Guide to "Mac mini as media center"

Jon Hicks has a great post detailing the use of a Mac mini in place of an AppleTV. By going with the mini over the AppleTV, Hicks gets the added features of increased video format support, PVR functionality (through EyeTV), and DVD playback and ripping. The guide also focuses on how to make it work smoothly with a bluetooth wireless mouse/keyboard (and via screensharing in Leopard), and the drawbacks when things crash and you have to control it from your couch.

Although it sounds like there are some drawbacks to running a Mac mini from your living room couch, the added functionality certainly sounds appealing and I'll personally be thinking about going this option whenever I decide to stream movies to another TV or update my current AppleTV.

April 22, 2008 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (10)

How to build a TV lift cabinet

Instructables has a great step-by-step how-to on building your own custom TV lift, which hides the TV when not in use. It does require a ~$500 kit and an old 6-drawer dresser that will become otherwise inoperable, but the end result looks pretty cool and lets you hide a TV completely from a room when not in use.

Custom built versions can often cost thousands, so this is a pretty economical way to build one yourself for much less.

July 13, 2007 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (5)

Project Hoover: Suck up every TV show in the new fall season

The people at Snapstream have been pushing the multi-tuner envelope for a while now and today they show what you can do with it in their how-to: Suck up every TV show in the new fall season, be your own TV critic.

Whether or not you ever build an 11-tuner home theater PC, one cool aspect of the post is a handy Google Calendar of all the dates/times for every new show. Here's the subscribe link for that, check their post for the full details of how to track and record every new show this fall.

August 17, 2006 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (1)

How-to: Wall mounting a LCD or Plasma

The Home Theater blog has a good post on how-to wall mount a LCD or Plasma.

Wall mounts are kind of funny -- most every screen you see in ads and in commercial spaces are likely wall mounted in a very clean way, but when you get yours home you'll quickly realize how much of a pain it is to do and requires some real knowledge of construction and electrical techniques. A wall-mounted screen without hidden cabling is kind of an eyesore and I can't help but look at my TV over the fireplace and the jumble of wires below and wish I found someone to do a clean job on it. I tried a local electrician and they had never done one and couldn't really give a quote on what it might cost.

I figure with the ubiquity of cheap plasma and LCD screens, perhaps a cottage industry of installers will pop up to help people hide their TVs in the next few years.

May 31, 2006 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (10)

How to turn a mac mini into a powerful PVR

MacMerc has a great tutorial on how to take a mac mini, Elgato's EyeTV software, and Plextor's ConvertX hardware video converter to create your own PVR.

The mac mini is pretty light on horsepower, so the use of the external video decoder and encoder keeps those processor intensive tasks off the mini. EyeTV fills in as the UI and the result is something you can easily fit in a media cabinet near a TV, and costs a bit over $700, which is pretty comparable to low end Windows Media Center PCs. [via gizmodo]

October 3, 2005 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack

PCWorld.com: How to Buy a Flat-Screen TV

PCWorld has a good introductory article on How to Buy a Flat-Screen TV. They cover the differences between plasma and LCD, the basics of HDTV, and the connections that provide the best picture.

With prices dropping on plasmas and LCDs, now is as good a time as any to finally upgrade your big old CRT and mount something sleek on the wall but of course, the longer you wait the more TV you'll get for a cheaper price. Also worth noting is that HDTV content still feels like it is lagging behind the adoption of HDTV sets -- you'll have a few over-the-air options if you are near a major city, but otherwise cable and satellite HD offerings are still somewhat new and expanding.

August 24, 2005 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Free HDTV with an outdoor antenna tutorial from Cnet

Cnet has a great straightforward tutorial complete with short videos: How to watch free HDTV with an outdoor antenna - CNET Weekend Project. They walk you through finding the right antenna, installing it, and optimizing it for your HDTV.

Of course, it's filmed in Manhattan, where it's pretty easy to find multiple over-the-air HDTV channels. I suspect people in most parts of the country would have a tougher time throwing one up and getting more than a handful to come in clearly.

July 31, 2005 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

How to watch Beyond TV recordings on a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP)

The Snapstream blog has a great, detailed tutorial on How to watch Beyond TV recordings on a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). They cover every last detail. Even if you don't have Beyond TV, this is a great tutorial on how to get video onto your PSP.

