sound card out there for home theater that Creative, Turtle beach etc make. The site that Sliger posted has a review of the card there and why it is better then any of these high end PC audio cards we are a custom to using. If you get the PVR-250 you will get a remote to use. If you get the PVR-250MCE version for about the same price you will not. It is the Winsows media center edition and assumes that you will be using the M$ remote that comes with the OS.

If you really want to get into this whole sceen. Then I suggest you spend a few days going through HTPCnews.com.

Front ends.
Meedio and SageTV are probably the best front ends out there. Unless you want to use linux.

And a highdef tv... yes, a very good thing

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:23 pm

I've been using a Leadtek TV2000XP Deluxe and it works flawlessly. Worked perfectly right out of the box.

roid · Post by **roid** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 6:31 am

XeonJr wrote:I spent a bit of time cruising around looking at STB's. They seriously aren't worth the cost.

exactly. especially when your pc does it for you

.

XeonJr wrote:I was also looking at that AverMedia AVerTV DVB-T earlier (quoted at $125.) I have never heard of the brand and couldn't seem to find any product reviews

where was it $125?

i've never really considered the performance of the capture cards. they just seem like a throw in card, sho cares who makes it, it's just all analog electronics anyhow, there's no intelligence or performance is there?
i've just been taking note of common features: FM capture, terrestrial digital input (aerial), analog input (vcr), remote control, hardware mpeg2 encoding.

also: there are freeware PVR programs out there as well, some of them i've seen on soundforge look very good.