Build your own Digital Video Recorder
Ranked #28,292 in Computers & Electronics, #529,643 overall
Build your own DVR very inexpensively and without the subscription fee. Use open source software including Ubuntu Linux and MythTV and an older computer. The advantages of building your own DVR include:
Flexibility - Add another hard disk to increase storage or use the computer to play SNES or NES games on emulators.
Inexpensive - Use that old computer that you have sitting around. The system requirements are very low.
No Subscription - The TV listing guide is available free on the internet, the DVR downloads it periodically automatically.
Built in Commercial skipping - It's amazing how well it works.
The satisfaction of doing it yourself
and many more...
What you will need
- Analog cable TV. This guide is built around using analog cable TV. It can work with satellite and digital cable with some additional work.
- Broaband Internet. You'll need this to download the TV guide from the internet (the guide is free).
- Inexpensive computer. It will need to be at least a 1 Ghz processor with 384 MB of RAM or more. It will also need an empty PCI slot and access to broadband internet. Take a look at the sample eBay auctions at the bottom.
- A large hard drive. You can use either one large drive (2 gigabytes per hour so a 160 GByte drive will give 80 hours) or a small one for the operating system and a large one for the video. Take a look at the sample IDE drive on Amazon below.
- A PCI TV tuner. This guide is built around the Hauppauge PVR-350. It has cable input, a MPEG-2 encoder/decoder, and video/audio output. It also includes a remote control. This card does most of the work, so you don't need a fast computer. Take a look at the card on Amazon below.
Steps in Building your DVR
- Build your computer. Add the large hard disk and the TV tuner PCI card. Remove anything unnecessary like sound cards and modems. You want the computer to use very little power as it will be on all the time.
- Install Ubuntu and partition your hard disk. Be sure to format your video partition as XFS. XFS will allow the large video files to be accessed and deleted much more quickly than ext3.
- Once Ubuntu is installed, follow the Howto Guides I have linked below. Use the Myth TV install Guide to get MythTV installed and the IVTV drivers set up for your PVR-350. Use the Video out from PVR-350 Howto to get the video/audio output working. The Remote control HowTo describes rebuilding the kernel with lirc support for the remote included with the PVR-350.
- Once the DVR is up and running, take a look at my list of other things to do with your new DVR. As it is a linux based system, there are many additional things it can do such as a music and file server.
List of Howto Guides
- Ubuntu Download
- First, download Ubuntu linux (1 CD ISO). Make sure to get the Intel x86 install CD. Burn this to a CD.
- CD Burner software
- Use this software to burn the Ubuntu CD.
- Myth TV install Guide
- Use this guide to setup your Ubuntu computer with Myth TV and the drivers for the Hauppauge PVR-350.
- Video out from PVR-350 Howto
- Use this guide to get the video and audio output from the PVR-350 working. Make sure the TV will be your only monitor, disable your computer monitor for this to work correctly.
- Remote control HowTo
- Use this guide to set up the remote control.
- Another guide for Myth TV install
- This guide is built around a Hauppauge PVR-150 (it does not have TV out), but it has a lot about how to customize Myth TV and install add ons.
Other things to do with your DVR
- Create an FTP server
- Use the computer as an FTP server to share photos or files.
- Run an iTunes Music Server
- Use the computer to share your music over the network to iTunes enabled computers.
- Share files with your windows computers
- Use this guide to set up the computer on your windows network (for file and print sharing).
- Control your DVR over your Network
- Use remote desktop (VNC) to control and configure your DVR remotely over your network.
Add ons for your Computer
Use the Hauppauge PVR-350 as the interface from your cable TV to the computer and from your computer to your TV.
Computer for you DVR
Make sure it has an empty PCI slot and preferably more than 256 MB of ram (I use 384 MB in my DVR). No operating system is needed!
by schellboy
I live in Colorado and work as an Electrical Engineer designing professional video editing equipment. I have interests in Television, Computers,... more »
- 0 featured lenses
- Winner of 2 trophies!
- Top lens »