June 18, 2005 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Build a Myth box video from Systm

Systm is the name of a show created by former TechTV hosts and made available online. It's a lot like the old Screensavers show before the G4 buyout of the network. The newest episode features a how-to on building your own Myth box. Downloads of the episode require bittorrent, but the show's free and worth checking out. [via Make zine]

June 11, 2005 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

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.

April 27, 2005 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack

CNET's guide to choosing a PVR

CNET has posted a guide to choosing PVRs. Their questions boil down to "Does your cable or satellite provider offer a free or discounted DVR?", "Do you need high-def recording?", "Are you willing to pay a premium for the real TiVo?" and "Do you want to archive your recordings to DVD?" I'm going to keep this link around for the next time someone asks me which PVR is right for them; copying and pasting is a lot easier on me than careful consideration of a person's unique needs.

March 2, 2005 in How-To, Product Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

So you got a PVR for Christmas...

A lot of people received a PVR like TiVo, Replay TV or a Windows XP Media Center for Christmas and are thinking "OK, now what?"  We at PVRBlog, aside from wishing you happy holidays, want to provide a sort of introduction to using your new device.  Inside this post we'll be linking to tips and guides for your new PVR to help you get started.

TiVo

TiVo Customer Support

TiVo has done an excellent job answering common questions.  They also have  some good tips and tricks to check out.

Tivo Community Forum

This is the most popular TiVo forum, chances are any question that hasn't been answered on the Customer Support page is answered here.  Don't miss this post of common questions and these tips for new users.  Also, be sure to search their archives before posting a question.

TiVo Central Online

You can schedule your TiVo through the web using this site, which might be a good way to set up your Season Passes

TiVo Rebate Center

Don't forget to send in those rebates!

The 30-Second Skip

Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select.  This button combo on your remote will enable a hidden 30 second skip button.  Personally I prefer using the fast forward, but a lot of people like using this, so try both and decide for yourself.

PVRblog's TiVo posts

Because we've written a thing or two about these TiVos too.

ReplayTV

ReplayTV Owners Home Page

A overview of offiial resources and support options.

MyReplayTV.com

Schedule recordings for your ReplayTV over the internet through their web site.

ReplayFAQs

Lots of news and information for ReplayTV owners, including the titular FAQs.

ReplayTV & Showstopper PVRs - AVS Forum

Community forums for ReplayTV owners to post questions and discuss.  Be sure to read their FAQs and search before you post a question, it's probably already been answered.

PVRblog's ReplayTV posts...

... which we really should flesh out more.

Thanks Ben for your help filling out this section.

Windows XP Media Center Edition

Using Windows XP Media Center Edition

I don't know much about the Windows Media Center community, but this looks like the best place to start.  They have links to a getting started guide, and a comprehensive community portal.

The Green Button

This is the Media Center equivalent to the TiVo Community boards mentioned above.

microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter

Microsoft's Media Center newsgroup, an official forum from Microsoft to talk Media Center and get help from other users.

Addicted to Digital Media, Matt Goyer's blog and Chris Lanier's blog

Two blogs from people on the Media Center team and one from a "Media Center MVP," they regularly write about Windows Media Center Edition.

PVRblog's Windows Media Center posts

Which also feature stuff from Thomas Hawk.

Thanks to Thomas Hawk for his help on the Media Center links (and you should check out his site for more info about Media Center). I invite PVR fans to add their own picks in the comments to this post.  If you still have a question that hasn't been answered, submit it to Ask PVRblog and our smart readers will do their best to help you out.

December 23, 2004 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack

RSS + BitTorrent: a BroadCatching How-To

Engadget ran a great how-to on how exactly you can download tv shows automatically. It's a bit tricky, since the software uses regular expressions, but they provide a bunch of examples to make that easier.

I've often heard this can replace a PVR completely, but if anyone's ever looked around for missed shows online, you can probably agree the quality usually isn't too high and you'll likely have trouble finding what you need unless it's somewhat popular. Still, it's an interesting direction and a few years from now the home recording fans of TV may just fill out the remainder of the TV lineup (and in HDTV no less). I know the networks and movie studios are freaking out over this, so it'll be interesting to see what they do in response to kill this technology.

