A USB Homemade PVR / DVR
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Anonymous | Hi guys. What better place to come, but here, to ask the professionals? I am looking into PVR / DVR boxes that connect through USB. I own several older PC computers and want to dedicate one to become a recorder for cable shows. All I want to do is run an electronic program guide (EPG) and set it up to record TV shows (live TIVO) at certain times. The trick is, all my computers are P2's. The latest equipment on the market (kWorld / Pinnacle / Etc.) all require a P4 computer. That's bullshit! Why? Has anyone been successful setting one of these USB units up with slower computing power? And compression... don't get me started. If MPEG4 is used, I can save so much room on the hard drive and get more hours, right? Help. I don't want TIVO, and I don't want to spend $500 on those new HDD recorder units. dtown |
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Silver Member Username: G3nocd3San Jose, Ca USA Post Number: 289 Registered: May-05 | dude...get an ati all in wonder. Duh , coax in. Ummm maybe that would help. Lol. open your eyes bro, there alot of pci cards for coax in. Sniffle, why do people have to be so sheltered. Its called google. bro. : D |
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New member Username: DtownPost Number: 1 Registered: Sep-05 | I believe the SUBJECT, as well as the second line of my message says LOOKING FOR A USB DEVICE... and if you read it even more, it is initially about finding one that only has a P2 requirement, bro. d ;) |
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Silver Member Username: G3nocd3San Jose, Ca USA Post Number: 320 Registered: May-05 | Bro, thing before you talk, A usb does not have a fast enough transfer speed to cover the rate of speed that is required by mpeg 4 or ntsf. Im a movie producer at a company called dream video productions in northern california and We have tried usb products several times, only to end in dissapointment. Why waste money on usb, when its even cheaper just to get a pci card. And anyways why are you so stuck on usb. USB in my opinion sucks. Firewire is a minimum. And no firewire is not a usb interface, its way faster. And no mpeg 4 is not smaller than mpeg2. Its a cleaner codec, but almost the same in size. I wouldnt even think of mpeg 4 with your setup, because it just wont work on an old comp. I use a canopus DV card that runs about 3000 buks. So what makes you think that you can take shortcuts that we dont. It just wont work. Maybe you should just buy a tivo. You obviously dont understand the need for realtime transfer speed in video, nor do you understand the importance for a fast comp when dealing with video. Get the all in wonder, its your best bet and runs about a hundred bucks. dont question things with such attitude, or noone will help. I answered the q the first time, but maybe i just needed to give you a reason why i said the all in wonder. Like u said, leave it to the pros, well thats what I do for a job, so dont question it so much. Usb is worthless in video, and many more, since its slow, and out dated now. Even firewire is on its way out in the next 5 years or so. With hd hitting the consumer market it mass now, it definately wont be enough to support the wicked transfer speeds needed to obtain good quality footage. note: pinnacle sucks, and its not the latest. Canopus is the latest and the best on the market. you wont find many things that will run on a p2 since the p2 is much out of date. Lol i use my old p2's for paper weightes. Thats all they are good for now adays. I hope helped. Ask me as much as you want about this subject and ill reply as best as I can. Ill ask around and see if i can find anything, but still for the cost of things, its just better to stick to the all in wonder pci card.  gl |
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Silver Member Username: G3nocd3San Jose, Ca USA Post Number: 321 Registered: May-05 | sorry i was harsh, but i think i covered everything i needed to in the last post. You can reply in this thread or e mail me at Timkerr@genodigitalediting.com and ill be glad to help you out. good luck man. Later on |
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New member Username: DtownPost Number: 3 Registered: Sep-05 | okay... i am not trying to edit high-def on my p2. that IS pretty funny, though. i just simply want a solution on making my own pvr system. i could care-less if the quality is NOT DVD, but i like to make things out of nothing. i don't have 2 cents to rub together, and just wanted some feedback on a DIY system. i want it usb2 because eventually it will be run on an older p2 or p3 laptop. i could buy a firewire PCMCIA card, if that solves anything, but for the most part i am still looking for a plug in that is NOT A CARD. thanks for all your help. |
