Crapcast is now $15.95 for DVR service...I'm at my limit...what are my options?

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  • maseline_98
    Senior Member
    • Apr 2005
    • 317

    Crapcast is now $15.95 for DVR service...I'm at my limit...what are my options?

    What are my options to get rid of crapcast? It's been awhile(and I mean about 5+ years) since I put together a machine so I'm a little rusty. I don't know what's out there and what I would need to build a nice machine? Any idea? I have about $400 to spend on something(would prefer that I can record 2 things at once). The machine will be housed in office and would like to stream it to my 360 if all possible(already have a ton of stuff under my tv). What HD PVR should I use? Can I just connect it to my cable line and get HD content? Is WinXP(media edition) still useful or do I need to goto windows 7?

    I just watched a tutorial on mythTV....pretty cool, but I would like to use it for other things besides just a DVR system.

    Sony kds-60a2000\Panasonic BD-55k\XBOX 360 Premium(20gig)Slingbox\Xbox(flashed) running XBMC
    Emotiva UMC-1\Emotiva XPA-5\Klipsch (2)RF-7s with DeanG xover upgrade, RC-7 with DeanG xover upgrade, (2)RS-7s\SVS 20-39PC+

    _____________________________
    “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Einstein
  • impala454
    Ultra Senior Member
    • Oct 2007
    • 3814

    #2
    I have been considering the same thing lately. I've thought about getting the Hauppauge HD PVR. Though this option still requires you have a cable box (non-dvr though). It also requires the purchase of some 3rd party software to make it work with Windows Media Center.

    But if you can wait, the Ceton Cable Tuner may be the holy grail for a lot of us (depending on how long CableCards are supported). With one card it will hook into media center and let you record up to six channels.

    I would say you'd definitely want Windows 7. I am using it currently and its media center is great. It also runs nicely on the xbox 360s (I have on in the bedroom that I use solely to stream media to). If all you want to do is stream media you already have (i.e. not watch live TV), you can already do this with Windows Media Player and any version of windows XP and up. Explanation here

    Either way I hate the current box/software that Comcast has and really wish there was a better solution than building a PC or buying peripherals.
    -Chuck

    Comment

    • Hdale85
      Moderator Emeritus
      • Jan 2006
      • 16075

      #3
      I agree with Chuck.

      Get one of the newer cable card tuners that have multiple tuners off one card. According to a US law all cable companies are supposed to offer cable cards so go through the chains and find someone that knows what you're talking about. I called one guy and they didn't know anything about cable cards so you might have to go through a few people.

      Generally for ease of use having a PC built just for DVR or media center functions is probably easiest.

      Personally I'm running Ubuntu with XBMC. Now if I did a cable card setup that would change some because currently XBMC doesn't support TV tuner functions. MythTV can be extremely nice and Mythbuntu usually makes it easier. The new version of Media Center has made things a lot nicer though on the windows side but there still are some limitations as far as other media that you either have to hack your way into or there just isn't a way to do it yet.

      So really it just depends on what you are trying to do with the box.

      Comment

      • maseline_98
        Senior Member
        • Apr 2005
        • 317

        #4
        Originally posted by impala454
        But if you can wait, the Ceton Cable Tuner may be the holy grail for a lot of us (depending on how long CableCards are supported). With one card it will hook into media center and let you record up to six channels.
        Yeah...I've been waiting for this thing for quite some time, but every month I wait, it another month that comcast gets $16 more of my money...


        Originally posted by Dougie085

        Get one of the newer cable card tuners that have multiple tuners off one card.
        Any suggestions as to which one's are out there(other than the previous that have been mentioned).

        Originally posted by Dougie085
        So really it just depends on what you are trying to do with the box.
        I would like to use it as a media center, but also day to day webserving and windows office materials like excel. I don't really need to be able to stream online like content(like fancast or hulu or youtube or anything like that).

        Any suggestions as to which hardware to buy(i.e. mobo's/cpus/ram/video card/HD/capture card/etc) I should be looking for. My budget is pretty tight. I even though of buying an old P4 from like surpluscomputers.com for around $100, but I didn't know if it would have enough processing power to do the live conversion.

        Sony kds-60a2000\Panasonic BD-55k\XBOX 360 Premium(20gig)Slingbox\Xbox(flashed) running XBMC
        Emotiva UMC-1\Emotiva XPA-5\Klipsch (2)RF-7s with DeanG xover upgrade, RC-7 with DeanG xover upgrade, (2)RS-7s\SVS 20-39PC+

        _____________________________
        “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Einstein

        Comment

        • impala454
          Ultra Senior Member
          • Oct 2007
          • 3814

          #5
          Originally posted by maseline_98
          Yeah...I've been waiting for this thing for quite some time, but every month I wait, it another month that comcast gets $16 more of my money...
          You don't really have much choice... there's not currently any cablecard product out there that you can purchase off the shelf, unless you buy a complete system which has the tuner already in it.
          -Chuck

          Comment

          • stgdz
            Member
            • May 2009
            • 60

            #6
            Originally posted by impala454
            You don't really have much choice... there's not currently any cablecard product out there that you can purchase off the shelf, unless you buy a complete system which has the tuner already in it.
            Actually the cable card requirements have been relaxed to allow diy users to build cable card systems, the only requirement is that it must be a windows 7 system.

            MCE is a nice piece of software, its dead nuts simple to setup and is nice to look at and very easy to navigate. The problem with MCE is that there is DRM restrictions on your recorded shows if the provider specifies a restriction. This is in place for a lot of HD content out there now.

            What I use is sagetv, that is a server client setup. The server is my Windows home server box and my clients are different computers. Your server doesn't have to a be a whs system as it can run sagetv. Sage allows you do to what ever you want with your recordings, I use a silicon dust tuner to get all my local hd channels on cable(cable can't restrict them) and use a hauppage HD-PVR to record component out into transport streams(blu ray compatible formats).

            Its a really nice program and has all the flexibility that MCE doesn't

            Comment

            • maseline_98
              Senior Member
              • Apr 2005
              • 317

              #7
              I guess the new Ceton card will be out on March 31st....It's going to have a retail price of $399. I'm sure the price will drop quickly. I might consider it if it gets down to $300 street price...

              Sony kds-60a2000\Panasonic BD-55k\XBOX 360 Premium(20gig)Slingbox\Xbox(flashed) running XBMC
              Emotiva UMC-1\Emotiva XPA-5\Klipsch (2)RF-7s with DeanG xover upgrade, RC-7 with DeanG xover upgrade, (2)RS-7s\SVS 20-39PC+

              _____________________________
              “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Einstein

              Comment

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