[PLUG] Want to build a Linux based PVR...

[Jim Beckett]

Michael Robinson wrote:
>
> I wonder if I can hook up a satellite feed, but in all honesty I'm
> after over the air via a rabbit ears antenna.
If this is all you want, then I think you are probably best off getting 
a cheap ATSC card for receiving HD content over the air, and running it 
in Windows, or Linux, (whatever you prefer) on your P4 computer.
(But, once you get bitten by the HTPC bug, you start to feel really 
limited after a while, and would want to upgrade to something better 
that does more tricks.)
> The encryption 
> problem with cable is an interesting one, I suppose it limits 
> what people who are on cable can do.
Yes, to the consternation of many! It is a heated discussion topic on 
lots of message boards.
> Satellite television has been something in the far off future for
> a long time.  It is hard to justify the expense, on the other hand,
> there are some channels that aren't available over the air.
>   
Satellite provides roughly the same limitations relevant to this topic 
as cable television does, since you would need DISH, DirectTV, or 
whomever's receivers, to decode the satellite signal.

I'm not very familiar with the satellite receivers, but I think you 
would likely need multiple satellite receiver boxes for tuning more than 
one channel at a time, just like cable.

If you were to 'roll your own' free satellite solution, you would need 
to consider that you might need to reposition the dish to pull in 
different channels, since different satellites carry different content. 
To top it off, the satellite feeds that you can tune in are going to be 
mostly encrypted for anything good, so you are still back to the same 
dilemma as cable.
> The play station runs at standard definition so there should be a cheap
> device that doesn't act as a PVR but that does allow for a computer
> running Linux or Windows 98SE for that matter to put the images on
> the screen.
I saw lots of old NTSC analog cards at FreeGeek's thrift store downtown 
that you could purchase very cheaply, but I doubt this system would have 
the horsepower to run any of them well (regardless of operating system):
> I really don't want to put XP on an old PIII 450.  I
> especially don't want to considering that this is a games machine
> where some of the games on it require Windows 98SE.  There was a
> project to port Red Alert I Command and Conquer to Linux, but it
> appears that the project disintegrated.
>   
If it were me, I would leave this box as-is, and continue to look at 
adding to your P4 system.

Either that, or look at getting another computer that is roughly the 
same caliber to use for this purpose.

You might be able to get a relatively powerful system down at FreeGeek 
for between $50-100, depending on what they have available at the time.


-Jim