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To start I will admit I've never been someone who watches a lot of tv. Like
most people my biggest obstacles were being able to remember to watch a show
and dealing with all of the commercials when I did remember. So last year I
learned about Tivo and the alternative homebrew PVR projects like MythTV, HTPC
and such. I purchased a Hauppauge tv tuner card and started playing around with
the software available. I'm somebody who writes software for a living so I'm
somewhat proficient with computers. I spent many hours trying to get MythTV
running on Mandrake 9 and RedHat 9 but with no luck. Even with the well written
online guides that some people have so graciously compiled, I still couldn't
figure out how to make it work. Disappointed I decided to try out the Windows
offerings. As usual it's a totally different world in Windows. It was so easy
to get the software working that I deposited my Linux CDs in the trash. So what
follows is a description of the PVR I built on my own along with some pictures.
I know when I was building this it helped me a lot to find what other people
used. So here goes!
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Built: June 2004
Price: $570
TV Signal: Cable TV (Charter)
Location: St.Louis, MO USA
OS: Windows XP SP1
PVR Software: SnapStream BeyondTV v3.4
TV Tuner Card: Haupaugge WinTV PVR 250
TV Out Signal: S-Video via onboard NVIDIA chip
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Component: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 TV tuner card
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Price Paid: $100
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Notes: This is the most used TV tuner card on the market. All PVR software use
this card as a baseline, meaning they all will work by default with this card.
I highly recommend using this card whether you plan to use Linux or Windows.
Even MythTV recommends using this card. If you watch the sales you can get this
card for $100, usually it runs for $150 however. The card includes a nice IR
remote that works very well with BeyondTV software. The onboard encoder chip
works great. The WinTV-PVR 350 TV tuner card is the more expensive option and
can record radio too. It also includes an onboard decoder in addition to the
standard onboard encoder.
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Links:
Hauppauge product page, CompUSA product page
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Component: Chaintech 7NIF2 nForce2 IGP Motherboard
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Price Paid: $79.00
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Notes: Very reasonable priced motherboard that includes a lot of features. It
has on board audio and NVidia video chipset (GeForce4 MX) with S-Video tv
output. Accepts up to 3 GB of DIMM RAM. 3 PCI slots and 1 AGP slot (4X or 8X).
6 USB 2.0 ports. The chipset fan is a little whiney, probably the noisiest
compononent on my whole system. Since silence is golden when using a computer
as an appliance this might be a little annoying to some people. I can't really
notice it unless I'm up close to the case.
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Links: Chaintech product page, Newegg product page
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Component: AMD Athlon XP 2400+ "Thoroughbred" 266 FSB, 256K Cache Processor
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Price Paid: $72.00
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Notes: Great cpu that came with a fan and heatsink. Fan is quieter than I
expected. Runs at 2GHz.
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Links: Newegg product page
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Component: PNY 512 MB PC3200 RAM
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Price Paid: $87.22
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Notes: 512 MB of RAM is plenty for what I'm doing. No problems to report.
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Component: Cooler Master Black MicroATX 5-Bay DeskTop Case, Model ATC-620C-BX1
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Price Paid: $91.99
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Notes: Very sleek black aluminum case with the same measurements as a stereo
component. It includes two flip down panel covers in the front where you can
access your DVD drive(s) and/or floppy drive. Also if your motherboard includes
Firewire, USB or audio outputs they can be routed to the front of the case
which includes jacks for each. My motherboard didn't but I wasn't planning on
using this setup for anything but TV recording. It accepts a Micro-ATX
motherboard that is towards the back of the case on the bottom left side. In
front is the drive bay rack. The top rack includes a bay for (2) 5.25" drives
which are exposed via the flip down cover. I put a DVD-ROM in one. The bottom
rack includes a bay for (1) 3.5" drive which is exposed (in case you want to
install a floppy drive) and (2) 3.5" drives which are not exposed. It includes
a small fan in the back of the unit. It does not include a power supply, which
would be attached on the bottom right side. Blue Power On LED is too bright, I
unhooked it.
Cooling is not a problem: CPU 116 F | Case Ambient 93 F
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Links: Cooler Master product page, Newegg product page
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Component: Ahanix 400W Silent Power Supply
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Price Paid:$53.25
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Notes: Very quiet power supply. I had to get one that had the ventilation in
the front instead of the normal top and bottom that are used in tower cases.
400 watts is more than I'll ever use but it's top quality and hopefully won't
have any issues with it.
By the way Ahanix has some very top quality/high priced DVR home theater
equipment.
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Link: Ahanix product
page, Newegg product page
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Component: Samsung Black 16X DVD-ROM Drive, Model SD-616EEPB
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Price Paid: $28.99
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Notes: I added a black DVD-ROM so that a) install software when needed and b)
play movies or music. I wanted black to match the color of the case. Works
fine. But don't most DVD-ROM work?
