TV recorder - looking for instructions to build your own

[balticstar]

I recently saw some very detailed instructions to build a "Media Center" with Satellite TV and digital TV all recordable onto harddrive in a PC magazine - problem is I lost it. I thought it was perfect for recording all these different channels for MFL, politics etc as it had a good GUI as well that would make recordings easy.

 

Alternatively, if you know of any good links or have instructions that you can share, please let me know.

 

Kind regards

[strawberry]

Get a version of windows with windows media centre in it ( i recommend 7 ultimate) and buy a tv tuner card ( or usb stick) for it. Simples. There are 2 types of tv tuner, one for arials, other for satellite.

 

If you have 2 inputs you can record 2 channels at once or watch one, record the other.

[dalsoth]

Can you get your sky or virgin channels on this though or is it limited to satellite foreign channels. I always thought sky were encrypted and would not work through a tv tuner card thingy regardless of you subscribing.

[andyrite]

I found this the other day

For The Record - View topic - Project: MediaPortal & FTR Installation & Setup Guide

[strawberry]

Can you get your sky or virgin channels on this though or is it limited to satellite foreign channels. I always thought sky were encrypted and would not work through a tv tuner card thingy regardless of you subscribing.

 

you can pick up free sat, encrypted channels will require a sub card and a slot to put it in.

[Arthur]

There are 2 types of tv tuner, one for aerials, other for satellite.

For digital terrestrial TV, there are two different standards: DVB-T (FreeView) and DVB-T2 (FreeView HD). To future-proof the media center a little, I would buy something which supports the latter such as the dual tuner BlackGold BGT3620 PCIe card.

 

If you do use Windows Media Center, you should take a look at the following add-ons too, particularly if you want to be able to watch TV on other computers on your network.

 

DVBLink TVSource seamlessly integrates Satellite, Cable or Terrestrial TV channels into Windows Media Center, including support for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 HD video, multichannel audio, EPG information, teletext and subtitles. DVBLink enables all native TV control features of Windows Media Center for these channels such as Guide listings, live TV watching, pausing live TV, one touch and timer recordings. (Link)

 

DVBLink Server Network Pack lets you enjoy your favorite TV channels throughout your whole house – in Windows MediaCenter, running on network computers, on UPNP enabled clients such as Sony PlayStation 3, on nettops and laptops, running Windows 7 and on XBox 360 – and over the Internet using web browsers. (Link)

[balticstar]

Obviously, the extension of this issue is the fact that one could concentrate fully on using internet material only (TV station website, youtube etc). Has anybody got some experience in running a working set-up whereby teachers could easily ask for scheduled programmes to be recorded in a usable format (considering that you have iplayer, ITVplayer, skyplayer, frenchTV player etc)

[srochford]

Recording stuff from the main UK channels for educational use is fine. Recording other stuff (including most websites) is not fine from a copyright point of view.

 

You can make it easier to get at all the various web TV things - TunerFree MCE looks like a very good addition to Media Center