Building a PVR in 3 Or So Steps for About $200

[rampy]

2n takes a pvr250 OEM and a mediaMVP coupled with his home office PC to cobble together a thrifty PVR.  Read the article or post your comments and questions below.

Building a PVR in 3 Or So Steps for About $200


Rampy

[Anonymous]

hi all,

what are the minimum PC requirements (processor, memory, etc.) needed in order to make a viable PVR?

thanks,,

kham :D  

[Anonymous]

Great review - this is pretty much what I'm doing.

I've been beta testing the new version of GB-PVR due in the next couple of days, and its looking very good. It includes a few more MVP improvements that make things much more stable.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much for this article.  It provides us frugal (cheap!) guys with some alternatives.  My question is...Will this configuration work with Dish Network and if so, what adjustments need to be made.  Thanks again in advance.

[rampy]

Thank you very much for this article.  It provides us frugal (cheap!) guys with some alternatives.  My question is...Will this configuration work with Dish Network and if so, what adjustments need to be made.  Thanks again in advance.

Well, the rub is that you'll need a dish network receiver box that you'd plug into your pvr250... and then find a way to have your PC control the satellite box.

I'm not fully versed on GBPVR's capabilties (and specifically with the MediaMVP ) but it does seem to support external control devices like USB UIRT ir blaster thingie.  Not sure if it does serial control of dish network recievers.  If I find out I'll let you know =)

rampy

[Anonymous]

I'm guessing that this MediaMVP will not with with Sage or Beyond TV?

[Anonymous]

GBPVR supports Actisys IR200L and USB-UIRT IR blaster which would allow you to change channels on your Dish Network set top box. It also supports girder, which could in turn use a serial cable to change channels etc. Lots of options.

[rampy]

I'm guessing that this MediaMVP will not with with Sage or Beyond TV?  

The mediamvp by itself/default software/"firmware" will stream mpeg content from your PC... so hypothetically it will "work" in conjunction with Sagetv/BTV recorded content, but thos applications doesn't act like a "frontend" replacement for MediaMVP like GBPVR does.

I thought I read something somewhere about frey tech looking into sage support for mediamvp, but that might be a rumor (or a dream I had)... or just a feature request listed on a sage forum =)

Hope that answers the question =)

rampy

[Anonymous]

I'm the one who asked about dish network.  Thanks for the reply.  How would my conections go if I were to use this set-up with dish network.  What I mean is what connects to what (250, network, TV, Stereo, MVP, IR Blaster, Anything I might have left out?)  One other question, can I hook one of the MVP's up to each TV and view different items at the same time?  Thank you in advance for any help you can lend.

[Anonymous]

2n Here

The basic software porvided with mediamvp supports up to twelve separate devices. I am fairly certain GBPVR supports multiple MVPs, as I have seen some people discussing it on the bulletin board, but I have no idea how well that sort of function works. You might consider putting a question up on the GBPVR bulletin board   http://gbpvr.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=d61ef72c3985f15ba92cf89042c738d6.

[Anonymous]

 2n, (or any others)

Can you give me the rundown on how my system would connect (PC, 250, MVP, Network, IR Blaster, Dish Box)  I'm new to this but very interresed in getting started and the article you wrote looks very "do-able" for me.

Thanks Again

[rampy]

2n, (or any others)

Can you give me the rundown on how my system would connect (PC, 250, MVP, Network, IR Blaster, Dish Box)  I'm new to this but very interresed in getting started and the article you wrote looks very "do-able" for me.

Thanks Again

Satellite dish box svideo/composite out --> pvr250 input

PC---->IR Blaster---->Satellite Dish reciever box

PC<--->network<--->MediaMVP--->TV

hope that helps =)

rampy

[Anonymous]

Great article.  One of the things I'm hoping for in a build-you-own PVR is the capability to have _two_ tuners in order to record two programs at the same time.  Is there a tuner card that would work in this configuration that has two tuners?  Thanks - Geoff

[Anonymous]

Do you need the MediaMVP in order to use this program, or can you do without it if the computer is in the same room as the television? Also, how does the PVR350 work if you have a digital cable box???

[rampy]

Great article.  One of the things I'm hoping for in a build-you-own PVR is the capability to have _two_ tuners in order to record two programs at the same time.  Is there a tuner card that would work in this configuration that has two tuners?  Thanks - Geoff

Hey Geoff,

you can use multiple pvr250's in a machine...  as you add multiple tuners you'll want to make sure to have enough horsepower though.  Probably not a big deal for 2 cards on a "normal" PC, but if you go crazy with 3 or 4 =)

I don't know if or how well GBPVR supports multiple tuners, i'd check their forum for more info...  I know SageTV supports multiple tuners (and so does myth on the linux side).. but i'm also unsure of how MediaMVP woudl fit in, in such a situation...

rampy