Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with TV and dvr

Is there a good third-party TV guide website that interfaces with DirecTV?

nitsuj — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:48:55 -0800

Is there a good third-party TV guide website that interfaces with DirecTV? I have DirecTV, and currently use their website's TV guide to see what's showing, and schedule stuff to record directly to my (DTV-provided/branded -- not Tivo) DVR. Problem is, their guide mostly sucks -- I can't specify which channels I want to see; the default shows all channels, most of which I don't care about.

Is there a good third-party TV guide website that will allow me to customize the list, as well as set programs to record directly to my DVR?

Building my own DVR with Linux and Comcast

dcrocha — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:03:17 -0800

I want to build my own Linux-based DVR. Need some help on the specs and interop with Comcast Digital Starter Cable. Hi all,

I have decided to build my own Linux-based DVR to record and play the shows I get with Comcast Digital Starter cable package. I have read quite a few tutorials and all seems "easy" at first. However I would like to double-check with the hivemind on a few things.

My setup:

- Standard Dell destkop computer with 160 GB of Hard Drive and 2 GB of RAM
- Linux Ubuntu 9.04
- Comcast Digital Starter package with Motorola DCH70 set-top box. no HiDef channels.

1) I understand that I must buy a TV tuner card to receive the digital cable signal. Given my hw/sw setup, will this one do? Does it have a Linux driver?

2) Most tutorials and articles speak of "clear" vs "encrypted" cable signals. Why is that important? I "kind of" understood that encrypted = HD. However I don't have HD definition currently, and don't plan to get it. Will the TV tuner card mentioned above receive correctly the signal from Comcast?

3) The same articles say "plug the cable to your computer as you'd to your TV". However my cable doesn't plug directly into the TV. It goes first into the DCH70 box then there's another cable from there to the TV. Does that mean that I have to keep the set-top box and plug the cable going out of it (RF out) to the computer, then from the computer to the TV? Or should I insert the computer between the wall cable and the DCH70?

4) Using one of the standard DVR softwares for Linux (MythTV, Sage TV) will I be able to record more than one channel at the same time? How about watching a channel live and recording another at the same time?

I got excited about this DIY project and I feel like going through with it, but would like a little help from MeFi so I don't shell out some bucks just to find out that the setup doesn't work because Comcast blocks something or the setup is somehow incompatible with it.

New HDTV Owner, Hookup with my Mac Mini?

gramcracker — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:47:33 -0800

Just bought a Sharp Aquos LC37D43U and am planning to use my G4 Mac Mini for at least a DVD player--but can I have it do more? And how would the setup work? I'm a computer techie, but all this TV stuff is new to me. Still trying to decide if I want the huge monthly cost of cable.

1) I'm assuming there's no way to hook up my cable (or just antennae) to the TV, and then have the Mac Mini pull the TV signal from the TV back to the Mac Mini, for DVR functions, right? (ie: use the TV as an output.) Also, are there DVR options for a Mac/Mac Mini, or should I just chip in and get a TiVO or DVR from my cable company, RCN?

2) Re: #1, so if I wanted to do any of that, I'd need a TV Tuner for my Mac Mini, right? And for most people they use EyeTV, hook up their cable to the EyeTV, and then run the output thru their Mac into their TV?

3) To use Boxee or Plex, I just have to have my Mini connected to the internet and then connect the Mini to the TV, right?

So I guess in summary, my question boils down to:
* Are there DVR options for the Mini, and how do they work (or should I just get a TiVO) and
* How do I use my Mac Mini as a media server/Boxee/Plex with my new TV?

I'm a Comcast customer is looking to expand my TV horizons.

bamassippi — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:27:25 -0800

I'm a Comcast customer is looking to expand my TV horizons. The wife and I are looking into DVR options. We currently use Comcast (Seattle, WA) w/HD channels and, due to our apartment complex, do not have the option of Dish/DirecTV.

