I'm sure this gets asked constantly:

[Weenoman]

Anyone have guide from setting up a computer as a TivO box? Gonna use my old computer. already has HDMI out. I couldn't find anything by searching or cruising stickies, and google is giving me things from '05.

Thanks

 

[Matt1970]

Do you have a tuner card already?

 

[frowertr]

Anyone have guide from setting up a computer as a TivO box? Gonna use my old computer. already has HDMI out. I couldn't find anything by searching or cruising stickies, and google is giving me things from '05.

Thanks

Not really a guide but some of the more popular software is SageTV (what I use), MythTV, XMBC, WMC, Beyond TV, the list is endless...

You could check each of those out to see hardware specifics but really all you need is a tuner (or two) and a couple hard drives (or three). I use three drives so that I have my OS on one, my TV recordings on another, and then finally my movie library on a third.

 

[Dirigible]

Do you have a tuner card already?

What OS does the computer have? W7 and maybe even Vista had the DVR stuff built in. So if you have that, add a tuner and signal source and you're done. For OTA, just about any tuner with an antenna will work. It's very simple.

More complicated answers come when you tell us exactly what you want to record and it's encrypted cable or you want multiple channels at once or something. Then you may need a specific tuner with cablecard or ability to control your cable box.


So. Exactly what do you want to happen? What sorts of things do you want to record?

 

[Dirigible]

More detail:

I record OTA channels. I am in a major metro area and a cheap antenna receives all the broadcast networks. My computer has W7. I got a HDHomerun from Silicon Dust. I have an older version, but it's this: http://www.silicondust.com/products/models/hdhr3-us/

Plugged the coax from the antenna to the HDHomerun. Hooked the HDHomerun up to my home network. Followed the directions to set it up with the Media Center software that's part of W7. Don't remember those steps, but it was very easy.

Now my computer records all the broadcast channels in HD.

 

[kalrith]

What OS do you have? I think I have a guide in my email (which is blocked at work) for setting up with Win7 Media Center. It's pretty user friendly, so you probably don't even need a guide for that. However, if you're running a different OS, then having a guide for MediaPortal, XMBC, etc. is very helpful.

What are you connecting your computer to: TV, receiver, or both? If it's a straight HDMI-to-HDMI connection between the computer and a TV or receiver, then that should be pretty simple. If you need to run HDMI to the TV and then digital audio to a receiver, then that gets a little more complicated.

 

[Weenoman]

I would be mostly using the TIVO features of rewind pause, and fastforward live TV, I don't think I would need to record alot of episodes of any TV shows.

Mainly: If there's a football game on, I would like to be able to watch it 30mins-1hour after kickoff, and then be able to quickly jump through commercial breaks. Or be able to pause and go to the bathroom during basketball games and then budget that time to jump through a commercial break.

I have window vista and Windows 7, access to both. The computer I would be hooking up has 500gb of space, and an HDMI out on a radeon 4600 HD video card.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Does your computer already have a TV tuner device (internal card, external USB dongle, or a network device like an HD Homerun)?

Do you plan on using OTA, cable, or a mixture of the two?

If it's cable, have you checked to see what unencrypted channels are available from your provider?

Since you seem to watch sports, is something like ESPN in HD a must have?

Is your version of Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate?

It's not really possible to begin making suggestions until you answer the questions above.

 

[Weenoman]

Does your computer already have a TV tuner device (internal card, external USB dongle, or a network device like an HD Homerun)?


No


Do you plan on using OTA, cable, or a mixture of the two?

Cable

If it's cable, have you checked to see what unencrypted channels are available from your provider?

It's comcast, I don't know which channels would be encrypted I assume all of them except the local stations.

Since you seem to watch sports, is something like ESPN in HD a must have?

Yes

Is your version of Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate?

Home Premium

It's not really possible to begin making suggestions until you answer the questions above.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

If ESPN in HD is a must have your options are a Ceton InfiniTV4 CableCard tuner, which is expensive, or the Hauppauge HD PVR or Hauppauge Colossus used in combination with your cable box. Neither of those are very cheap either.

So your first hurdle is deciding if you're willing to spend the cash to purchase one of the options above.

 

[frowertr]

If ESPN in HD is a must have your options are a Ceton InfiniTV4 CableCard tuner, which is expensive, or the Hauppauge HD PVR or Hauppauge Colossus used in combination with your cable box. Neither of those are very cheap either.

So your first hurdle is deciding if you're willing to spend the cash to purchase one of the options above.

I use an HD PVR on my SageTV setup. The idea will be to move to the Colossus but only when the drivers are worked out. Right now, the Colossus doesn't play well with SageTV at all.

The Ceton is a great idea, but as Chicken says, it will set you back some $$$. Also, I the InfiniTV4 works great with WMC, but not so well with any other PVR software. This is because of DRM rights which is a whole other can of worms.

Keep in mind if you go with an HD PVR or a Colossus you still need a digital cable box. These are only capture devices and NOT tuners. Currently, the InfiniTV4 is the only consumer level device that will tune digital cable that isn't QAM without the box. This is because it uses the industry standard cable card.