a/v recording solution..

hi all,
my beloved tosh dvd recorder is on the fritz - it no longer recognises dvd-ram disks as recordable but playback is ok. i'm now torn between 2 solutions...
1) a new dvd-ram / hdd recorder
or
2) a multimedia pc.

the 1st solution would be cheaper (aprox £200) but with hi-def and hd-dvd / bluray on the horizon it's almost redundant before i buy it.

the second solution would be more expensive in the short term (i'm guessing about 6-700 quid for a decent spec pc) but would allow me more flexibility and will obviously allow upgrading to new formats if / when a winner emerges.

any thoughts, experiences or recommendations with either solution would be helpful.

couple of things. dvd-r / dvd-rw / dvd-ram compatibility is a big plus, it must be able to timeslip / pause tv etc., multiregion, pal progressive etc.

 

Apparently the first blue ray machines from Samsung and Pioneer are 'less than overwhelming'. It would probably be best to leave it a year before getting one.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060623-7123.html

 

DVD recording

Hi,

My personal choice would be to go for the PC but you will have to ensure that the burner on the pc is compatable with RAM disc writting. As far as blueray being off the mark with the sound quality etc, all these type of recording devices were when first released, even back to betamax and vhs. You will find second generation models will start to realise the potential of this technology. The present first generation are used to recoup the development costs so small amounts at high prices are used and trickle fed into the market place promising the full potential of the new technology and thus trying to cause a feeding frenzie. Thus if your considering this new technology wait for a year or so then have a look at the market place.
I have a compatable ram disc burner on my pc along with a panasonic dvd recorder in the living room so I have quite a good flexible setup.

Regards

Dave

 

Hi,

I got a cheap "bluelight special" AV PC from Morgan Computers more than a year ago, running Windows Media Center.

It became so heavily used that I re-build it a while back into a silverstone case, added a pair of Hauppauge Digital TV Cards (Freeview) insteads of using external boxes, used two hard drives (Seagate - super quiet 80GB for the system, 300GB for the Media) and an ATI Video Card to directly drive the SCART Input of my Sony RPTV (ATI Cards can generate a composite sync signal).

The resuts are quite stunning as DVD Player and "Tivo", even the music part is okay enough.

My vote if for a PC DESPITE the much higher cost, it does so much more.

Ciao T

 

just found this...
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/101787?gclid=CMH3ve-z4YUCFR5PQgodcA5RVQ

also done a bit of research into htpc's and to be honest i'd end up spending £600+ for something basic and more likely £1k for a full spec (that said it would be on a ton of hdd space to keep my music and movies in one place).
£160 looks awfully attractive (i've seen it for less elsewhere as used stock though) as i'm still using a 4:3 21inch tv and having a kick arse media pc with dscaler etc would really put pressure on me to splurge on a 42inch lcd.
thanks for all the comments - i need to do some thinking.

 

Going the media pc route interests me too.
But to be honest, I'm not really sure what can actually be done.

I'd like a pc which can...

*be used for everyday pc use,
*be used as a music server (squeezebox or such),
*DAB,
*Freeview,
* Multi format/Multi region DVD player and recorder,

Also, being able to connect to a MOnitor for say internet use, while playing a DVD on the tv at the same time. Possible?

 

Hi,

Probably possible, but not the best idea....

Yes, to all the above. You do need enough space for add in cards, but past that, all fine. I do all that every day, excluding DAB, which is possible as well, except I cannot be bothered.

Possible just fine.

I occasionally surf on my TV for convenience....

Ciao T

 

I'm thinking of purchasing this in a few months for AV use only - I spend enough tine working with PCs all day and this device ticks all the right boxes for me.

 

Julian,

you really want one of these along with a Sony 46X2000

 

Folks,

For anyone wanting/building an AV Computer here my experiences:

1) Most complete packaged AV Computers are pretty ropey and often do not allow for best performance. It is essential to go custom.

