Wired: Build Your Own PVR, Then Trash It

[Damion Chaplin]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70328-0.html?tw=rss.index' target='_blank'>http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70328-0.html?tw=rss.index</a><br /><br /></div><i>"First, the good news. Plummeting storage costs and the availability of special hardware have finally made it cheap and easy to shrug off the shackles of TiVo and build your own personal video recorder out of an old PC. The bad news is digital-rights management technologies will probably make your homebrew PVR obsolete faster than you can say 'Super Bowl Sunday.'"</i><br /><br />This is a great article about the struggles involved with building your own PVR in today's DRM-happy world. I found it very interesting because I personally experienced what he's talking about. It's all summed up in this line: "But now, his shared apartment in San Francisco sports a Comcast PVR so he can record high-definition cable shows from HBO. Now he uses his old MythTV box as a music server." This is exactly what happened to me. Trying to tweak a PC to be as responsive and easy-to-use as any generic DVR from a cable company proved futile. And, of course, there is no over-cable HD tuner card available, thanks to pressure from the Entertainment Industry. Eventually (and with much 'encouragement' from my wife) I ditched it in favor of an HD DVR from my cable provider. Anyone else had this experience?

[jeffd]

This is generaly one of the reasons I don't bother with a pvr, or cable for that matter. ;) I skip the whole protection thing and download what I want. Screw them if they want to impeed on the flexability I can give myself in viewing their content.

[freiberghk]

I would be the first to agree that building/maintaining a htpc is an ongoing project. But I happen to think it is worth the effort. I currently have two htpc's, and a third pc that is a server.

* I have four tuners in my main htpc. Two OTA hi def, and two analogue.
* I have 500gb of space available to record tv shows on my main htpc. And slots available to add more hard drives in the htpc if necessary. (and yes, after much effort it is silent and reliable)
* OTA hi def rocks!!! I can't believe how many times i read about people complaining that it is useless. I guess it matters where you live... but I get perfect quality hi def for abc, cbs, nbc, fox, wb, and pbs. Most of my tv viewing is from the local stations, and the quality/selection is amazing. (and free :D )
* I also subscribe to basic cable, and the two analogue tuners serve this nicely.
* my second htpc is in my bedroom with 1 analogue tuner hooked to cable.
* Whatever I record on one htpc, it is shared to other pc's in the home. So i can watch a show in my bedroom that was taped on the htpc in the family room. (In hi-def)
* the home server serves up over 4 terrabytes of music/pictures/and movies on demand to the htpcs.
* using a MCE plug-in called 'crunchie', each night my tv recordings are automatically converted from MPEG 2 to XVID saving mucho space and adding to my collection of on demand entertainment.

By the way, i think my profile still says that i live in Hong Kong, but i've relocated back to the good ol' US of A. :rock on dude!:

[Jason Dunn]

Freiberghk - that's one awesome setup you have! Thanks for sharing. I really wish I could get OTA HD here in Canada! :?