Building the Ultimate (cheap) HDTV PVR – part 1
I want to cancel cable.
My girlfriend and I watch very few shows that dont air on the regular over the air (OTA) broadcasts. Luckily, we are pretty central in houston and have pretty good HDTV reception for all the major networks. So, why do we pay > $50 a month to Time Warner Cable for our TV? Ah, thats right - the DVR - our Scientific Atlanta 8300HD. The functionality of being able to record our shows and watch them whenever keeps us hooked. So, why not build my own PVR! If I try and keep the cost down, it will pay for itself in the money we save not paying Time Warner Cable.
Minimum Requirements
- Old PC - I would recommend something in the past couple of years. The processor I am using is an Athlon XP 2600+ with 1 gb of ram and a 300 gb Harddrive
- ATI HDTV Wonder (comes with an antenna and remote)
- Other TV tuner card (Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 requires you have a regular tuner to use an HDTV tuner)
- Video Card - Im going to recommend a Radeon 9600 or newer. These have a built in hardware decoder for HDTV (h.264) which will reduce the strain on the processor and will probably give you a better HDTV experience (especially if your computer is old). Make sure you buy the right kind though - older systems likely have an AGP slot and not PCIe. Check on this before buying.
- Windows XP Media Center Edition - if you can find it, buy the one that includes the Microsoft Remote
Optional Extras
This is where you can get carried away and really raise the price. Find a few things that you want and stick with them. Unless of course you want to go all out!
- ATI All in Wonder (combine the regular tv tuner and the video card into one)
- Outdoor HDTV antenna (get a better signal)
- Microsoft's Media Center Remote (has better buttons for working with Media Center than ATI's remote)
- Wireless Keyboard
- Big harddrive - check whether you have SATA (small cable) or Parallel ATA (usually a wide, thin grey cable)
- Home Theater Case
- µTorrent
- Sound card with Optical Out (to connect to your home theater receiver). This one, Turtle Beach TBS-3300 has Dolby Digital Live which can convert any stream into Dolby Digital. Nice bonus.
- DVI to HDMI cable (to connect to your HDTV)
- HDTV
So, while you're busy buying all of that stuff, I am going to wait for my packages to arrive so I can put it all together and give you the next article about getting it all set up!
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jrg
