"Teratology" is the name of my first homebrew pvr!

[mathman]

Why "Teratology"? Because I've always named all my computer drives "...ologies".
Funny thing happened the other day, I was shopping for a flat panel monitor for my Mac & came across a crazy Dell one day sale where I basically got a computer for only dollars more than buying the monitor alone. So this computer user that has been Mac only since 1984 is super excited about doing everything that's a pain for Mac users... like a PVR.

Goals: Pretty basic. My computer desk is right next to my television as I have a small Brooklyn apartment. I'd like to watch PVR recorded TV on my NTSC television, use a remote to do it, & watch downloaded quickTimes, DivX & M2Vs too. I've been know to author a few DVDs, sometimes professionally. I'm particular about video quality, especially film but I don't mind lowering my standards a bit for time shifted television programming.

Help me find anything I might be doing wrong, here's what I'm specking out thus far...

WHAT I HAVE:
-Dell Dimension 1100, Intel Celeron 2.53GHz, 160GB 7200rpm hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 19inch Flat Panel - $450

WHAT I'M PLANNING TO GET:
-Hauppauge WinTV pvr 150 - $94
-FX 5200 PCI Video Card with VGA and S-Video, I narrowed it down to two cards, one made by BFG Tech & the other XFX, any one like these manufactures? - $60ish
-Numark 2-CHANNEL DJ Mixer with USB Inputs for my sound out. Will a USB sound out work? That’s the equivalent to a sound card, right? - $90
-Logitech Harmony Universal Remote for Xbox 360 - $100ish

MY HOME THEATER:
Phillips 27" super flat CRT
Sony receiver, Toshiba DVD player, Xbox, Speakers not worth mentioning. Hopefully there will be an upgrade soon with my tax return plus I did real good in Vegas last week.

SOFTWARE:
I'll cross that bridge later but I'll first bounce around the freebies.
                           
Mac users are not assaulted with so many options. Any Mac video card upgrade is made by Nvidea or ATI; on the other hand, wintel land seems to have hundreds of companies making Nividia & ATI cards. And who buys a sound card for a Mac?
Thanks in advance for any words of advice.
Chris
For a complete list of the "...ologies" visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-ology

[SuperG]

BFG makes great cards with lifetime warranties.

GBPVR is your friend. 

[smokeyalien]

Why are you running sound out through a DJ mixing panel?  Also, what sound software are you planning on using to dump the sound to usb?  I have to ask this because as odd as it sounds it's a very interesting idea.  I'm just not sure if it would work right.  Plus, you already have a receiver.  Why not just run it directly into the receiver and bypass the extra step?

As for the Remote, I'm not sure yhow that particular remote works.  Is there a usb plug receiver you can get to hook it into the pvr?  You'll have to program the remote for the codes of a known remote that works with the PVR software of your choice and have a way to incorporate it into the computer with a receiver.  Why go this way when the PVR150 comes with a remote unless you need it to handle other things as well and then you now have the codes to program the universal with as well as the IR eye for interfacing with the PVR.

Everything else looks fine as far as I can tell.  GBPVR is your new friend.

Smokeyalien

[mathman]

I bought the BFG video card online at a fantastic price.

Looking forward to GBPVR.

THE DJ MIXER, I'm glad you asked  because I'm not 100% sure myself if it will work. It seems like a solution that would kill many birds with one stone. It's the Numark DM950USB DJ Mixer. They also make one under a consumer brand called Ion that you might see for sale in an Urban Outfitters.

I want to avoid internal soundcards that receive noise/interference inside a computer case.
Also avoid that tiny headphone jack audio out (this is the audiophile wannabe in me).
I have two computers, the mixer has two USB inputs (output too).
I can crossfade between the computers that share one monitor, helpful for IM alerts or music playing on the computer not currently displayed.
Numark is officially "pro" equipment. Yay!
Mix music at my parties while improving my DJ skills & ambidexterity.
Keriokee with the Mic-in. Double Yay!
Slick DJ good vibes looks.

Will it work? I dunno. Numark makes it sound that I plug it into OSX & XP; then the OSes will see it as a selectable sound device, no drivers needed. I guess I need to next make sure it would work with the PVR software. How's about that GBPVR? Can it send audio to any device the OS can see? Any potential sync problems?

Check it out on their website www.numark.com
Click on "Mixers" then the DM950USB at the bottom. It goes for about $100.

