Building my own PVR

I am sitting at a table across from my wife, and I say to her, "Honey, we need to come up with a name for the new computer."
"Ok, any inspiration for the name?"
"Well, I just started this posting by saying, "The Computer has Landed, alluding to the fact that it barely got here in one piece. Does that help?"
"Um." Time passes. "I am trying to think of things not so obvious, Apollo, Gemini. Could you hand me those scissors, please?"

And thus ends my attempt at narrative writing on this blog. You don't know about my home life, you want to know about the computer. Wrapped in a well-worn Sony monitor box, the quarter-opened box sat outside the doorstep late Friday afternoon. After documenting the horrible condition in which it arrived on the doorstep with a digital photo or two, I tested the computer for damage. Finding none, I forgot about the photos and was thankful for my good fortune. Though I intend to document step by step the process of turning this machine into my PVR, I did go ahead in a fit of Christmas glee and do some basic hardware steps that can be now marked as "completed." Several questions had to be asked and answered before putting the project aside for Christmas:

1) Does the computer have (2) 64MB sticks of memory or (1) 128MB stick? Answer, (1) 128MB.
2) Does it accept the (1) 256MB I bought it for Christmas? Answer, yes.
3) Can I download the Mandrake 9.2 ISO's (Images of the three CD's required to load it) on my home office computer, get them burned, and install Mandrake 9.2 on the computer?
Answer: yes, (yes, yes, and no), (ouch and yes). I downloaded from a mirror site at the University of Wisconsin. The first two CD's were fine. The third CD I burned was marred by a badly scratched CD-RW I was using. I decided to go ahead and load up Mandrake 9.2, knowing that I had no clue yet nor the will to document yet what MythTV should want. At this point, partitioning the drive and a game of Tux Racer are fine by me. As it happens, the GX110 came with a CD-ROM 48x drive made by LG. It is presently a paperweight, because LG CD-ROMs and Mandrake 9.2 don't play well together. There is a patch available so that I can install it later and there is a procedure for resurrecting the seemingly "dead" LG CD-ROM drive. I had a spare Sony 48x around so I used it instead. My Tux Racer needs work, but Mandrake 9.2 is on the machine and seems to run quite well.
4) What kind of sound card does the system have? Answer, not integrated, it actually seems to have a Sound Blaster card on the PCI bus. That is all right by me.

OK, for now, the unnamed computer is sitting side-by-side with the home office computer, and this is where it will sit until the thesis is deposited, or at least under review at a point I have nothing else to do. Thanks for your patience, and I will update next when a name is chosen or when I received the items from an unnamed source. Merry Christmas to one and all.

Update: The 256MB Micron memory stick - PC100 CL2 non-ECC - has arrived safely at my home and joins the 160GB Seagate hard drive under the Christmas tree. The Dell Optiplex GX110 has still to make an appearance.

Why am I doing this? I started answering this at the beginning. There are many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because the most successful member of our research group happens to have made his own PVR. And none of this nice user interface MythTV stuff either. No, he went old(er) school and worked things out himself with the packages he knew.

I was hoping that after a year after seeing his that the used computer market and advances in the TV tuner (e.g. MPEG-2 encoding) I could duplicate his efforts with less money and more ease. I think I'll be right, but I wanted to give credit to an "early adopter" of digital Personal Video Recording.

1) Trusted, anonymous sources have informed me that I no longer need to bid in the eBay auction for the Hauppauge PVR-250. Also, I have been informed that I should layy off purchasing the Jaton 228PCI-128TV card. To those anonymous sources (who will be named after 25 Dec 03 and xx Jan 04, respectfully), I say thank you!

2) The complication has been solved via eBay for $45.99 + $8 S&H - a used model of the exact memory chip suggested and sold by Dell for the GX110, which sells new for $97.16, other sources had it (lowest price) as $68.66.
Chip specs - 256MB PC100 non-ECC CL2 - the "non-ECC", "CL2", and "PC100" parts all raised the price vs. the "ECC", unstated latency (3), and "PC133" parts.

The $300 budget swamped and overcome by the grace of an anonymous source, we note that the three purchased components totaled to $61.31-$53.99 = $7.32. Maybe I'll buy my wife something?

(She also has a $300 budget for her own project, non-tech and unblogged.)

OK, in the frenzy to get the computer and thus shore up what I would request for Christmas, I made the first of what are to be several errors along the way.

