1) record OTA TV and HDTV (ie big NASCAR fan) and be able to time shift, copy the file to usb hard drive, burn to DVD or a CD-RW video format for watching at my dads.
So far so good... make sure you're within the
DTV broadcast range of your local affiliates...
2) copy my VCR tape collection to my computer to relegate all thoughts bulky tapes to boxes in the basement
sounds good again...
3) My kids are notorious for scratching DVD’s. I’d like to store my DVD collection on the computer hard drive and keep original DVD in its case. (personal use only). Not sure if the best way is with software directly on the computer using the computers DVD player, or to record the signal out of my home entertainment DVD player.
There's a whole cottage industry for ripping DVD's to your local drive (even stripping out uneeded extras like french language tracks to save some space) =) If i remember I'll dig up a link or two.. i think doom9.org is one spot with ripping guides.
4) (for future consideration, as no cable available here yet). Record cable HDTV, the same as OTA TV.
*schrreeeeeech* this is a tougher nut to crack, sadly. As of right now your DIY HDTV PVR options are:
1. OTA HDTV via HDTV card
2. HDTV via cable using unencrypted QAM transmission (sorry for the alphabet soup I don't know how to express that differently)... basically there's a card or two that does (or will) accept the same encoding/format SOME cable providers use... and SOME cable providers leave the broadcast HDTV channels unencrypted... (it's a bit of a dice roll)
3. pull hdtv content over firewire from your cable box (this is starting to get more common/use... but it too depends on certain settings by the cable company and presence of an unencumbered firewire port)
I’m thinking about using a pcHDTV HD-3000 tuner card and Linux with Mythtv. I’d prefer to use Windows, but from what I understand, windows will not do what I’m looking for (ie no HD TV tuner card for windows)
There are HDTV tuner cards for windows... ATI HDTV wonder, Dvico (?) fusion III card... etc... It's the 3rd party PVR software support that's been sketchy IMHO. You almost get rail roaded into using the default software, or some sort of jury rig, or full blown windows XP MCE 2005...
How will the new broadcast flag affect what can and can not be done with a PVR?
I'm no lawyer... but
cards manufactured after july05 will need to honor the broadcast flag It effects digital TV only, and can/will determine what you can and can't do with the content. It really can have a far reaching effect (just like this current groskter vs mgm case) as far as fair use rights and certain activities we take for granted now... the eff.org pages really do a better job summing this stuff up. I haven't had enough coffee to do it justice...
Reference of my computer specs:
-Nvidia Geforce 6600 PCIe (with HDTV out via S-video)
Note: you can't really do HDTV via s-video.. I think you mean you have svideo out and DVI out available on that card for HDTV...
-3 OS (win 98 for older games, XP pro for new games, and now Linux for HD PVR)
wow that sounds pretty awesome... the one thing though is it might get annoying to flip bewteen different operating systems like that, especially if you miss recording "american idol" because someone was booted into another OS playing counterstrike (or what have you)...
You might want to think through what you want to accomplish... or consider other approaches (like separating the recording/DVD storage box into a server and streaming content to a client)
I'm no silent cooling expert... but even with all that water cooling i gotta think all those drives are gonna be pretty loud even if you do some muffling/mod work.
Although I think linux is great, you don't necessarily HAVE to have your HD in linux as noted above... although that's one way to go.
My other thought is to maybe get the w98 games working in XP, or get a virtual PC software to create an "instance" of a windows98 install... makes much more sense, especially on a bear of machine like yours (than rebooting) for which few games don't play nice in XP.
Reference on the rest of my home entertainment:
-Cable is not available in my area, but I’d like to figure in that we may get cable out here sometime in the future, or that I might hook up the satellite dish (the previous home owner left the dish, but I have no interest right now in purchasing a satellite subscription).
-HDTV (DVD player uses component video, soon to be removed VCR uses s-video)
-6.1 surround sound (all sound is via optical link)
My main goal is to cofirm if my expectations are in line with what technology is currently capable of doing. Thank you for reading and helping me out. :)
Kent
For the most part you've got a decent sense/expectation... is that hte machine you are going to build or the one you already have?
rampy