I would prefer a TiVo HD recorder due to TiVo's position in the market ad an industry leader. What successes/failures/thoughts do you have on TiVos current DVR technology

Is Comcast's DVR technology worth it? Obviously, the month-to-month payment is more wallet-friendly than the investment of a TiVo, though I didn't know if the end result was any better.

Thoughts?

Can I force my DVR to pick up a later showing of a program?

IndigoRain — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:19:39 -0800

Is there a way to force our DVR to record a later showing of a program? So my family just got DirectTV with a DVR. I'd like to catch up on my Jetsons, which is shown on Boomerang 3 times a day (the same episode all 3 times). The problem is, the first showing of the day is at 6:00am, at which time there is another show I want to record, and another show my mom wants to record. (The other time slots are 2:30am and 12:30pm, but the 2:30am showing is the episode from the previous day.) Our DVR only has 2 tuners, so we can only record 2 at once. Even if I go to one of the later time slots for The Jetsons in the guide and start the Record Series there, by the next day it goes back to picking up the first episode of the day, leaving us with a recording conflict. Is there any way to force the DVR to record a later showing of the same episode?

a tivo we will go, a tivo we will go...

griffey — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:47:59 -0800

What's the best TIVO for me? We're completely fed up with our cable company (Charter) and their DVR service. We just got a new Motorola DVR from them, and the interface is so bad its impossible to use...looks like they let the engineers do User Interface work. Horrible.

I'm looking at grabbing a Tivo to replace it with, but can't find answers to a few questions: will replacing the cable box affect the channels we can receive? I could ask Charter, but don't think I'd get a straight answer, somehow.

Also, what's the difference between the Tivo HD Series 2 and the Series 3, besides nearly $200? What's the Series 3 got that makes it worth the extra cash? In a situation where we've got one central TV room, and a (right now) non-HD TV (although that will change within the year), and both of us would love to be able to use Tivo-to-go...what's the right Tivo for us?

Watching free over-the-air digital TV with a Mac-compatible solution.

cahlers — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:18:40 -0800

What is the best system to watch over-the-air digital TV with a Mac-compatible solution, and utilize the Mac as a DVR? I'm interested in using my Mac with a for-Mac digital tuning system to watch free, over-the-air digital TV signals, and to utilize DVR functions. I currently do not subscribe to cable. Will Miglia, Formac Studio TVR, or Elgato Systems EyeTV allow me to watch free, over-the-air digital TV signals? Which are best, and do they all allow integration with Titan TV? I am a newbie as far as this is concerned, so clear explanations without too much jargon are very much appreciated. I currently have a G4 1 GHz Powerbook, but am considering getting a Mac mini or iMac if I can be persuaded of the advantages. Also, I have a relatively old Sony analog TV - could I use this as the monitor?

I apologize if this has been covered before, but I did not find too much relevant to this particular question in an Ask MeFi search.

Taping DVR playback on VHS

JanetLand — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:20:23 -0800

I have a TV/VCR combo. If I get a DVR through the cable company, can I record to VHS tapes from the DVR playback? I'm thinking of getting digital cable and DVR, through Time Warner. A lot of times I like to record shows onto VHS tapes to watch in the other room, where I have a TV and VCR sitting in front of my treadmill. Or I like to take tapes over to boyfriend's house to watch there. So, if I play back what the DVR has recorded, can I tape it using the built-in VCR?

The last time I had a digital cable box it was a pain to record to VHS because I had to make sure I left the box on the right channel, so it would be nice if the DVR could handle all that for me and I just put it on VHS at my leisure.

My VCR needs a digital replacement!

Camofrog — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:29:42 -0800

My VCR died. I want to replace it with a digital recorder ... ... preferably one that accepts and dupes videotapes to a digital format (allowing me to archive my tapes so I can junk them), plus burns DVDs. I also want it to have a built-in tuner and remote. And, of course, a hard drive. Are these out there for under, say, $300-$400? Recommendations?

