In article <478da781$1@news.povray.org>, dne### [at] sanrrcom says...
> Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> > So, given a typical PC, how much would it actually cost to equip it suc
h 
> > that you can record and play back TV with it? What actual hardware and
 
> > software does this require?
> 
> For Windows, a couple hundred bucks for the capture card and "Windows 
> Media Center" (aka MCE), or a more recent version of Windows. That's 
> pretty much what Media Center does, along with showing pictures and 
> music and stuff like that. It also talks to Xboxes and "media extenders"
 
> so you can network it thru your house like AppleTV does.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Center
> 
> There's also MythTV if you want to do it with Linux, don't mind the 
> typical expert-tolerant Linux type interfaces, and don't mind stealing 
> the TV listings. (Or have they fixed that lately?)
> 
One of the more popular systems for Windows is BeyondTV. You also get 
the ability to tell their system, "Record all new episodes of X", and it 
will automatically schedule them. I **do** suggest that, no matter what 
you use, you set it up on its own dedicated PC. While ones recorded on 
mine, and its not that bad of a system, are mostly watchable, if I am 
doing anything that requires disk access or CPU use, it can fowl up the 
recording, making it play back poorly (or having it not play back 
watchable at all). I have no idea how well Media Center works for doing 
this, but you ***won't*** find it listed as a good alternative on *any* 
site dedicated to TV capture cards. Take from that what ever you want. 
;)

> Most capture cards come with some form of primitive Windows software for
 
> doing this.
> 
Don't get ATI though. The software a) didn't work when installed (not 
compatible with the motherboard), b) let you watch, when the update 
**finally** became available to patch it, but then wouldn't record and 
c) their TV program scheduler is handled by a third party, which hasn't 
released an updated version since like 90 versions ago of ATIs media 
center software, so it won't show the mini-view of the channel, its not 
integrated very well, and it will "look like" its set up to record, but 
it won't, since a different bug prevents that. Mind you, this is on 
"my" system. Some people get it to work... Fact is though, unless AMD 
has redone it, now that they have ATI, their software is garbage.

-- 
void main () {

    if version = "Vista" {
      call slow_by_half();
      call DRM_everything();
    }
    call functional_code();
  }
  else
    call crash_windows();
}

<A HREF='http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?refid=16130551'>Get 3D Models,
 
3D Content, and 3D Software at DAZ3D!</A>

Post a reply to this message