MakeZine.com: Free TiVo: Build a Better DVR out of an Old PC

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MakeZine.com: Free TiVo: Build a Better DVR out of an Old PC

The excellent Make Magazine (a great hacker how-to guide) has a good guide to building your own home theater PC: Build a Better DVR out of an Old PC.

The author uses an old PC and a copy of Beyond TV with a bunch of off-the-shelf parts and covers everything in this step-by-step guide that includes not only TV recording an playback, but music, video, and gaming capabilities.

by Matt Haughey April 27, 2005 in How-To

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Has anyone here actually done one of these? I started to build a myth box out of an old computer and had a million problems. Also, when I looked at actually buying bits of hardware to make it work better (hardware accelerated video capture card, etc.) the price started to add up quickly.

The reason I was interested in it was that I thought it would be cool to run all that other stuff on my giant tv beyond the Tivo functionality, but...Tivo can do most of that too, right?

Ergo, I think I'm just going to buy a used Tivo. Good idea/bad idea?

Posted by: Sneepfert McGonagle at Apr 27, 2005 4:39:56 PM

It's definitely not a dumpster-diver setup. A 1.8ghz P4, two 120GB drives, a $150 TV card, 512MB RAM...However, all in, it does do a lot more than a used TiVo would, and with no monthly fees. Like so much of this stuff, the thing that tips it over into feasibility is that it'd be fun to put together.

Posted by: stupidsexyflanders at Apr 27, 2005 5:59:13 PM

It'd be fun to put together.....FOR SOME...

For others - it's a time waster and a hobbyist thing. If you want a DVR that "just works" out of the box for a reasonable price - TIVO is still the way to go. They've had the 80 hour Humax on sale for $200 less a $100 rebate. $100 for an 80 hour TIVO is a price you cannot beat. No muss, no fuss.

--*Rob

Posted by: Rob Austin at Apr 27, 2005 6:49:08 PM

I've built a couple myth boxes, they are GREAT. But they are definitely not cheaper then a low end TIvo unless you take the long view on not having to pay for guide fee's. The trick to get started is this

http://mysettopbox.tv/

Single ISO install, with basic hardware this is going to work for you with little to no effort 90% of the time.

Someday this could be a cake walk but it's not as easy as most folks would like it yet (who are non Linux).
MCE is not a bad way to go but your are trading features against mythtv, some things are better (integration of music and pictures, screen savers etc) but less powerful media player solution, less network/front-end capable. No parental control on video's (*wink*) so don't archive the port to it etc. There are some nice modules coming out for MCE now, still it's not where it needs to be for a pay product IMO. Oh yeah, DRM and no comercial skip, fuck um.
I honestly don't know why anyone would go Beyond TV instead of Myth but I guess it's a crap shoot on what comes out being a easier install based on your resources.
IMO it's totaly worth the effort and somday the PC cener for media hub concept might even come true then your tivo or whatever can learn to be a fancy front end.

Posted by: Griffon at Apr 27, 2005 9:39:08 PM

I downloaded the HME SDK yesterday. It's awesome. Really a great job by the Tivo developers (It comes with a simulator so I was able to write some things even though I don't have a tivo). Anyway, now I'm thinking hacking the Tivo is more fun than fiddling with linux video capture drivers anyway.

Griffon--

Have you written anything custom for your Myth boxes? The Tivo HME SDK has this beta UI toolkit out called 'Bananas' that's totally killer. Makes it trivial to do a really nice look'n'feel from your own code. I remember when I was messing around with something like MythTV a few years back on a FreeBSD box that was one of the things that sucked. Everyone was using like custom tk widget sets that looked like ass (FreeBSD/Linux developers not being known for their widget design prowess).

Posted by: Sneepfert McGonagle at Apr 28, 2005 6:26:37 AM

No I haven't looked into that part of it. I do as little coding as I can :p. MCE Is supposed to have a good SDK and tools too.
Though the newer Myth UI's mostly look pretty professional these days.
Don't miss understand me, I think Boxes like TIvo will always have a market and a place, I'm not sure about the subscription part o the business though. Being HD Tivo owner (D*TV I can't get any decent new features since Tivo sold the D*TV group out. So something like myth or MCE is needed to have and kind of Central management tools.

Posted by: griffon at Apr 28, 2005 8:45:37 AM

I got a Humax T800. Sweet.

Posted by: Sneepfert McGonagle at Apr 29, 2005 7:17:09 AM

I am very happy with Beyond TV. I run a HTPC that records my shows(well mostly my wife's shows) plays my DVDs and plays my divx, mpeg and other format files.

On one hand TIVO could never provide what I have, but a if my PVR just did what TIVO does, my PVR ends up being very expensive.

Posted by: Bryan at Apr 30, 2005 9:40:37 PM

FWIW I run a site ( build your own PVR ) that talks in depth about building pvrs/etc.

There's a myriad of options for both windows/linux platform (and some mac) and there's a few ways to skin the DIY DVR cat depending on your project goals/budget/spare parts =)

It doesn't have to be hard, or expensive... but it certainly can add up. It's more about control (witness the tivo2go DRM crapfest) and creativity than economics. *shrug*

rampy

Posted by: rampy at May 4, 2005 1:21:13 PM

Having built 3 DVR PCs, I have to say that it's more for the PC-building hobbyist. I look at from the point of view that, after all is said and done, when prices for TiVo are at a more comfortable level, I'm left with a perfectly good normal PC, so I'm only down the cost of the BeyondTV license.

I chose this option because I could compress to DivX natively, but the latest BeyondTV does not do that, requiring you to use third party software. That isn't so much of a problem, and while it is a hassle, it isn't a big deal.

Posted by: Tapsomebong at May 5, 2005 3:51:43 PM

I'd recommend MythTV, for people who know what they are doing, or don't mind learning. It gives you a lot of functionality that will never be there for Tivo (due to conflicts of interest, and legal issues). I can pop in a DVD and automatically record and optionally compress it. Plus, I've got multiple hard drives working together in LVM, for 650GB of recording space, and I can transcode files automatically to mpeg4, and fit easily 500+ hours of shows (and remove commercials.) Pretty soon I will have every episode of Seinfeld, and most of the episodes of some other shows I watch. I can control it remotely from MythWeb, and copy videos off to bring them on my laptop or pocket pc for a flight, etc. Plus it has a huge active developer/user base and is getting more polished with every release. And did I mention it is free? It is nice that Tivo provides some programming APIs, but really, what self respecting programmer is going to develop in his free time for a closed platform where you can't even control your own content.

Posted by: Randy Robertson at May 9, 2006 7:02:31 PM

MakeZine.com: Free TiVo: Build a Better DVR out of an Old PC

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