Newbie asking how to set up system concept

[danoid]

Hello all,

Another newbie asking questions…

What I have:
HP ZV5160US laptop, 2.2GHz Intel, 1152 MB ram, ATI Mobility Radeon 9100 IGP AGP w/ 128 (shared) MB ram, 802.11g wireless, 60 GB hard drive, WinXP Pro.
Homebuild desktop, AMD 2.0 GHz oc’d to 2.22, 1056 MB Ram, DVD burner, over 500 GB disk space, WinXP Pro.
Dlink DI624 router.
NetGear SC101 Storage Central w/ (1) 300 GB drive.
Sony SAT-A50 DirecTV receiver.
USB -> RS-232 converter.

Tests I have completed successfully:
Control of DirecTV receiver through laptop / DirecTV Control V 1.82.
Playback of DVD video across wireless off of SC101 through laptop / TV.

Things I know I need:
USB or PCMCIA tuner/video recorder – looking at Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2

What I want to do:
Record off of DirecTV, analyze & remove commercials, and archive on SC101 network storage, play back same through laptop.
Play back ripped DVD’s off of SC101 through laptop.
Ripping/burning has to be done on the desktop, video analysis on either.

Three questions:

One – what more hardware / software do I need that I don’t know about? I haven't downloaded the main program yet, I want to have the pieces in place before I start.

Two – what problems am I likely to run into?

Three – are my expectations unreasonable?

[reboot]

If you're recording TO the SC101, then I'd suggest a PVR-150 in the desktop, record locally, remove commercials, then automated moving of the file to the SC101.
If you must use the laptop for your recording, I suggest the USB2, and record locally, remove commercials, then move the file as above.

All you need to do, is decide which way you want to record, then get the appropriate device, gbpvr, comskip, and whatever software you wish to use for commercial cutting (Cuttermaran with comclean 2, original comclean with mencoder, VideoReDo, etc.).
Moving the files to storage can be done within gbpvr's postprocessing.bat

Realize that you will want internet access on the recording machine, for TV Guide updates, which could be done over the LAN, but much easier with direct access.
As your laptop, by definition is portable, having a card in the desktop makes more sense, although you haven't mentioned controlling the STB from your desktop.

Clear as mud?

[danoid]

The laptop has to do the recording, it's near the TV and sat box. I'm not going to pay DirecTV for a second receiver. Problem is the laptop doesn't have much disk space.

Also the laptop can be left on 24/7, it's much quieter. The router will provide internet and the connection to the network storage.

'Console' type work, requiring a keyboad/mouse, I'd prefer to do on the desktop.

Can one set of software/data operating from the network storage be worked on with two computers?

[reboot]

If you're doing all recording with the laptop, I would also do the processing (commercial removal) immediately, then shift the file over to the storage, allowing room for the next recording.
If you use something like DirMon, then you could record to the laptop, send the file to the PC, have the processing done there, then send the finished file to the storage.
Providing there's no conflicts, either computer should be able to work on the files on the storage device. You may even be able to open, and process the same file simultaneously, but not save at the same time.