In layman's terms, it is not big, but may set me back anywhere from $20-$80, offending the budget but not killing the dream.

In technical terms, I assumed I could use my stick of PC133 128MB ECC memory in the Optiplex GX110 I bought. Though it hasn't arrived yet, I have now read that the Optiplex GX110 takes only non-ECC (Error-Correcting Code) memory. Other Dell computers I have used in the past have had the option of using ECC or not (but not mixed). Furthermore, it is coming with 128 MB installed - is that 64 MB x2 (in two slots) or 128 MB x1 (in one slot)? I was hoping for 128 MB in one slot and to put my 128 MB in the other, but that's way off the boards now. To buy the "proper" memory I need (256 MB) would be easily $70-$80 but I bet a eBay could help knock that price down. The 128 MB ECC PC133 I do have could fetch $10 on eBay, but that may not be a sure thing.

Buying for Bryan this year? Here's a helpful list of requests:

Base components: [Edited twice, 14 Dec 03 and 26 Dec 03]
TV-to-Computer - Hauppauge PVR-250 - Thanks to the In-Laws, a Christmas gift.
Computer-to-TV - Jaton 228PCI-128TV - Thanks to the In-Laws, an early birthday gift.
Computer - Thanks, Mom and Dad for the Christmas gift.
Hard Drive - Thanks, Mom and Dad for the Christmas gift.

Extended components:
DVD burner - either the Pioneer DVR-A06 or the Teac DV-W50D.
DVD's to burn - Thanks to Uncle Jim on the Grab Bag gift for the write-once DVD-R's.
For fun- A blue cable - Thanks to the In-Laws for ordering this fun part.

That's the fun list for quite - a - while. I hope I spread it across enough odf a range that all my niceness and naughtiness can be considered.....

After wasting so much of Wednesday and Thursday on eBay trying to purchase a computer, I learned the following:
1) Unlike the infinitely more fair uBid.com, there is no "overtime" on bidding. Some grad individual swooped down with 9 sec on the clock and bidded up a little 1.2GHz computer I was bidding on at 3:31 am this morning. Ouch.
2) The computer I wanted originally, a Small Form Factor Dell Optiplex GX150 was too small to fit the cards I need.
3) The second computer I wanted, a Small Desktop Dell Optiplex GX150 costs over $230 with shipping and I said "no."
4) As Mr. Erickson, the wise father-in-law and avid eBayer, taught me, 'tis better to just find a good "BuyItNow."

So, it is hard to think about a Christmas present as settling, but in the end I made a decision based on many factors, considering:
1) Least ugly computer, as it must appear in the living room.
2) Best price per features.
3) Operability with the stick of 128 MB of PC133 memory I already own.
4) Lost wages by not getting the silly thesis done already and wasting time on eBay.

The computer is here. In summary, it is a Dell Optiplex GX110, a Pentium III 933 MHz with 128 MB of memory (to be augmented with the 128 MB I have already). The price after shipping will be $150, thus bringing the "$300" budget down to $211.31 - $150 = $61.31 for a video card. I really, really want the Hauppauge PVR-250 or Hauppague PVR-350 TV tuner cards, thus the $300 number is probably out the window unless my current bid stands up, which we know it won't. I'm cheating over the $300 line - call it "birthday" money - Jan. xx, 2004.....

List of parts to buy to follow!

And thus it begins in earnest. I have allocated a budget of $300 with which to buy a hard drive, computer, and TV-in computer card. I will ask my in-laws for the TV-out video card, and that will bring me approximately to a $400 Digital PVR. Can it be done?

As I mentioned before, I already have the hard drive; the drive with shipping costs $88.69 against the cap, without paying taxes. Let's keep prices without taxes in figuring out this cap. This leaves $300.00 - $88.69 = $211.31 left for card and computer. This amount of money can be divided in one of three ways:

1) Spend $50 on a cheap TV in card, leaving $160 for the computer.
2) Spend $150 on an expensive TV in card, leaving $60 for the computer.
3) Variants within these two boundaries.

I am attempting something closer to #2 than to #1. I currently have two open bids on eBay totaling $151.01. One is for a 1 GHz no-name computer, the other for a used Haupptage PVR-250 TV-in card. The PVR-250 sells new at Circuit City locally for $150, and about $125 online if shipping is favorable. Therefore, the chances of coming away with one or both of these items for only $150.01 is unfavorable. But, having established a $211.31 cap on myself I feel free to keep pressing the opportunities for good deals. The hook to buying the 1 GHz machine is that it is available in Madison, WI where I technically still attend graduate school. I am defending my thesis there in January, and I should not build this computer until the thesis is defended...thus it is a good idea to buy this computer, and keep it away from myself as an external discipline.