November 24, 2004 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBack

Wish lists, filters, and the upcoming TV season

(this post features occasional guest author and time-saving maven Merlin Mann of 43 folders fame, and how he uses his TiVo to improve his watching habits)

I’ve only recently learned to appreciate the “wish list” functionality that allows you to view all upcoming programs by keyword, actor, genre, or even movie director. It was during the Olympics that I saw some good reasons to view available shows by Type. Want to see just sports shows or R-rated movies? Not a problem. Just walk through the wish list steps, and you can even set it to record future programs for you automatically. Now our household won’t be missing another TV appearance by Charles Nelson Reilly—no sir, not on my watch.

A more practical application exists if you’re thinking about sorting through some of the fresh leavings that the networks will ease out over the next few weeks. Try making yourself a couple wishlists for “SHOW TYPES/Season Premiere” and “SHOW TYPES/Premiere” and you’ll have a quick guide to what’s new on the low end of your dial. That rascal Joey will be yours to enjoy again and again.

Also remember (at least on my Series I DirecTiVo), you can use “Show Options” to filter the Live TV channel guide for any given genre or show type, greying out any channel whose offering doesn’t meet your craving for the evening. Hello, documentaries!

September 10, 2004 in How-To, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack

Hack for an Autistic TiVo Eye

I flipped on my (Philips DSR6000R01) DirecTiVo the other day and immediately noticed the remote signal was flaking. Commands were received slowly or not at all, and the LED lights on the front of the main unit were blinking like crazy—probably about 6-10 times a second. I figured the remote's batteries had croaked mid-click, causing some kind of fatal IR loop, so I popped in two fresh AAs and rebooted the TiVo twice. No dice; same problems.

After five fruitless phone calls, $19.95 of pay-per-incident support bought me the observation that I "might have a power supply issue," so I should just send the unit in for an official look-see. Based on what I'd heard from friends with similar problems, though, the official Philips "diagnosis" was frequently "Go buy a new unit," so I opted for a more lo-fi solution.

On a lark, I stuck my finger over the main unit's IR eye, and the blinking stopped immediately. Moreover, I noticed that if I covered all but a very tiny corner of the eye, the signal was received flawlessly. So, I taped a piece of paper over most of the eye, and, after a couple small adjustments, the unit worked flawlessly, even on signals from far across the room. A week later, it's still working great (knock wood).

March 15, 2004 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBack

Low-Budget TiVo Substitute

Slashdot has a bunch of comments from folks who have build their own digital video recorders. Some of the software that has been used and recommended include:
- Freevo
- MythTV
- KnoppMyth
- XMLTV
If you have built your own DVR with open source software, we'd love to hear more about it. It's clear that this is still the domain of pretty determined folks, but it is impressive to see the growth in this area.

Slashdot | Building A Low-Budget TiVo Substitute?

December 10, 2003 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Build Your Own TiVo

The folks at Extreme Tech have been publishing great guides to building your own home theater PC for the past year, and their latest article "Build Your Own TiVo" has been picked up and syndicated on Yahoo News. Lots of great basic tips on building a capable HTPC.

December 2, 2003 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Which TiVo Is the Right One for You?

Occasional contributor to this site, Raffi Krikorian, has a great new article at O'ReillyNet: "Which TiVo Is the Right One for You?."

Raffi breaks down all the current choices offered by TiVo, including what features you get, what you can hack, and how hard it is to upgrade each box. It boils down to a great how-to if you're about to pick up a TiVo, or are thinking about getting one.

October 3, 2003 in How-To, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

MythTV how-to

I've been considering building a media center project PC, and I was torn between choosing an open source, free software system like MythTV and Freevo, or a commercial OS like Windows Media Center. The thing that's kept me from trying the open source programs out was the complicated setup that requires some serious linux knowledge, and unknown device support.

MythTV looks fantastic, offers pretty much every feature of TiVo (recording, scheduling, playback, music and photos), and then some (picture-in-picture, weather reports, arcade games, downloaded movie playback, web front-end). Thankfully a step-by-step guide to setting up your own MythTV box has been written, and it looks very comprehensive and not insanely difficult for someone with basic linux experience. [via BoingBoing]

July 28, 2003 in How-To | Permalink | Comments (44) | TrackBack