Need help Building a PVR

WizKid — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:41:05 -0800

I'm planning on building a PVR and need advice on TV card, PC and the PVR software. Hi All,

I'm planning on building a PVR and have some questions. I have looked in these places.
1 http://www.byopvr.com/
2 http://ask.metafilter.com/28294/How-to-record-tv-on-my-PC
3 http://ask.metafilter.com/51757/Recommendations-for-a-TV-Tuner-Capture-Card
4 http://ask.metafilter.com/72954/Help-me-find-the-best-TV-tuner-card-for-my-setup
5 http://lifehacker.com/software/dvr/screenshot-tour-roll-your-own-dvr-and-media-center-with-mediaportal-244343.php
6 http://lifehacker.com/software/dvr/hack-attack-build-your-own-dvr-165963.php
7 http://www.makezine.com/extras/4.html

TV Card
1. For the TV card I'm looking at Hauppauge products. I know that PVR-500 is the only card with dual tuners. But what is the difference in other cards. (150, 150MCE, 150LP, 250, 250MCE, 350)

2. Which would be better an Internal card or an external USB device?

3. Which would be better, 2 single tuner cards or one dual tuner card ? (I'm planning on buying used from ebay.)

4. Should I buy NTSC or PAL? (I think USA is NTSC, but anyway I'll ask just to be sure)

5. My TV is a regular Toshiba CRT TV. How do I connect the TV to the PC? This image[http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/6471/pvr500epbgpc7.jpg] of PVR-500 shows Composite Video In [Yellow port] and Audio In [white and Red ports]. I have similar ports in my TV which I use to connect the DVD player.
Can I connect the TV to TV card using these ports [similar to connecting a DVD player]? [I also have a S-Video port in the TV.]
If the TV card doesn't have such A/V ports do I need to buy a VGA card with A/V ports?
If so whenever I change from TV to Video on my TV can I see the computer desktop on my TV?

PC
6. Currently I don't have a PC for this and I'm planning on buying a used one. [Looking for something above 2GHz] Any advise on the PC?

7. I could find a Celleron 500MHz PC for free. Will it do the job? probably not :-)

PVR software
8. I'm torn between MediaPortal and GB-PVR. Any advice?

9. Planning on using Schedule Direct for TV guide. Any better/free sources?

10. Any advice on plugins for skipping commercials and Intelligent program suggestions.

Any other tips and tricks welcome!
Thanks in advance

I've got the summer tv blues

pinky — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:01:54 -0800

Do good what-to-watch TV blogs or webpages exist? I'd love to maximize the usefulness of my DVR, now that all the finales have happened and nothing new is recording. The weekly tv calendar in Entertainment Weekly is a good start, but not nearly enough.

(and "get out more" is not a viable answer!)

options for watching tv shows "on demand"

willmillar — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 19:44:06 -0800

what kind of solutions are there to watching tv shows "on demand." i have to watch my budget and the $1.99 charges are uneasy. i know torrenting is a possibility, but i've been becoming more and more wary of torrenting. i use an imac running os x 10.4 - are there any solutions to be found there? is tivo (or a similar dvr) my only option here? i'm aware that i could set up a box running mythtv, but i have neither the time nor resources for that. i have come across software (via google i must admit) -- alchemytv that says it is a dvr app for os x, but the imac has no coax in. if i were running a windows tower, i'd just install a new video card, but not with the imac. i'm also not willing to crack open the imac to install a video card (if that is even a possibility?). is there some sort of external coax solution?

after writing this all down, it seems i may have ruled out all my options already! just figured it couldn't hurt to look for some more options, or if i haven't explored all fully.

thanks for your help and input - it is very appreciated.

-will

Is closed circuit HDTV a possibility?

nickerbocker — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:01:57 -0800

Is closed circuit HDTV a possibility? My company has had video upgrades in discussion for a little over a year now and we still haven't found a solution that we are satisfied with. We initially were going towards an all digital camera network run through GigaBitE and Cat6 cable. After looking over some configuration, I have not been all that impressed with the quality or the ease of use.

