Looking for a PVR solution

[augie]

I currently have analog cable and soon to be digital though not HDTV. My TV has composite, S-Video and regular cable input. The TV is four feet away through a closet into another room and I have a wireless/wired router. I also don't have XP MCE.

So far I understand that I need a recorder/TV tuner and a reader MediaMVP to play it on my TV. Will this setup work with the following hardware?

MEDIAMVP DIGITAL MEDIA RECEIVER BRIDGE HOME PCS/TVS REMOTE CONTROL

WINTV-PVR-150 HARDWARE MPEG2 PCI TV TUNER WITH TV RECORDING

This is mainly for TV but playing other media would be nice. I've done some research but as I get deeper I get more confused. Thanks for any help. Oh, PC specs in my sig.

[TheBosZ]

Dang, I had a huge post for a reply and then lost it.

So I'll summarize:

If you get digital cable, it would be easiest to ask your cable company for a DVR/PVR upgrade.

You can connect your computer directly to your TV.

The PVR-150 is a good card, and the Media MVP are a good choice, but you might be able to do it easier without it.

Feel free to ask questions, it took me like a month to figure it all out.

[Mr. Camaro]

The TV is four feet away through a closet into another room.

Use the PVR-150 as your capture device. Your cable coax will then connect to this and be used to record your programs to the hard drive. This means you will need to have a cable jack near to your computer. You can then use the MVP on the TV. There is a wireless version and a wired version as well. The MVP comes with a remote.

There is another option since your so close to the TV. You say your are 4 feet away through the closet. You could just get a long S-Video cable and drill though the wall and pass your S-Video from your computer through the wall to your TV. The S-Video would connect to your TV on one end and a TV-Out (Say from your Video Card) on the computer end. You then connect the cable coax to your PVR-150 in the computer. If you don't have a jack by the computer you would probably then have to pass your cable coax from the TV side through the same hole and run it to the computer. Then you would also need to pass your IR Reciever through the wall so it is connected to the Computer on one end and the sensor is on the other end near your TV. This is assuming you get the PVR 150 that comes with a remote. Doing it like this you don't need the MVP. Response will also be faster with the remote on this system than with the MVP. The MVP has a small lag since it is passing everything through the network.

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/...vr150.html

Hope this helps...Anyone else fell free to chime in if something doesn't sound completely logical.

[augie]

Then you would also need to pass your IR Reciever through the wall so it is connected to the Computer on one end and the sensor is on the other end near your TV.

The IR Blaster cable is one meter in length

Ah, thanks for the hint on this. It will be a tight fit though with only a couple of inches to spare. As to the rest, my splitter is next to the rig so that isn't a problem and I have a friend with the proper tools to make the custom coax cables. I'll let ya'll know what happens. Thanks.

@TheBosZ Ouch man, I hated when that used to happen until I started using FireFox though thanks for the effort. The PVR is too expensive for me, $400 CDN, to justify ATM. The gf is sick of the VCR, since it's 'old'. She wants to buy a DVD/VCR combo for around $150, which would be a waste so I'll get the 150 w/remote for $117. I hope this stops her nagging me for wanting to buy a new toy to play with on my computer.

EDIT: (Correct Typo) The closet is 32" deep and not 4'.