Bare minimum computer requirements??

[dog812]

I am looking at building a basic PVR. No HD.
For the computer what is the bare minimum i should have?
Proc? Mobo? Ram?
It is going to be a gift for my mom to get her out of the VCR. I am looking at buying a used PC so i just want to know what i should be looking for?
I already have a tuner card and remote i am not using.. so i just need to know whatelse.

[The Dude]

I'd say around a 2.5ghz processor 1gig of RAM and a decent directx9 capable video card.

How is she getting her content? Over the air antenna, cable, satelite or what? Even if you're not intending to do HD you may want to be prepared for that since, particularly over the air, the digital switch is going to make a lot of the content you get in HD anyway. So, I would at least look for a mobo with PCI-Express X16 so you'll be able to upgrade the video card later on to something that can handle HD hardware acceleration.

[dog812]

Yah her tv sucks.. and she just get basic cable.

[The Dude]

Oh OK. The system requirents I put up there are pretty basic. You can get away with less then that with SD stuff it's just that you can probably find a PC used pretty cheap that meets those requirements and it will save you a bit of headache. I would at least make sure you get the directx9 or higher video card. It's still a good idea to get something with a PCI-X16 slot anyway. You kind of paint yourself into a corner otherwise. But if you see something dirt cheap with an AGP and that meets your needs what the heck.

Also, it's going to take about 2gb of hard drive space per hour of video so take that into consideration as well as far as what size hard drive you put in there.

[dog812]

perfect thanks..
Now I know how to record the tv signal on the pc..
But how do i get back out to the tv to watch later?
what is the simplest thing to get? a video card with s-video and a headphone jack to RCA adapter? or is there something a lil higher quality?

[The Dude]

Well that all depends on what quality the TV is. If all it has is SVideo then you're kind of stuck with that. It's not a big deal with the PVR software. Most PVR software is designed to be displayed on a TV so the lower resolution display will look fine through the svideo or composite port but if you have to go out to your windows desktop then it's going to be a little difficult to see what you're doing. Almost any video card you get is going to have an svideo out on it so that's not that difficult. I would make sure you've got a cheap monitor laying around though for when you do your initial install and any subsequent troubleshooting experiences because trying to read tiny lettering on a low resolution display can just kill your eyes.

[Miller]

If you're not doing HD, then s-video is actually your best connection type. I would doubt if her tv is that old that she has many other choices anyway.

[The Dude]

If you're not doing HD, then s-video is actually your best connection type. I would doubt if her tv is that old that she has many other choices anyway.

yeah really. I know that my old tv didn't even have svideo on it. Composite or coax on the tuner that's it. How times have changed.