I have brought up that it is getting to the point that if we are looking at anything new that it should be HD compatible.

From my home use experience I can get HDTV signals through a simple RG59 coax cable that runs from my HDTV (w/ tuner) to my antenna on my roof. I've been very pleased with the quality that comes out of this and am now wondering if implementing something similar for our work camera network is feasible.

My question is, are there any close circuit HDTV setups available on the market today? My vision is to be able to plug in each of our cameras into a encoder/modulator/broadcaster device that is able to set each camera on a digital channel in the VHS band and available to an HDTV tuner on this coax network.

This seems to have 3 big benefits that I can see right now:
1. Our existing camera hardware, even though not HD currently, can be used on this network. Over time we can upgrade cameras to produce true HD video to broadcast on this network.
2. Ease of use for the employees. Everyone knows how to flip through channels on their television and the end result would be a similar interface.
3. I'm assuming that the coax HDTV network can be daisy chained so that the cable goes to each encoder/modulator/broadcast box and out the other end. With the Cat6 network that we were looking at each camera had to have an individual wire going to a centralized gigabit switch. This would mean a lot of wires.

The only downside that I can see to setting things up this way is that the signals will be a one-way thing. W/ the Cat6 network we had the option of pan/tilt/zoom cameras that could be controlled from a monitoring station. This may not be possible with close circuit television.

Thoughts and ideas are really needed badly here. I would also like any links to equipment that has implemented what I have in mind. We may even need a consulting group to bring in on the project so that it is done "right."

Bonus question: what would be a good DVR that has HD tuner capabilities and where video files that are recorded with the DVR are accessible over a computer network? The video files need to be computer accessible as well, as in no nasty DRM on top of the files or a horribly proprietary format. We produce our own video here.

Thanks for all your input!

DVR Setup?

retro88 — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 23:10:25 -0800

Simplest home DIY home DVR setup? What is the simplest possible setup for home DVR? We have no cable but want to record and playback over-air TV shows to hard drive rather than investing in yet another crappy VCR and store bunches of tapes. I have a Windows XP Pro computer in the office that I could use to run Media Center, and wouldn't be opposed to doing something on Linux in a virtual machine. If necessary I could connect to a box by my TV via wireless or Cat-5 but I don't have coax cable running to the office (the TV is not in the office). I may subscribe to cable eventually but for now just the simple VCR functionality is what I'd like to do. Looking at home pictures and movies on the TV would be great as well. What hardware/software should I get? What should I think about for upgraded functionality in the future?

I don't mind investing some money in hardware but want to avoid any solution that requires a subscription fee.

Can I record straight to my iPod?

beammeup4 — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 23:06:18 -0800

Can I record video from my ATI DVR straight to my iPod? I've got an ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 tuner with the ability to record shows onto your computer like a DVR. The software has a number of recording settings, including an option to define your own custom record settings.

Does anyone with this device or an ATI All-in-Wonder know if you can define the video recording settings in a way that it is automatically compatible with the iPod? There is an option to record in MPEG-4, but it records it with an AVI extension that I can't drag into iTunes.

Roll my own torrent player for my TV

blueplasticfish — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:47:48 -0800

How can I build a machine (PVR?) that downloads torrents automatically via RSS and allows me to access them in a Tivo/DVR/PVR like interface on my television? Ideally, I'd like to be able to control it through a remote. I don't watch a lot of TV, and therefore don't have cable. I do, however, enjoy a lot of educational shows and would like to be able to download and watch them on my television (not monitor).

I know there are a bunch of howtos out there about how to roll your own PVR/DVR, but none of them quite get me where I want to go. And, I know there are things like Torrentocracy and MythTV, which is very close to what I am looking for so maybe I just need some direction there. There has to be something like this available somewhere.