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Links: Newegg product page
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Component: Western Digital 120GB Internal Hard Drive, Model WDC WD1200JBRTL
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Price Paid: $27.85
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Notes: Circuit City had a rebate bonanza one day and I got this drive very cheap! With
BeyondTV's recording setting set on low quality (which is about VHS quality) I
figure I can record around 80 hours. If I run out of room I can always purchase
another drive. Windows XP has a neat feature where you can turn two or more
seperate hard drives into one drive letter. Since BeyondTV can only record to
one directory that's a life saver.
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Links: Circuit City product page
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Component: Lite-On SK-7260 Black RF Wireless Keyboard and Optical Mouse
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Price Paid: $26.00
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Notes: Ok so I got one thing that was junk :) This is an inexpensive wireless
keyboard and optical mouse. The mouse was DOA. I did some looking around and
apparently it's a common problem. I really liked the keyboard however and
decided to keep it. It works great. Even includes an on/off switch to extend
battery life. The Snapstream software does not require a keyboard but it does
come in handy when you want to search for upcoming shows and need to type in
the show's keywords. I just slide it under my couch. I ended up using an extra
wired mouse I had and slid it behind the case. Every once in awhile you still
will need to navigate around Windows.
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Links: Lite-On product page, Newegg product page
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Component: Microsoft Wireless-G Notebook Kit, Model MN-820
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Price Paid: $79.99
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Notes: I bought this some time ago so I didn't include it with the total price.
This is an excellent deal if you are a Windows user. I can't compare this to
other vendors like Linksys or DLink since I've never used their wireless
products. But I will say this was extremely easy to setup and works flawlessly.
It includes all of the security and encryption if you need it. I never turned
it on, I'm wide open so to speak ;) It includes an 802.11g wireless router and
notebook wireless card.
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Links: Microsoft product page, BestBuy product page
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Component: Microsoft USB 2.0 Wireless-G Adapter, Model MN-710
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Price Paid: $39.99
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Notes: I just plugged this into one of my USB ports and it runs great. The
router is all the way across my condo (distance about 35 feet). I've got a
couple of walls in the way and I get around 40Mbps.
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Links: Microsoft product page, BestBuy product page
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Component: SnapStream BeyondTV Software v3.4
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Price Paid: $49.99
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Notes: I did a lot of researching for the right software and BeyondTV is way
ahead of anyone else. They are definitely the premier PVR software app. First
off this app was very easy to install and setup. Within 2 minutes I was
watching live TV. For starters the big selling point with this software is
unlike Tivo there are NO SUBSCRIPTION FEES. They use their own tv guide and do
not rely on xmltv like most other apps do. One of the very nice features of the
tv guide is SnapStream includes a free service where you can login into
http://www.snapstream.net and browse upcoming movies, documentaries, sports,
etc or search for shows. When you find one you can click the record button on
the web page and the next time your software retrieves the tv guide (which
occurs every 5-10 minutes) it will be notified to record your show. So I can be
in Guam and find a show I want recorded and my PVR sitting at home will be
notified. Amazing. Nobody else has this capability. A huge selling point for
me. The interface is very sleek and professional compared to other offerings.
It includes the standard 30 second skip feature and pause live tv. It only
records in MPEG-2 format but includes a feature to "squeeze" your recordings
down to Windows Media format (wmv) if you so desire. This isn't a realtime
process but occurs after the show has been recorded. It does save a lot on
space but is harder to convert to VCD or DVD. If you want you can tweak many
recording settings such as stream type, bits per second, deinterlacing, what
software decoder to use, on and on. I used the default settings and have no
complaints. I'm sure I could make the recordings more crisp if I wanted to try
and fuss with them. SnapStream has a great bulletin board community online for
tech help which is very useful. Their developer's spend a lot of time here
halping people out and getting feedback on their products.
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Links:
SnapStream product page
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Component: Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
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Price Paid: Free
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Notes: A great freebie from our friends at Microsoft. The only thing I use is
the ability to automatically login to Windows on a reboot. This may come in use
if I have a power outage. I don't have to be at home to login to Windows so I
don't miss any recordings. BeyondTV is not a Windows service but an app and
needs for Windows to be fully started up in order to run. A side note to this
tweak, be sure to have a password for the user login or it doesn't work. In the
software world we would call that a "Microsoft feature" ;) Links:
PowerToys for Windows XP
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Front view with BeyondTV running
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Top view with wireless keyboard, mouse, USB receiver and USB wireless
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Case with top door flipped down, displaying DVD-ROM drive
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Case with bottom door flipped down, displaying USB, Firewire and audio outputs
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Case with cover removed
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Closer view of components inside
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Side view, displaying Haupaugge tv tuner card
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Back view of case
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