Need a Geek: Best way to use PC as a Tivo?

Question

We bought a new HP desktop (quad core) w/~650 G memory to hook up to our TV, and a digital antenna. Goal: dump DISH and not have to buy a new TiVo: use the antenna + computer for most broadcast shows and torrent everything else.

Most of the TiVo-type functionality is critical to my husband - we never watch live TV.

We bought a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 850 USB HDTV adapter, but the software is unstable (crashed on me 3x today while I was trying to adjust settings) and the picture stops and starts. Don't know where to go from here. Will everything work better with an internal TV tuner card, and is there software that really comes close to emulating TiVo's functions? (A real remote instead of the wireless mouse would be awfully nice, too.)

I think our only other option may be to return the ex$pen$ive computer, buy the new ex$pen$ive TiVo (our old one won't work with a digital antenna, only with a converter box), and somehow figure out how to watch torrent files on our TV, maybe with a much cheaper computer. But since MY goal is to eliminate all the continuing expenses involved with entertainment, and Tivo charges for monthly service, this is the less-than-ideal option.

This is driving us crazy! Are you using your PC as a Tivo with your TV and a desktop computer, and how are you doing it?

Answer 1

Yes, just get some decent software for it. The WinTV-HVR is a great tuner card, and the rest of your PC is good. You just need some decent software. I would recommend Mediaportal. Its free (open source) and is extremely powerful. Runs a front and back end (so that the tuner can record in the background while you are doing other things on the computer)



http://www.team-mediaportal.com/



My setup is a dedicated HTPC with an IMON remote. It outputs to the TV through HDMI. It has two tuners and lots of storage, so I have a large movie collection on there and lots of stuff for the kids to watch. its networked to my torrent machine so when shows/movies download I just send them over onto the HTPC and watch them in the lounge. The machine is run by remote so it works just like a tivo. It will record two shows at once while playing another show in the foreground. If I ever need to do any work on it, I just run it from my main machine using UVNC. I have tried a number of media centre solutions (Vista, WMC, MythTV, GB-PVR, ChrisTV and SageTV), and prefer Mediaportal because it has so many more options.



If you want something easier to set up, the other suggestion I would make is the Release Candidate of Windows 7. It has an _excellent_ media centre (much better than Vista or MCE) and is available for free download from the Microsoft website.



As far as running the machine goes, just set power options to use S3 (suspend), and leave the machine on. When its not in use it will switch itself to standby and then wake itself up to record shows. The other advantage of doing this is that theres no booting - when you want to use it you just hit the power button and it resumes back into the Media Centre interface in a matter of seconds - no waiting for it to boot.



email me if you need any more info.

Answer 2

You overbought on the PC hardware - should have bought a refurb Dell poweredge for 400-500 US.



Check this link

http://www.popsci.com/gear-gadgets/article/2002-10/pc-based-tivo-emulator

Answer 3

I use Kworld Multimedia hardware!