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Silver Member Username: G3nocd3San Jose, Ca USA Post Number: 351 Registered: May-05 | OMFG, are you that fukin picky. Give it up. It wont work woth a sh!t. I used editing as an example. Do you think we "Edit" when we transfer video footage from dv tape to the hard drive. NO. LIKE I SAID, THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK. man go get a tivo. "sorry i was harsh, but i think i covered everything i needed to in the last post. " just get a flippin tivo. Im done with this thread. And being noone else is posting anything, good luck on your own. Go ask circuit city, see what they say. ROFLMAO. sorry man, but the ignorance is gettin me mad. Abd whats up with you and cards? You dont know how to put one in. Other than that there is 100% 0 reason not to like cards. They will outperform all usp hardware, and o did i mention CHEAPER. WHICH OBVIOUSLY WHAT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU WANT TO MAKE YOU OWN, SINCE YOU DONT WANT TO BUY A TIVO. |
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Silver Member Username: G3nocd3San Jose, Ca USA Post Number: 352 Registered: May-05 | usb not usp. sorry a few typos. |
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Anonymous | What a strange |
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New member Username: DtownPost Number: 4 Registered: Sep-05 | Ignorance? Ha ha ha! Have you ever had counseling? Just wondering, because the slightest little thing gets you pissed off. I am doing nothing more than simply looking for a little help. I DID NOT ASK FOR YOURS SPECIFICALLY, BRO! Although earlier on I did appreciate your advice... now, i'm not too sure. It's almost like you think everyone should know EVERYTHING you know. Do you even listen to yourself type? Are you GOD? Because if you are, i'd like to meet you and shake your hand. You have some sort of attitude problem guy. Look into getting help for it. I'm not baseing this on just this feed alone, I am baseing it on alot of other feeds you frequent. I guess you have alot of time on your hands. I could give a sh*t what you do for a living. I could give a sh*t how much you know. Do me a favor and don't reply to anymore of my threads. It's obvious you don't want to help out a newbie, since you were never a newbie yourself. All information suddenly appeared in your brain. d |
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Unregistered guest | Why the issue about firewire? i'm no pro but i have a few ideas, usb2 became available around the same time the p3's did, so you could try getting one of these or since you want to use it in a laptop why not look for a pcmcia card though it's more exspencive it should be faster then usb, also you can get an pci adaptor for your pc if the need be there. last but not least, any thing with procesing power above 1g shoud do the trick just make sure you have enough ram 256mb minimum for anythin below win2k and atleast 516mb for win2k, the reason for this is the amount of memory the OS uses. goodluck |
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New member Username: DtownPost Number: 5 Registered: Sep-05 | i have actually priced the PCMCIA cards. you're right, they are expensive. i am currently using the happauge usb2 module and it is working great. it does everything i wanted it to do. it just records my shows on hard drive so i can watch them when i get home. i knew there was a cheap way to make a PVR. i'm glad i didn't spend the monthly fees and get that TIVO afterall. |
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BlueDGP Unregistered guest | USB 1.0 is supposed to go up to 1.5Mbps (which probably means ~188kilobytes/s), but USB 2.0 supposedly can do 480Mbps (~60megabytes/s). Even at half-speed (considering latency) it could transfer 162gigs (30MB*60*90) in the time of most movies' length, assuming all goes well. If the USB modules have built-in tuners and encoders I don't see why there would be such bad opinions of them. Unless they were made from chincy/buggy hardware. |
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New member Username: DtownPost Number: 8 Registered: Sep-05 | i know, i digitize to a USB2 external HD all the time. i have no idea why that tim guy said it wouldn't work. my hapguage does have a built in tuner. thanks. |
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Silver Member Username: G3nocd3San Jose, Ca USA Post Number: 371 Registered: May-05 | Digitalize is diff than HD. Man you guys are beleiving to much stuff u hear. true hd dosent even exist yet. I dont know any hd setup that can transfer at 1.909 gigs/second. Tough. I doubt you are dealing with anything close to hd vincent. Its probably a good digital stream, but not hd. If you guys dont beleive me, maybe you should do a lil research. But hey, u kno workin video contracts with cisco, sun, and a few other companies dont make me an expert. check the facts. Ask any production company. If sh!t was that easy, then why are we still in buisness. :D happy new year all. O and dont mind my spelling errors, Im in a hurry, and I thot i might as well respond to this thread. Later all. |
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Bronze Member Username: DtownPost Number: 13 Registered: Sep-05 | dude... in this last message, when we used the term HD, we used it as in regards to the abbreviation for HARD DRIVE. i think you just read it wrong. we are talking simple Digital Video transfer to Hard Drive (HD) not HIGH DEF. |
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cryogenx Unregistered guest | Tim is a freaking reject.. i feel sorry for any production company that supposedly hired him... FYI USB2.0 if just fine for Video Transfer so tim can get off his i know all there is to know about video horse and come back to the real world.. |