The computer closes tomorrow, the PVR card in five days.

To effect a digital video recorder, I need to attain the following components:
1) A computer
2) A computer card that translates the TV signal into a computer signal
3) A massive hard drive to store the TV programs
4) A graphics card that will allow me to send computer signals out to a TV

To effect a home entertainment center, I would like to able to include the following:
5) A CD player at minimum, or...
5) A DVD Player that plays CDs, or...
5) A DVD burner that plays CDs also.
6) DVDs and CDs on which to "burn".

Let's go over the detailed requirements for each of these 6 items. First, the computer. By researching these two web sites, The PVR Database and MythTV.org I have learned that many hardware configurations may lead me to a working system. Typically, the CPU, or central processing unit, should run at about 1.5 GHz or higher. There should be at least 256 MB of memory available for processing the computer signals, and the computer should also be able to process and output sounds. Aside that, the other hardware considerations will be covered in Items 2-6.

Of course, I am going to flaunt the requirements of the first item right away. It is possible to construct a PVR with less than a 1.5 GHz CPU, if there is another component in the system doing the work of the CPU. This leads to the TV tuner card. I intend to skimp some on the CPU in order to accentuate the TV tuner card. The idea is this: Raw TV signal contains lots of data. That data needs to be compressed to be manipulated easily. Compress too much, you notice a decrease in picture quality. Compress too little, the computer is swamped. Some cheaper TV tuner cards operate by perfoming the basic function of converting TV signals into computer signals, and nothing more. The compression of the signal is left to the CPU. If one is viewing "live TV" and wants to "pause" it like in the ads for commercial products, the CPU would have to both compress the signal (at current time) and decompress (from say 5 minutes ago). This is too much for a 1 GHz computer with limited memory.

However, there are higher-end TV tuner cards that compress the TV signal natively. They compress the signal before it ever reaches the CPU. The tradeoff is cost, but it is the tradeoff I have elected to pursue. This decision may add as much as $100 to the cost of the tuner card.

The third item is in hand, the massive hard drive for storing programs. I have purchased a Seagate 160 GB hard drive, for less than $89 (w/ S&H, w/o tax, to be paid to Maryland later). I bought it backstock from cdw.com in their Outlet section. Sorry, there was only one at that price. I have received it and it is in good working order. The price tradeoff here is that it has what is called a cache, the "bucket" in which data goes to-from the drive, that is 2 MB. The newest ones have a cache of 8MB, better for video transfers. But, it would have been an even $50 dollars more expensive. I am not trying to build the best PVR ever, simply the most cost-efficient.

Fourth, I need a graphics card that can output to the television. There are several to choose from, and many are below $100. The difficult part is that the selection of the computer must come before the selection of the graphics card. There are a litany of abbreviations and standards for graphics cards, and only by selecting the system first can the graphics card be selected.

The goal is simple, a functioning PVR for less than $400. More on the upgrades to DVD and the software to be used later on. Budgets and wish lists also to follow!

I am now beginning a blog to describe my efforts to build a personal video recorder. I first received a VCR my junior year of college, but it has outlasted its usefulness. I do not have a DVD player save for the one that recently came with a laptop we purchased so that I can finish school. More about that, later. Therefore, I want a video recorder and a DVD player. Though both objects are trivially inexpensive, experience has proven that it is all to easy to forget to set the timer to watch my favorite shows, and that in the absence of a favorite show, I'll watch any old thing on the television anyway.

I have heard of TiVo(TM), but have never owned one nor used it. My apartment building already pays for bulk basic cable service, and we pay for high speed internet in the home (first, so I can finish school, more on that later) so I have no desire to pay another monthly service fee to that the TiVo can find its way every month. But the concept that I could record a show at every playing and watch them in a controlled manner appeals to me. It might bring a harmony between my quest for fun and my need for productivity.

There will be software issues and hardware issues and there will be legal issues to look up on the Internet. There may be contributions at Christmas and waiting for parts as I earn more money. (Who am I kidding, my birthday follows Christmas very soon after.) More motivation for this goal, and updates on my Ph.D. thesis progress is to follow.