Is There an Aftermarket DVR that..

[user92626]

1. lets you put in a hard drive of your choice
2. Record and playback hd programs
3. Under 300 usd

??
thanks.

 

[Van]

1. yes its a home computer

2. see first answer

3. no

 

[user92626]

Van,
A computer can be used to record and playback 1080i/1080p programs to LCD TV? Great, which video, sound card adapters or I/O device do you know for the jobs?

 

[meStevo]

those reqs dont sound all that unreasonable for a decently powered pc w/ the right equipment.

Engadget.com recently had something about a cablecard solution, otherwise it'd be QAM or OTA.

If you really need to know the names of these parts and it isn't just a sarcastic post you likely would need help putting the thing together as well.

Van's reply is still accurate with the info and scope you provided.

 

[Van]

Newegg.com has an hd tv video capture card, you can also find them at best buy, circuit city as well as any other chain or reputable computer store. Price wise for the card its going to be about half the cost of your requirements, then your looking at the cost of a decent hard drive say something along the lines of a 500gb drive will be around $150 as well. Next you will need an hd capable video card and Nvidia is a good one to go with for this purpose, if you have an agp motherboard then swing by Best Buy as they are clearancing out 7800 OC's right now, if you have a pci board then they have 7950 OC's.

 

[harshness]

2. Record and playback hd programs

At this point the only HD programming available is OTA. I paid $90 to add an HDTV card to my computer. Outfitting it with a suitable display card for TV is a completely different story.

3. Under 300 usd

That depends on what your TV requires. I would think that you'll probably blow past that budget figure unless your computer already has a suitable display adapter.

Know that VGA ports on most televisions are artificially limited to rather ugly resolutions.

 

[user92626]

THANKS, Guys,
I am serious about my questions. Those commercial free, unedited hd movies on hdnetmovie look seriously good. (Hardness, why only OTA and not hdnetmovies, espn/2?)

I already have a DVI (hdmi-dvi adapter if needs be), VGA LCD. I'm aware of DVI and/or VGA output video cards.

What I am NOT sure of is if it's just a matter of setting the pc resolution to the native 1080i resolution of the LCD, and that'd take care of playback.

For recording, is it just a matter of connecting the H20 to an HDTV-input capable video card and 5.1 sound card?

 

[harshness]

(Hardness, why only OTA and not hdnetmovies, espn/2?)

They don't offer Pee Cee based satellite or CATV tuners with the necessary descrambling equipment in them, so you can't receive pay TV.

What I am NOT sure of is if it's just a matter of setting the pc resolution to the native 1080i resolution of the LCD, and that'd take care of playback.

Scaling must be done by the receiver because a lot of the satellite and cable content isn't "full resolution". DIRECTV's 1080i content is actually 1280x1080i.

For recording, is it just a matter of connecting the H20 to an HDTV-input capable video card and 5.1 sound card?

That depends on if you can find such beasties for a reasonable price and whether or not the content is copy protected. Sound cards with enough channels and Toslink inputs go for $500 and up. You will likely need a Dolby Digital Decoder to break out the six audio channels.

If you don't have upwards of $2,000 in your budget for this project, you probably should forget about it for now.