As for the remote, that's too far down the road for me. But if anyone on this here forum owns a Harmony remote... do they have Hauppauge WinTV products in their database?

[pittgangrel]

WHAT I HAVE:
-Dell Dimension 1100, Intel Celeron 2.53GHz, 160GB 7200rpm hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 19inch Flat Panel - $450
Sweet deal
WHAT I'M PLANNING TO GET:
-Hauppauge WinTV pvr 150 - $94 Maybe you should think of the bundle package with remote, see my reply further down.
-FX 5200 PCI Video Card with VGA and S-Video, I narrowed it down to two cards, one made by BFG Tech & the other XFX, any one like these manufactures? - $60ish BFG, better driver support and warrentee
-Numark 2-CHANNEL DJ Mixer with USB Inputs for my sound out. Will a USB sound out work? That’s the equivalent to a sound card, right? - $90
wow, now here's a thought
-Logitech Harmony Universal Remote for Xbox 360 - $100ish BAD JU JU, my buddy has one and throws it around the room quite often.  Issues with drivers, issues with working on a Hauppauge WinTV 250, not sure about a 150. 

SOFTWARE:
I'll cross that bridge later but I'll first bounce around the freebies. GBPVR is a config nightmare but you should do well with this once setup is complete.
                           
Mac users are not assaulted with so many options. Any Mac video card upgrade is made by Nvidea or ATI; on the other hand, wintel land seems to have hundreds of companies making Nividia & ATI cards. And who buys a sound card for a Mac? LOL, been a MAC user for a long time.  but when it came to the PVR, I didn't even want to think about doing this with a MAC

One thing you should also think about and there have been many reports and thread on the subject:  GET A 2ND HARDDRIVE!!!  Makes life so much easier. 

[mathman]

-I ordered the pvr-150, with the remote.
-BFG: wow it seems I picked a good one according to this forum.
-Harmony Remote: It's learning so I could in theory teach it using the included hauppauge remote. Does your friend throw it around because it's all around crap or is it not working with just his pvr?
-GBVR: I figured I would bounce around between software for awhile to find the right fit but if there is so much configuration I should probably do more research now & try to get it right with the first install. I'll get to work on that since the parts will be here soon.
-2nd Hard drive: Ok, I have one here I can throw in there, I'll read those posts. Thanks pittgangrel!

[mathman]

Nvidia 5500, check. PVR150, check. And an added hard drive, check. All good for now on hardware. Audio DAC & universal remote comes later, my plate is full for now.
GB-PVR installed, many problems I'm slowly working through. I'll start a few seperate threads for those. I'm using the software to play video files but I have work to do if I want to schedule recordings any time soon. Once that's ironed out I have some quality issues with the display to deal with.

[pittgangrel]

Just checking your progress.  How goes it?

Hope your box is working.

[mathman]

I've had little free time to spend on it but I got my stuff installed. PVR-150, Nvidia 5500, 2nd hard drive & GB-PVR. I've been trying to figure out all my problems myself, each time I fix two probs it seems a new one pops up. But it's scheduling correctly, recording, remoteing & playing back deinterlaced footage great.
As soon as I have a minute I'll get the Nvidia decoder installed, post my specs & then my list of questions, a few will need their own thread for sure. I've had my frustrated moments but I'm having fun & I look forward to an interlaced picture that doesn't look like dog poop ... but that's for a different thread, after I try a few more things (remember I'm new to wintels).

[mathman]

I'm leaving you. It's not you... it's me.

That's right I'm giving up. I was using the PVR successfully for awhile but once I got rid of cable it was just no longer worth the work. There's just too much troubleshooting that goes into this. The Tivo alternative is expensive & creepy but depending on how valuable your time is, plus you must really love system administration to byopvr. You also must have source material that's worth it. The other reason I'm leaving is that I just don't like Windows. I got this Dell as a crazy good deal & had some fun but really, I need to be 100% Mac. Not to mention my new Mac can run Windows if I ever really need to. I will say that GB-PVR rocks! So does Hauppauge hardware encoders.

My Hauppauge PVR-150 card is on eBay till Feb-24-07 & the Dell we be there shortly as well.

I may return. If I get an HDTV; I may get Elgato EyeTV for Mac. Thanks for all the help.

[Miller]

Isn't there a Mac alternative for pvrs?

[mathman]

Yeah, there's Elgato. It used to be pretty sad but recent reviews are quite happy with it. I'll most likely get into it when I upgrade to HD.
<http://elgato.com/>