The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

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Tosspot
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The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by Tosspot »

I'm trying to put together a way of using a desktop computer system as a DVR/set-top box, in addition to being able to use it for other purposes like purchasing or renting movies and shows through iTunes or whatever other online store...

So, I'm not all that impressed with the Apple TV - too much money for too little in return. And we're all still stuck with having multiple devices running in and out of the big TV.

Windows Media Center - My four year old Dell PC running XP Media Center... not really designed for the scope of media centeredness I'm looking for. Plus frequently when I used it, it sucked.

And as for Linux goes... I've found something called Elisa , but as for the rest of the offerings from Linux go, it still looks like awfully slim pickings. Frankly I'm amazed that telephone, television, and Internet have not all merged together by now and yielded singular computing devices like all-encompassing media center PCs. But I guess that's kind of Apple's intention beginning with the iPhone, among other things.

This seems like a topic that Bahua and KC0KEK might be able to offer some insight on. I wanna build a super-duper mega-awesome PC/media center/server with television cable and DVR as part of the machine... and it seems pretty dumb that in this day and age this isn't commonplace yet.

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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by kuslamb »

The guys at Home Theater Magazine built one a while back.  They are major A/V nerds and brought up pretty interesting issues with regards to heat, noise, storage.  This should give you some pretty good ideas and maybe even the motivation to build your own.

First Build:
http://hometheatermag.com/gearworks/605gearworks/
http://hometheatermag.com/gearworks/705gearworks/

Second Builkd:
http://hometheatermag.com/gearworks/807gw/
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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by anniewarbucks »

That is basicly what most of the set top DVRs are. They have all of the hardware needed to accomplish this end but with all of the copyright laws in place and the DVRs software controlled by the cable companies the machines are basicly a dumb terminal. With the hard drive in place and the capability to add another IDE devices such as a DVD rom and add a USB keyboard and mouse and of course a usb phone these machines can double as a very sophisticated home computer. I do not know what boxes that Time Warner uses but Cox uses motorola set top boxes.
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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by eliphar17 »

Toss, the problem is definitely not technology. I was looking into this just for fun last year (no intention of actually spending money!) and you can certainly build your own computer capable of doing what you want. The actual issue is getting content into your personal box. For subscriber TV services, i.e. anything other than over-the-air local channels, you generally need either a CableCARD or a box with hardware decryption built in. The group that produces CableCARD has not yet made a way to add that functionality to home-built boxes, like with a 3.5" drive bay or something similar. It's technically possible but the copyright issues are too problematic. How do they know you aren't just going to burn DVDs of your HBO movies and sell them to your neighbors? So until that gets worked out, with restrictions on how the content can be used inside your box, you won't be able to build your own DVR to receive 700 satellite channels. You are totally free to do it if all you want is over-the-air channels. I came across MythTV which looked like a very comprehensive software package for Linux to do all this stuff. http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures

Edit: You may actually be able to record basic cable channels through a TV input card. Check out http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto ... cards.html. But premium cable and all satellite are off limits.
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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by KCPowercat »

I just bought a new PC and was playing around with this.  Biggest issue is the cablecards, they only work with select systems (dell has one, hp has one) but the cablecards don't get all the channels due to companies going to Switched Video and the cable cards can't tune those channels (most new HD channels added are switched channels) so at this point, it's impossible to get all channels with anything but a set top box through TWC.

I've had quite a bit of success using vista media center with a 360 extender...gives me more options for recording some stuff on DVR...also cool way to be able to view pics/music in the living room.

Still quite a ways to go before you can do it full throttle though.
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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by midtown »

I've only heard great things about MythTV
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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by KC0KEK »

Tosspot wrote: I wanna build a super-duper mega-awesome PC/media center/server with television cable and DVR as part of the machine... and it seems pretty dumb that in this day and age this isn't commonplace yet.
One reason why it's not commonplace is control: Look at how many companies (e.g., cable ops, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix) would be fighting for control over that box because control means things such as keeping the revenue for yourself and locking out competitors. And unfortunately those turf wars will always be around, so I'm afraid you'd have to try to cobble it together yourself, a la kuslamb's suggestion.
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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by OPIchabod »

This sounds similar to what I've always wanted to do:

Instead of having three or four family members who each have iTunes songs on their laptops, I want to be able to consolidate that into a giant central database (including digital-file movies) that would then be accessible (either wirelessly or hard-wired) to whatever room(s) in the house I have set up. I would have an interface in eligible rooms to access that server.

I'd further want to be able to access that database from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection (Slingbox?)

Could you modify a Slingbox (I'm not exactly sure how they operate) to work internationally and within the house to achieve some set up similar to that described above?
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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by bahua »

With different hardware manufacturers struggling with each other for unilateral copy-protected control over the entire market, nobody will agree to the formation of a company-agnostic standards body, or adhere to one, should it be created. The result is the stagnation of the market, and the fact that it's basically impossible to have a total solution that works with everything. It's essentially the same basic argument that went on with the adoption of VHS tapes, except with more capable technology.

Everyone knows that it's a technology that would be wildly popular, if it would just get moving, so there's a major impasse at hand between companies that want to(and can) control people's access to content.
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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

Post by KC0KEK »

OPIchabod wrote: Instead of having three or four family members who each have iTunes songs on their laptops, I want to be able to consolidate that into a giant central database (including digital-file movies) that would then be accessible (either wirelessly or hard-wired) to whatever room(s) in the house I have set up. I would have an interface in eligible rooms to access that server.

I'd further want to be able to access that database from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection
You can do that today with cloud computing services (e.g., MobileMe).
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Re: The elusive media center pc - not here yet apparently

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