Home Made DVR

[rblasch470]

I'm an IT guy who has a computer client who wants me to build them a DVR. I have no issue building them, I've been doing it for 20 some years, but my question for you GURU's is what capture/DVR card do you recommend. They want to use it with their Charter SD Digital box and also pull OTA as well. There are lots of apparently good ones out there, but this is a gap in my knowledge. I'm open for suggestions and thoughts on power/speed video cards to go with it.

I appreciate any direction anyone can give.

 

[yorktown]

What kind of DVRs were you building in 1989 ?

 

[navychop]

Well, I can no longer recommend the ATI HDTV Wonder. It had it's day.

 

[pro96]

Well since you go back to 1989 building DVR's.. betcha used on of these huh

ATI Mach 64 (with VLB)

 

[mike123abc]

1989 my DVR was 3 SVHS vcrs working in concert...

 

[BuddyBoy]

1989 my DVR was 3 SVHS vcrs working in concert...

That's not digital.

 

[diogen]

Well since you go back to 1989 building DVR's.. betcha used on of these huh...

The whole Mach line started in the 90s...

Diogen.

 

[rblasch470]

Ok, so I wasn't building DVR's in 89, but I was building PC's and I actually did have that video card (it's probably still in the garage somewhere....) and by the way, it wasn't VCR's in series... it was, in fact, my Amiga running video toaster.... hooked up to 2 Sony BVH-1100 1" VTRs.... But I digress.... I'm not finding any cards that seem to stand out!

 

[grydlok]

Are you planning on using OTA or Cable?

 

[nsafreak]

Does your client have a budget at all? That would help. We also need to know if they want it so that they just use the charter SD box to send the digital channels to the DVR or if they just want the DVR to record the digital channels. Either one is possible. If they just want to use the existing box then you'll need an IR blaster/receiver. If they just want access to the digital channels then you'll want to get a CableCARD capable tuner for the DVR.

 

[navychop]

... it was, in fact, my Amiga running video toaster....

Guru Meditation Number the Last One: Never ruin great hardware that has a great op sys by saddling it with "Guru Meditations."

 

[rblasch470]

Ok, thanks for the feedback... they do want to use their Comcast SD box to feed it if possible. They are NOT using OTA at this point. As far as a budget... it's not a huge concern, but they don't want to go nuts.

 

[yorktown]

If the customer wants a DVR to use with Cable and OTA tell them to go buy a TiVo.

 

[mike123abc]

If the customer wants a DVR to use with Cable and OTA tell them to go buy a TiVo.

I would second that. TiVos with cable cards are a pleasure to use, and if you get one with a large disk, it by far beats the cable company DVR.

The only thing is that it is more expensive. Even if you do the lifetime TiVo service you have a monthly fee for the cable cards. I have 2 TiVos with lifetime service. It will take many years of use before you "save" with TiVo. You have the box cost up front, plus then if you want service monthly/yearly/lifetime plus cable cards. I figure it will take 6 years to break even, hard to say if I ever will, but the usability and features make it really worth it to me.

I find them just about as good as the Dish boxes. One of the things I really like about the TiVo that Dish has not done yet is the ability to stream shows recorded on one to the other. It takes a minute to start up (i.e. buffer enough of the copy, depends how fast your connection is between them).

 

[navychop]

Well, we can agree to disagree about how "good" the Tivo is, versus the Dish DVRs. Some of us detest the cutesy, slow interface. Beat the cableco DVR? Sure, I think so too. But there's a risk.

Since it appears Tivo has never managed a profit from operations, there is some doubt that they will be around in a few years.

 

[mike123abc]

Well, we can agree to disagree about how "good" the Tivo is, versus the Dish DVRs. Some of us detest the cutesy, slow interface. Beat the cableco DVR? Sure, I think so too. But there's a risk.

Since it appears Tivo has never managed a profit from operations, there is some doubt that they will be around in a few years.

The TiVo HDs have the horse power, they are not slow. They are just as responsive as the Dish recievers. They also do not have a cutesy interface, and you can adjust the volume or eliminate the sounds if you like. If you program in the 30 second skip forward feature, it is just like a Dish DVR. I use a Dish 21 remote to control both my TiVo and my Dish box, so it really feels like a Dish DVR.

Both boxes have features I wish the other one had.