New to PVR (Help required)

[Murchmeister]

hello all.

I am new to PVR and am thinking of setting up a system, but i have zero knowledge on the basics, can you point me to a newbie post i cant find one for the beginner.

Thanking you

[chasef]

Murchmeister,
For starters, http://www.byopvr.com has some decent stuff to get you going. From my own personal experience, you basically wanna pick out a case that you like and will fit whatever hardware components you think will suffice for running what you want (I use my PVR box as a full-blown computer and not just a recorder). A big factor to consider is how big a hard drive you get, as recordings can quickly fill the things up. I got an 80 GB and am having to be kinda frugal with what I keep so you might wanna consider at least a 120 GB or more. The other biggie is what TV card you get. I like the Hauppauge line (probably a 150/250/350 model) and a number of other people do, as well. You can go here and see what they have and then hunt elsewhere for a good price. If you're looking for hardware stuff (including the TV card), http://www.newegg.com has pretty much everything I've ever needed for computer parts at pretty good prices. Any more questions, just hit me up through e-mail, AIM, whatever! Good luck! Oh, and if you're looking for spiffy cases and maybe some other gadgets, here are some good sites for that: http://www.xoxide.com, http://www.frozencpu.com, http://www.thinkgeek.com.

[Murchmeister]

many thanks,

one quick question, is there a card that i can connet my sky dish to. Does the HW that i put in my PC decode the sattelite signal?

[chasef]

Murchmeister,
I'm not as familiar with satellite cards but I think that there are cards out there that will decode certain satellite signals, but don't quote me on that. For more dish/TV card stuff, though, I'd see if I can snag someone else on here who knows more about it. Oh, and I added some more stuff in my previous post, just so you know.

[sub]

Unfortunately no PC cards are capable for decrypting Sky's VideoGuard transmissions, so if you want to receive Sky, you need to have GB-PVR connected to your Sky set-top box. You can use an IR Blaster to tell the sky box to change channels at the appropriate time.

[Murchmeister]

Thanks Sub.

how do i connect my digi-box to my PC, what HW do you suggest?

[sub]

I hate giving recommendations, but probably a Hauppauge PVR150, or possibly ATI550 Pro capture card, plus redrat3 IR Blaster.

[Murchmeister]

thanks again Sub.

I can get a good deal on the WinTV-PVR-500MCE any good??
http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/products/...00mce.html

[sub]

Yes that would be a good device, but keep in mind even though this has dual tuners, you'll likely to be connecting to only one sky digital box. One sky box can only tune in one channel at a time, so you would not be able record/watch two different channels this way. So you need to think about exactly how all this will be hooked up to decide if its right for you.

[Murchmeister]

thanks again Sub.

how do i connect the sky box to the PVR AV cables, or coax?