Can a PC replace a stand alone DVD recorder?

G

godi32

Guest
Hi guys,

I was wondering if a pc with a good TV-tuner and DVD-recorder can replace a stand alone dvd-recorder. Is a pc more or less flexible and can a pc offer the same things a stand-alone can.

At the moment I work on a mac but I'm thinking about buying a PC for the Children.

Cheers,
Dirk
 
the pc tuners are all really poor quality
plus it's almost imposs to record video properly on a PC
without spending 1000s. Buy a cheap PC for the kids
and a standalone recorder for you.
 
I've had some good recordings on my incredably ancient matrox G400... it came with a hardware mjpeg encoder...It also had a nice looking tv out
In principle I could have used diguide to set up all the recordings etc, but it was all not as convenient as having a nice little box under the tv..

you may want to look at
http://www.evesham.com/PCs/Info.asp...DE-0AB873D97C61

I don't know anything about it.

I'm not sure if any software mpeg 2 encoders can do as well as the onces you get in the dvd recorders.

the + poins of using a pc are that its easy to upgrade hardrive/ dvd recorder/ tunder encoder/decoder etc... you can also use divx...


Now if someone could create a decent upgradable stand alone dvd/hdd recorder for about £350...

have fun
steve
 
hmm...
what I was trying to point at was evesham's ebox.. interestingly watfor also do something similar
for evesham go to
http://www.evesham.com
and then
Home > Media Centers > emedia series

or
http://www.savastore.com
and search for media experience

there are probably others out there

have fun
Steve
 
I don't fancy having to switch my PC on every time I want to record something or even have it on when I'm not in when recording, or recording (and slowing down the PC) when I wan to use teh PC for other things and as for the fan noise (the PC is in my living room)..no thanks.
 
I used the PC to record from the TV the other day when I didn't have an S-VHS tape available. I used my digital camcorder to passthrough a signal from the tuner of the VCR by firewire to create an avi file and then used the excellent TMPGenc to make an MPG2 file. The result is excellent quality but I wouldn't want to do it every time. For one thing the encoding time at best settings for the two hour programme was around 24 hours on a 2.53 GHz computer!
 
On the software side you may find this interesting

http://www.mythtv.org/

Anyway

Make sure you have a motherboard with a bios wake up facility

http://www.malloc.de/tools/wakeup_clock.html

and you don’t have to leave it on all the time.


You can get cards with built in hardware mpeg 2 encoders, so you can encode real time just like a proper recorder, and it doesn’t slow anything down.

e.g.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=65225

You can also get Freeview cards and even satellite decoders, or even dual encoders so record 2 programs at the same time.

You can get pc cases which are very quiet, designed for AV purposes , that fit under the TV and can be controlled with a proper remote control (+ cordless keyboard and mouse).


Choose as big a hard drive as you want... how about two 400Gig hard drives.

Choose the DVD writer you want, multi format/ dual layer… (blue laser etc when it comes out.).. have 2 dvd drive...

watch any format you want, divx etc...

Share stuff over a network.

If you have a broadband connection you could even connect remotely (from work) to set up a recording. (use wake up on lan)

Electronic program guides (Digiguide etc)

And basically end up with an almost future proof system as you can upgrade bits as new stuff becomes available.

The main problem is probably the cost…. and I havn't seen any cases with a clock etc on the front..

Have fun
Steve
 

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