XP Media Center & DirecTV DVR connection/set-up

Mrs. Smith — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 08:37:17 -0800

Need help connecting my DirecTV DVR and my new laptop with Windows XP Media Center. I would like to make this a wireless connection, if possible, so I don't have to be near the TV to watch a program. (It seems pointless to me to have to plug in my laptop to my TV to watch my TV.)

The computers are networked, running on an SBC/Yahoo! DSL connected router...all XP computers.

I would like to be able to watch and record TV on my laptop. (I'm not as interested in using the laptop as a giant remote control.)

I would also like to be able to burn a DVD on my laptop of programs that I've recorded on my DVR.

Any help and/or advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know much at all about Media Center Edition at this point, so any tips or tricks that you would like to pass along would also be appreciated.

Thanks!

Strange problem with half of my cable TV connections

flyby22 — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 07:00:51 -0800

Some strange problem with my cable TV. I was connecting a new Sylvania DVR/VCR unit in my bedroom. I used to have a Sony DVD/VCR in that same place and the cable reception used to be just fine. First thing I noticed after attaching the new unit is that the signal quality is very poor. But anyway then I come down to living room which has the Comcast's digital set top box connected to the wall outlet. I noticed there was no signal on TV and box was displaying a 'this channel would be available soon' message. Usually that means some kind of bad or no connection. Before I went up to the bedroom everything was running fine. Did plugging in the DVR/VCR unit blow the cable circuit ?
The way my place is set up is I have a splitter in attic which breaks up the incoming line into two circuits - one going down the front part of the house and other going down the back part. The back part also has a Comcast installed signal amplifier right after the splitter. The back line is further split to connect to the above mentioned DVD(R)/VCR setup in the bedroom and the digital settop box in living room.

After this blip last night the small TVs connected to the front side cable circuit seems to work just fine. I went up into the attic to take the amplifier out of the path and the signal was almost zero at that point in the bedroom DVR/VCR unit. I am now wondering if one side of the attic splitter blew up. Can that happen ? and just from plugging in a new VCR unit in the wall? strange.

I was planning on taking my small LCD TV into the attic and connecting it directly to the splitter output to see if the problem was there.

Have you guys seen such things before ?

Will satellite give me the same features as digital cable?

Juicylicious — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:43:52 -0800

Digital satellite? Digital cable? [mi] I HATE Time Warner Cable. These are the most incompetent group of people that I've ever had to deal with. That said, I love digital cable itself. I particularly like the On Demand service and DVR boxes. Currently, I share the cable internet and digital service with the guys downstairs. It costs aprox. $185 pre mo. Unfortunately, the On Demand doesn't work most of the time and the boxes have to be constantly rebooted. I'm totally fed up.

Will satellite give me the same features as digital cable? Can I have DVR boxes and view different channels on different tvs at the same time? Is it more cost effective than cable? What about installation? Does satellite have On Demand?

Tivo

lilboo — Sat, 25 Sep 2004 19:04:22 -0800

Once upon a time, there was a young(ish) girl who had a cable box, a tivo box, a VCR, and a televison that played together quite nicely. She could record one channel on the Tivo, and watch a different channel, AT THE SAME TIME. Then one day the evil cable company convinced this girl to upgrade to digital service, and now, alas, she cannot figure out how to recreate this lost paradise. Why (oh why!) is this scenario no longer so? Can anyone answer her call of distress? [For we have to get ourselves back to the garrr-r-den!]

Seriously, any ideas? 'Cause this really BLOWS.

TiVO KillFilters

nakedcodemonkey — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 20:30:40 -0800

TiVoFilter Is there any way to create killfilters in TiVo? Essentially the equivalent of a Season Pass, but to mark a series as "ignore every instance of this series"? [mi] Thumbs-down and WishList sub-categorizing/prioritizing isn't getting the job done. Manually deleting crap to reduce conflicts with good stuff is defeating the purpose of automation. There's gotta be a better way, right? Educate me, oh wise TiVo-ones. (This is a standard Series2, by the way.)