Posted by gadjo on 02/16/07 16:36

"Alpha" <none@none.net> wrote in message
news:er39qu$qss$1@daisy.noc.ucla.edu...
> Get a stand alone recorder with a hard drive. Easy Peasy and saves a lot
> of grief.
>
> "gadjo" <fgdsfg@w45w4.sdf> wrote in message
> news:er2iqd$2ij$1@dns3.cae.ca...
>> hi,
>>
>> I'm trying to set up a homebrew PVR using my pc and I'm looking for video
>> card recommendations. I've looked at some reviews, Hauppauge is often
>> mentioned, any good/bad/ugly experiences ? It's time to retire the old
>> VCR
>> and I dont wanna spend too much on a dedicated PVR. I dont really need
>> the
>> chase-replay features like on Tivo, I'm not even a DVD collector, I just
>> want something to record my favourite shows when I'm out...
>>
>> I was thinking of going for the cheapie Hauppauge WinTv Go Plus model, it
>> looked interesting for its SoftPVR application for encoding in DivX, but
>> my
>> pc is kinda old, 1.67Ghz AMD Athlon with 512M Ram. The other Hauppauge
>> option is the WinTV-PVR-150 model, which does h/w encoding in Mpeg 2.
>>
>> That brings me to my second question, how much space consumption am I
>> looking at with Mpeg 2 ? E.g. how many Gigabytes per hour ? Also,
>> assuming I
>> can fit more than one 1-hour show (in Mpeg2) on one DVD, is this
>> possible,
>> i.e. what utilities can I use to merge multiple recordings on one DVD ?
>>
>> Thanks and apologies in advance for all the newb questions (hanging head
>> in
>> shame...)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>


I've given this much thought, and I just can't justify the cost... For the
same price I could get another more powerful PC. When I say this I'm
comparing the decent PVR's with fairly large HDD's (160-250GB) by
LG/Pioneer/Sony. I've looked at reviews for the cheaper brands, too many
issues with hard drives freezing.

One other point I should have mentioned, I don't have conventional cable
with 125 channels, I can only tune into one channel at a time, meaning I
have to watch what I record. That in itself is not a big deal, the decoders
are cheap so I can just get a second one from my cable provider, and hook it
up to my PC. My point is that I dont really need a true dedicated PVR
because it's useful features would be wasted in my case.

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