2) Best picture from ATI Cards Direct Drive to SCART if using normal TV's, you need powerstrip for that.

http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/

I drive my 44" Sony rear projection TV with that, I got that TV as it's picture was drastically superior to any of the Sub £3k Plasma/LCD TV's of comparable size (I'd have accepted 37"). Picture is excellent.

If you have more modern TV's (LCD/Plasma) it is worth getting a card that can natively drive this display. Under all conditions ignore the TV output (S-Video) on normal Graphics card, the picture is awfull, next to RGB Direct Drive.

Nvidia "Pure Video Decoder" is still the best software decoder I tried, make sure to use the hack that allows the hiden settings to be displayed and switch de-interlacing off if you use VGA direct drive.

I also use the C.C.C.P. Decoder pack for decoding all other formats, DIVX, XVID, Matroska (common in Anime posted on newsgroups - not that I'd download something like that i it's illegal after all ) et al.

Other usefull software I have on the HTPC is DVD-Decrypter (this has been officially pulled but you can still find it, it is a superb freeware DVD Ripper) and VOB-Blanker as well DVDShrink in order to make safety backups of my own DVD's (clearly I would not copy rental DVD's or the like, would I now, given the legal situation) and of course region killer (another freeware app) that allows my HTPC to play any DVD I like.

3) Some of the tastiest HTPC Enclosures are from Silverstonetek, I got the LC11M in silver, I considered the bigger ones and may yet get the LC-16 after all, but in the flesh the sheer size of these scared me!

http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/articles/show/Silverstone_LC11M_Review/

http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/articles/show/Silverstone_LC16M_Review/

Expect to spend extra money on fan controlers and quiet fans and time on fitting them. These cramped cases when filled by loads of goodies tend to run hot and fans are noisy.

I ended up changing all case fans, fitting seperate super low noise fans on rubber isolation mounts into all positions that allow for them, adding some small internal fans to blow air into the hard disk area and towards the video cards (moving air means noise - three quiet fans run at low voltage move more air than one noisy fan at higher voltage and can be whisper quiet).

All those fans are on a fan speed adjuster I build into the case and where in effect I can trade off the noise of these fans against those of CPU fan and PSU fan which are thermally conrolled by the PSU board and CPU Board respectively. When it gets hot in the summer (room temperatures > 28 Celsius) a smidgen more casefan noise keeps the other fans from kicking into high gear.

I also replaced the powersupply fan with a super low noise type mounted "inside out" on the PSU using rubber mounts as it would not have fitted inside the PSU. Then I fitted the biggest pure copper cooler I could fit into the case for my PC and gave it a special low noise fan (I'm still looking for an even quieter one). Finally I re-mounetd the Hard drive cage to minimise noise conduction into the case from the already quiet hard drives.

All of this makes for a rather quiet PC, I can barely hear the main CPU fan at late night with everything else off, if the fridge way down the hallway kicks in it is louder.

4) Forget Analogue TV Cards and setups using Cable TV Set-top boxes (and/or Sky). If you want that get Sky+ or the PVR from the cable company and accept you will not easily be able to back up the recordings to DVD.

Otherwise get two (or three) really good freeview DVB Cards, you will be surprised how much programing is on there when you actually can record as much as you want on single click on the remote.

Having two cards means you can record two programs in parallel, if you add a third you can record three programs in parallel, or you record less and watch instead.

5) You cannot have too much CPU Power, Memory or Harddrive Space in a HTPC/Windows Media Center, Windos XP MCE is still the best for usability. It does all the "pause live TV", "wind back that deciding goal in the england vs. germany game", "wind back the spectular car crash in the F1 Race" things and is probably the best "TiVo" in terms of usability around.

My wife loves the whole mediacenter idea and is the heaviest user, with around six or seven series of soaps and reality recording, implying also that the thing is really easy to for her.

