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Vol. 7, No. 1
1-4-07
1 New Year’s resolution: The DVR
2 What is this thing again?
3 XBox 360 the big 2006 winner, auto Wi-Fi, MacWorld hype, third world laptops
4
5 ME stands for More Errors
Early in 2006 I wrote about building a DVR with a capture card I already had using the KnoppMyth Linux distro. That little project moved from the front burner to the back burner, then completely off the stove.
Toward the end of December I decided I was going to finally build the thing. With a break from the newsletter and the short work weeks/long weekends due to the holidays I couldn’t resist.
I started out with hardware I had in my “junk” stash, starting with a Biostar M7VIG motherboard with an AMD Athlon 2500+ processor and 1 GB of DDR memory. After installing the base hardware in a castoff case with a 400 watt power supply I started gathering the rest of the needed pieces.
For video I went with an ATI Radeon 9550 with 256 MB of DDR on board, a SoundBlaster 5.1 Live! Value sound card and the aforementioned tuner card, an old STB with a BrookTree chipset. For drives I used a DVD +/- RW from an old Gateway PC, a Western Digital 160 GB IDE hard drive and a standard floppy. What can I say, I’m old school…
I slid the box into the spot abandoned by my old DSL modem/router/firewall PC and hooked it to the existing keyboard and mouse and an astonishing Compaq 14” CRT monitor.
Booting with the latest KnoppMyth CD led me through a standard install, creating partitions, formatting, installing software etc. I had to install a driver package for the ATI video card but otherwise everything was recognized and seemed to work properly. That’s when my underwhelming experience went south.
Scanning for available channels produced only 12 and, unlike what one who grew up with UHF TVs would guess, they weren’t channels 2-13. The picture quality of the video signal was horrid and the audio output to the TV didn’t work.
So much for a basically free little do-it-yourself project. The road to actually making this work started with wiping the hard drive and starting over with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Having never touched this OS before, this was an adventure all on it’s own but, aside from a little glitch in the install routine that kept asking for CD2 when it actually wanted CD1, it went like any other XP load.
After installing drivers for the video card and sound card I discovered that the old STB capture card wasn’t supported, hence more cash outlay.
I ordered a Happauge WinPVR 150MCE, which worked like a
charm. With a supported card it was a
breeze to set up the channel layout. The
To pipe the audio output to the TV I used a 3.5mm M to 3.5mm F/F splitter into the speaker jack. That allowed connection to the L/R Audio In jacks on the TV with a 3.5mm M to L/R RCA M adapter cable as well as a standard set of PC speakers.
The video signal was straight M/M RCA from the ATI card to the Video In port on the TV.
I put a coax splitter on the cable input and took one side to my VCR (which I use as a tuner for the TV) and one side to an A/B coax switch for the DVR. The other side of the switch was for the output from the VCR, possible without another splitter because I use composite (RCA) cables to connect the VCR to the TV.
The switch allows me to record both live cable and VHS tapes I’ve saved over the years.
The picture quality and ease of use was so impressive I splurged and swapped the pathetic 14” monitor out for an Acer 19” LCD… Yet more money.
In the long run, even though most of the hardware was stuff I had around the house, I spent about $120 on absolutely necessary parts (tuner card, cable splitter and a 10’ coax patch cable). The total outlay with stuff I could have lived without (the LCD, the OS, the A/B switch etc.) was around $500 and if I’d started from scratch and purchased everything it would have been in the neighborhood of $1200-1300.
That sounds like a ridiculous price when you can buy a TiVo for $70-250 plus $20 per month for the subscription, but consider what I got. I got an additional computer to surf the web, use for email, burn CDs and DVDs, play games etc. I got the TiVo capability to record TV shows to a hard drive, pause live TV etc. I got the ability to capture old VHS tapes to hard drive for burning to DVD. I don’t have to deal with any DRM or Broadcast Flag issues and I got an additional TV.
A PC, TiVo, VHS/DVD recorder and a 19” TV separately would set you back around $1200-1500 depending on brands and features, plus $20 per month for the TiVo subscription.
And if you don’t really need a dedicated box for your needs you can add a simple tuner card like an ATI TV Wonder to an existing PC, upgrade the video card to something with TV Out if you don’t already have that feature and pick up a couple of cables and a cable splitter. Most average tuner cards come with software that will record the TV signal on any newer version of Windows so an existing XP Home or Pro would work fine.
That project could be finished for under $200 even with the video card, but as usual with my projects I got carried away.
Obviously there are some things that need to be tweaked and settings that you’ll want to change but this article has run long as it is. If you decide to undertake something like this please email with any questions and I’ll be happy to answer.
Welcome to 2007 :)
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
In a report which may come as a shock to many – before they
read
between the lines – Microsoft scored a big hit last year when its Xbox
360 outsold both Sony's PS3 and the hotly anticipated Nintendo Wii
over the holidays:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/gaming/news/2007/01/04/Xbox-360-Outsells-Wii-PS3-Over-Xmas/p1
Autonet Mobile, a wireless technology based company, is expected to
make an announcement regarding signing a contract with Avis Rent-A-Car
System to provide rolling Wi-Fi for Avis Customers:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5538
The iHype about the upcoming MacWorld keynote is at its peak. All
rise for The Steve:
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/features/frankenrumor-apple-keynote-macworld-07-225598.php
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) hopes to begin mass production of its
low-cost notebooks aimed at children in developing nations in August
or September:
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1133844373
Copy us on the good stuff, especially if its unfounded, fantasy-driven
rumors ;-)
Matthew Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
www.mattstodayinhistory.com
Download of the Week
The new Windows
Vista is scheduled to be released January 30, 2007.
Desktop Sidebar does
the same thing with zillions of add-ons such as a file browser, a weather feed,
news updates and an e-mail checker. So
you can get the feel of
Art Maley
Email Question of the Week
Q: When my computer starts up I get the message: Error Starting Programm. The IPHLPAPL.DLL file can not start. Check the file to determine the problem. When I click ok message goes away and everything works ok. If this is meaningless how do I stop the message.
A: When Microsoft developed WinMe, it errantly
redesigned the
Iphlpapi.dll file with a flaw in it. This flaw may be responsible for
the error message reported here. You can get a fix for this problem by
visiting
http://download.microsoft.com/download/winme/update/13195/winme/en-us/279866usam.exe
and downloading the selected update. After downloading
the file, open
My Computer and locate it on your system. Double-click the file to
launch the installation. Follow the on-screen instructions and then
reboot your computer to complete the process.
Good luck,
Art Maley
artman@gmail.com
http://savetheinternet.org
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