Alternative to VCR

[Nick]

There are standalone machines that have recently become available that combine a DVD player, TV tuner with VCR style interface and large HDD for storage.

Thus they provide a one stop solution rendering VCR and DVD player obsolete. You can play DVD's, record TV programmes digitally using timer functions etc and play them back from the hard disc.

2 problems - one is that they retail in the UK for like £1000 (US $1500ish!). The other is that you cannot record from the HDD to recordable DVD.

Now I see no reason why I can't build a PC with Pioneer DVR106 (or rebranded) writer, big HDD, say 120GB, TV tuner card for about half that price.

The question is what sound card (would onboard 5.1 a la nForce2 or SiS 748 be adequate), which graphics card to output to TV (seen some threads on this by searching and high end radeons seem to be preferred - any cheaper thoughts?) and which TV tuner card.

Can you get TV tuner cards which can save direct to HDD as DVD compliant mpeg2 in realtime? Also would I need any hardware decoders to achieve good playback.

My thoughts at the minute are SiS748 mainboard with onboard 5.1 sound. AMD XP1700+ with 256MB DDR RAM, Pioneer DVD as above and Maxtor 120 GB Hard drive. All cheap and as I am assuming all mpeg enc/decoding will be done by hardware performance shouldn't be paramount.

So can anyone a) shoot my basic system - do I need more power?
or b) recommend the necessary AGP and PCI cards if possible to keep my absolute max budget to £650 ($1000ish) for case and contents. I will be outputting to TV & surround amp so don't need any peripherals in that budget except wireless k/board & mouse.

Motherboard+Processor+fan+ram+DVDR+HDD with case, PSU and wireless desktop = £400 giving £250 budget for cards. Have I any chance?

Also what software would I need for the "vitual VCR" side of things to do timed recording etc...is this even possible?

Any thoughts appreciated.

[ronnylov]

Maybe this is what you want?
http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr/

[Hectic]

me:
a-bit nf7 w/nvidia and athlon 2600+ - $170
512MB kingston 2100 - $59
ati all-in-wonder radeon 9000 pro - $130
sound blaster live 5.1 platnum w/front panel - $13 (yes, $13)
200 GB western digital - $80 (yes, $80)
nice enermax 330w psu and case with transparent side panel and fan ($70)
BTC (crap brand) 16x dvd drive (replacement, works great though) - $30

$552;) still don't have that blasted dvd burner yet though:(


shop around man. first off, your onboard sound sucks ass because it has no hardware buffer and won't work correctly with some programs. i'd get a sound blaster 16 at least, as far as capture cards go, i wouldn't recommend anything besides an ati because i've never used anything besides an all in wonder 128 and my new radeon 9000. you can always buy and try until you find something that works the way you want. my aiw captures dvd quality in real time at full frames and comes with software to record to dvd on the fly. i'm going to sleep.

[Nick]

Thanks guys. Now we're talking. I wish I could throw Hectic's system together for that sort of price in the UK! I could easily get a DVD burner into my budget if I could source the rest of the stuff that cheap!

Plenty to be thinking over there. Thanks again guys.

[Nick]

http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvr350_datasheet.htm

Found this piece of kit for £120

Would this, with an NForce integrated GPU mainboard (+Hectic's HDD and soundcard) do what I want it to?

Does anyone have one of these cards and would they recommend it?

As I understand it, the Hauppage card has tv out function and tv receiver, and realtime hardware mpeg encoding. So I can see no reason to build a top-spec PC.

Surely therefore, MoBo with integrated GF2 graphics, a 5-1 soundcard with digital output (pref. coax), XP1700+ with 128mb of DDR, Pioneer DVR106 writer plus the Hauppage Supercard and a big HDD basically make a digital TV recorder, DVD recorder, video editor and home cinema player in one box?

Cos if so, I'm a buyin!