> -----Original Message----- > From: Greg Morphis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 1:06 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: PVR suggestions > > So I'm considering building my own PVR from the ground up and wanting > some suggestions on the processor, RAM, video card to use, even OS > (would XP do it, or should I use Media Center? ), Hard Disk space, > should it be in a RAID configuration?), etc. > Your help is appreciated. I don't think I'll be playing many games on > it, but an occasional game on the 37" LCD TV would be nice.
Things are pretty simple nowadays on the hardware side - just about anything will do. If you only want a PVR you can get away with slower parts. That means (importantly) quieter, cooler parts. An older Celeron or Duron part (maybe in the 1.4-2 GHz range) or even (if you can find one in a nice little mobo) a fast Via chip would let you use a slower, quieter fan. By the same token an older video card also lets you do a quieter machine - older cards, even those without active cooling, can play a decent game. (On the other hand if you want a real gaming machine then you'll need to deal with noise and heat.) As far disks I would only consider a RAID configuration if you want mirroring. RAID striping is just overkill - even a slow IDE disk is plenty fast enough to record and playback multiple streams (note that commercial DVRs don't got the any extremes with this - they just use plain-jane, off-the-shelf disks). For a plain DVR I'd just go with a single sizable disk (say 300-400 Gig - again, the fewer components the quieter and cooler things are). If you want to archive shows (as in "you'll be really pissed off if you lose the disk") then a coupla giant disks in a mirrored array is just the thing. The size of the drive really depends on the video/TV card you'll use. HD recordings take up upwards of four times more space than non-HD... but even standard resolution recordings from an HD source look great. You'll have to play with things to balance size on disk v. quality. But the rule of thumb is bigger is better: if give the option between performance and size always go for size. As for software that depends. Windows Media Center is the obvious choice if want to stick with Windows. It is somewhat limited however (it records in a special format for example) but works well enough. The capture cards themselves will come with software - some better than others but all of them seem to have at least one really annoying flaw. Two record two (or more) things at once you'll need to have multiple video cards (or a multiple tuner card). The problem (like everything) is that to record most cable/satellite systems you need to go through their box first - limiting you to just one recording at a time. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Macromedia ColdFusion MX7 Upgrade to MX7 & experience time-saving features, more productivity. http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion?sdid=RVJW Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:233467 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
