Question for the Experts: Television Hard Disk recorder and Internet box for tv

[TimberWolf]

One solution as Doodab said, a HTPC.

1) a PC that runs Windows 7, if you click on the Windows Media Center icon under Start > All Programs it will open it up.
2) within Media Center there's a Config section that allows it to open up automatically.
3) buy a tv card depending on your needs (Hauppauge comes highly recommended by Chef towers but other cards are available)
a) Normal Digital Tv (i.e plug your tv aerial in) & Freeview, then you need WinTVHVR-1700- is a simple 1 channel device (i.e watch 1 channel or record 1 channel but not at the same time)
b) wintvhvr-2200 is a 2 channel device, so as above, plug in aerial for normal tv inc freeview except you now have 2 channels (i.e watch itv while eastenders on bbc is recording for the missus)
c) wintvhvr3300 is the same as above but now also includes sateliite (i.e aswell as plugging your tv aerial in, also plug your Sky receiver into it)
d) wintv-hvr4400 is the same as the 3300 but also includes decoding for HD satellite tv.

each tv-card uses a PCI-E slot on your motherboard, connect the HDMI output of the PC to your TV (assuming you have HDMI input on your TV?)
and hey presto, you now have a TV that doubles as a PC and can also record as much as you want (well as much as you have Hard Disk space for)..

Hauppauge internal tv cards come with a windows remote but you might want to swap that for something more like a Logitech Harmony Remote and if you're going to use the TV as a PC then you might also want to look at a decent 'front room friendly' mouse/keyboard combo such as the Logitech Dinovo Edge both of which are currently in use in Chef towers and come fully gf chef approved in terms of "looking nice" and "easy to use"

Considerations
1) Hard disk space (i.e lots)
2) Noise, obviously having a jet engine of a PC in your front room is not going to go down well with the missus so you may want to look at replacing the CPU fan with a passive one. And also any standard case fans you might want to replace with some quieter ones aswell
3) looks, if it sat in the front room then I'm guessing it cant look like some teenage geeks dayglo Alienware style machine
4) If you're going to have a PC you might aswell add a Blu-ray drive in their too.. possibly even a blu-ray writer

Plus huge power consumption, watching TV prevents computer work being done, if it fails you lose a lot of functionality (internet, TV, computing), long boot up time,...

I'm happy with a simple PVR (can record 2 channels while watching another and can have another still if flicked to the TV tuner rather than the PVR's), plus a HDMI socket if I want it. An SD card reader would be nice, whcih I havn't got. I've seen SD card reader/recorders on cheap Sainsbury TV sets.

[doodab]

Plus huge power consumption, watching TV prevents computer work being done, if it fails you lose a lot of functionality (internet, TV, computing), long boot up time,...

If you build a separate machine for HTPC duties based on modern low power hardware and set it to sleep or hibernate when not in use then power consumption & start up time is comparable to a dedicated box. In fact my HTPC is substantially quicker at starting up when switched on from hibernation than my panasonic DVD recorder thing which takes bloody ages to get going from a cold start. It also holds a lot more recorded TV and can support 2 x satellite tuners and 2 x DVB-T tuners at once. And it was cheaper than the closest equivalent PVR.

Another advantage is that if it does fail you can fix it cheaply and easily without being guaranteed to lose all your recorded programs, and you don't need to replace the whole thing to upgrade and take advantage of new technology as it comes along.

[lukemg]

humax HD PVR and get a laptop if you want to surf...

[milanbenes]

ok htpc,

I haven't got time to build my own

but I want one which can take tv/digital satellite and 2 x normal satellite connections

and a big feckorf hard disk and capacity for more disk

anyone recommend a good make ?

and it's gotta be plug and play and p!ss easy to understand

ta

Milan.

[sasguru]

FFS You really did fall out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.
And the sad thing is that you've bred.

[Bunk]

ok htpc,

I haven't got time to build my own

but I want one which can take tv/digital satellite and 2 x normal satellite connections

and a big feckorf hard disk and capacity for more disk

anyone recommend a good make ?

and it's gotta be plug and play and p!ss easy to understand

ta

Milan.

That goes without saying

[milanbenes]

Sas, you can laugh but for me there's nothing more painful that doing contract .net
administration all week and then in my free time when I'd like to be playing with
my children and doing other things having to sit there and figure why some sh!t
pc or software isn't working

perhaps you have other priorities and preferences

Milan.

[sasguru]

Sas, you can laugh but for me there's nothing more painful that doing contract .net
administration all week and then in my free time when I'd like to be playing with
my children and doing other things having to sit there and figure why some sh!t
pc or software isn't working

perhaps you have other priorities and preferences

Milan.

The rest of us (the ones with brains) manage to play with our kids AND cope with modern life without spamming forums with thick-as-tulip questions.
HTH

[chef]

Plus huge power consumption, watching TV prevents computer work being done, if it fails you lose a lot of functionality (internet, TV, computing), long boot up time,...

I'm happy with a simple PVR (can record 2 channels while watching another and can have another still if flicked to the TV tuner rather than the PVR's), plus a HDMI socket if I want it. An SD card reader would be nice, whcih I havn't got. I've seen SD card reader/recorders on cheap Sainsbury TV sets.

Again as Doodab said, modern tech uses low power and set it to hibernate with the power off button on the remote, adding RAID protects the data and if it does break it's very easy to fix and you simply then plug you're aerial back in the tv while you go shopping for spare parts, much more reliable than the Sky+ ring of death killing pvrs.

if you want to watch tv and work on the pc, then watch it in windowed mode?? and if you're saying watching tv prevents you from doing work due to distraction then go work in your office and dont turn the tv on?? or work on the PC Media Center without having Media Center (i.e the TV) on?? I don't quite see your point.

[milanbenes]

The rest of us (the ones with brains) manage to play with our kids AND cope with modern life without spamming forums with thick-as-tulip questions.
HTH

Sas,

maybe I am not making myself clear

in my private time I have no interest to play with technology

my interest in working with technology is only motivated by $

and working with some wacky home cinema system and not getting paid for it
is not my idea of fun

Milan.