Configuration of my HTPC:

Case - Silverstonetek LC11M (modified)
CPU - 3GHz P4 intel, SIS Motherboard (up for replacement)
Memory - 1GB (forgot what speed, appropriate for the CPU)
HDD1 - 80GB Seagate Barracuda SATA (System etc)
HDD2 - 300GB Seagate Barracuda SATA (Recorded TV etc)
Some LiteOn DVD Burner I had at hand
TV Card - Hauppauge WinTV Nova X 2
Graphics - ATI Radeon (9250 IIRC)

Ciao T

 

t,
that's my problem i'm with ntl - there's no sky+ / tivo / tvdrive available yet and given the ropeyness of the cable box's interface i'm not sure i'd be willing to pay a premium for one.
that being a given it means i need something that can accept an external signal - then i have to worry about audio and it all get horribly complex.
ideally i'd have something like a squeezebox that could accept a signal and record it to a designated drive on my network and play stuff from similar. that way all i'd need would be a fast network and a pc running a server. then i'd be a happy man. nothing i've heard of will record though - only playback which is fa use to me.
cheers

julian.

 

I have a PC similar to that above (much lower spec though!) which records off an external freeview box (for top-up tv)

I have an external analogue TV tuner taking a composite input from the freeview box, channel changing is done by a USB-UIRT device (www.usbuirt.com)

I use SageTV instead of Windows MCE and Sage allows playback over a network using a Hauppauge MVP (www.sage.tv)

My system spec:

Silverstone LC11 (bog standard because I'm lazy)
Via Epia M1000 (small, quiet and cool)
512Mb RAM
DVD-RW
80Gb system drive
2 x 200Gb data drives
Radeon 9250 PCI (using s-video until I get around to building an RGB cable)
Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2
USB-UIRT
Win XP Pro
SageTV

Thomson DTi2300 freeview box (a £16 bargain) with top-up tv


It all takes a bit of setting up, but it is working perfectly now, and has a web-interface for remote scheduling so I can set it to record from work.

 

Gotta love those Seagate drives

 

Hi,

I used a similar principle with MCE and external Cable boxe from Telewest, but the picture quality sucked on my big screen TV when compared to DVD.

Ciao T

 

I forgot to mention reMOte control if possible.

Perhaps a silly question, but why not use it for both every day surfing, gaming and such as well as for media use?

Also, if you don't mind me asking, how much would a set up like you have cost to put together? A ball park figure.

 

Hi,

Windows Media Center comes with a rather good one.

First, a HTPC tends to be attached to a TV as display, they are not very good for surfing, you can get into dual display setups, but these are far from straightforward especially if you want media center on the TV but Windows on the small display.

Games in some ways are fine, but it means you need a much heavier duty graphics card and processor for modern games than is needed for Media Center and then you can still find that the games choke the rest of the system for bandwidth to record.

Less heavy duty games tend to work fine, a lot of the old arcade classics are even better via Mame on the 44" living room screen.

Depending how savvy you are shopping and what you can find, want to accept etc £ 500 to £ 1,000, hard drive space beyond 160GB is still costly for example.

You can go well past the £ 2,000 mark if you where to use the really big LCD touchscreen equipped silverstone case and stuff it to the gilld with the latest graphics cards, dual processor motherboard and suitable external watercooling system, such a system though would also play the very latest games very well....

Ciao T

 

I gradually upgraded mine, but as a quick estimate, it has probably cost around £700 total

It might be worth you looking at www.mediapc.tv as they custom built to your specification

Also check www.avforums.com for second hand ones

 

just found this:
http://www.kiss-technology.com/?p=vr558en&v=users

a bit pricey at the moment (450 - 500 quid) but does pretty much everything i want.
guess i'll have to start saving then.
cheers


julian.

 

Hi Julian, Vifa Apparently Are Bringing Out A Very Versetile Dvd Recorder And Many More Fitures That It Will Take A Lot Of Time To Say Here, They Will Be Featured And Be On Show At The Hi-fi Show In September At Heathrow, Aprox. Price Will Be £379.00 R.r.p.my Advise Is To Wait And Don't Rush Now , Wait Till Then, Regards.