Frustrated Newbie Needs Guidance ....

[amorg7777]

During the past 7-8 years I have "burned-out" 3 DVRs (a Sony, Pani & Toshiba). Needless to say - I record and watch a lot of cable TV and movies. I am tired of purchasing a $ 600+ DVR every several years. My Toshiba just went out about 2 wks ago, along with about 16 "unwatched" shows.

I am a Network Systems Admin and have been working with PCs for about 15 yrs. I am ready to build my "own" DVR(PVR). I have a Dish Network HD box and a Samsung 52" LCD HD 1080i, 120 MHz flat panel (both less than 6 months old). So I got a "specially priced" Dell Vostro 420 tower, Quad Core/2.66 Ghz/1333 FSB/6 GB (800Mhz) DDR2 Memory, 256 ATI Radeon HD 3450, two - 250 GB SATA 7200RPM HDD, 16 DVD+/- RW Drive & WIN XP Pro SP3.

I realize this is an "overkill" but I do not want to "ever" have to purchase another DVR. All I want to do is to "record" off of my Dish box to my new Dell PC and then (at a later time) watch my shows/movies when I want to.
[I would like to out put from the PC to my Samsung using HDMI connection]

I want to use GBPVR software. The only other thing I need is a really good "video capture" card. Could someone give me a recommendation? And if I am missing or overlooking anything else - please let me know. Any and all suggestions or comment are welcomed !! TIA amorg7777

[zed]

If you want to record HD from your Dish box about the only choice is the Hauppauge HD-PVR: http://hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html. Dell had a deal on them the other day for about $150 IIRC. You'll need an IR blaster to control the Dish box...the HD-PVR comes with one but some people have had issues with them. I use a Microsoft unit.

[amorg7777]

Thank you very much - Zed !!!