SpacemanSpiff2000 wrote:1)

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July 25, 2011 at 5:55 pm #4990
umdivx

    [quote=SpacemanSpiff2000]

    1) re-record my favorite shows from the now-full FIOS DVR into the HTPC[/quote]

    HD-PVR, however you will still need to manually play back each recording and manually record each show, it won’t be automatic.

    Your best bet would be to either netflix the shows, or re-record them off of FIOS with a cable card tuner like the Ceton infinitv or the new upcoming silicon dust cable card tuner.

    [quote]

    2) digitize my kids’ 14yr old videos from VHS[/quote]

    Any analog capture card can accomplish this. Again might be better off purchaing the DVD’s for those VHS’s and then digitizing, you will get much better quality as a DVD is already getting you the digital format.

    Going from Analog to digital is time consuming and the quality is extremely poor.

    [quote]

    3) record new shows into the HTPC (bypassing the Verizon DVR)[/quote]

    Cable card tuner, Ceton Infinitv or Silicon dust cable card tuners.

    [quote]

    4) have the HTPC be the DVR … this could be with non-DVR Set Top Box or with no STB[/quote]

    again Cable card tuner, much much easier to setup, plus you get 4 tuners, or 3 depending on which route you go.

     

    [quote]Is a Hauppauge Colossus 1414 the best internal answer? It sounds like it would handle 1 & 2, but what about 3 & 4? But with a STB, would it only record the channel I’m watching, or can it record something I’m not watching?[/quote]

    The colosus will capture off of a STB or VHS player yes, but honestly is it worth your time? it will take you hours upon hours to capture all that DVR’d content off of your fios DVR. Again same goes for your kids VHS tapes.

    Not trying to be a downer here but there are much easier ways. Get netflix streaming account and stream all of your kids movies, you will get much better quality over a VHS capture.

    And again for #3/#4 cable card tuner all the way, you then no longer need a STB at all, and you get more tuners, more space, a better interface and can do multi room with xbox 360’s.

    [quote]

    I’ve also read some about the different types of signals from channels (NTSC, ATSC, QAM) but I don’t know how to tell which channels are which or how that might limit the 1414.[/quote]

    the 1414 is capture only, it is NOT a tuner. the Ceton Infinitv4 is a tuner and will tune/record all your fios content.

    BTW Fios is 100% digital QAM. NTSC = Analog for traditional cable tv (ie comcast, time warner, ect..) ATSC = over the air digital tv (ie antenna “rabbit ear” tv).

    the 1414 you will ALWAYS need the fios STB to capture and record tv off of fios.

    So you pay all that money for the 1414 and still need to have a STB which then limits you to only recording one show at a time. Cable card tuners like the Ceton or Silicon Dust allows you to record or watch multiple shows/channels at once.

    you would need multiple 1414’s and multiple set top boxes to record more than one show at a time.

    [quote]

    Then there are similar cards with tuners, but not cablecards (e.g., Hauppauge 1129 WinTV-HVR-1850). How do they figure into my intended design? Is the “tuner” part necessary? Is there a difference between this and the 1414? What should I be looking for?[/quote]

    They don’t. the 1850 is a ATSC over the air, or un-encrypted QAM tuner. Last I heard Fios tv is 100% encrypted QAM so you would need a cable card tuner to accomplish the task of recording tv off of Fios.

    [quote]

    If I went as far as a Ceton card, would that eliminate the need for a PVR card because the Ceton would do it all? Or would I need a Ceton + a PVR card to do all 4 things above?[/quote]

    Yes it would. All you would need to get from Verizon is a cable card, looks like a pcmcia wifi card but what it does, is un-encrypts the fios signal so you can record it.

    The Ceton card wouldn’t accomplish #1 or #2 though. the Ceton card is a tuner only, it doesn’t capture analog signals which is what you are trying to accomplish in task #1 and #2.

    [quote]

    Or do I even need a Ceton at all if I have no premium channels and my family (who would kill me if this all makes TV harder) only watches the HD versions of Disney, Nick, NickJr (no HD), Cartoon Network, Univision/Telemundo, and the basic network stations? Would it be better to get what I can over the air? I’m try to cut Verizon costs as much as possible.[/quote]

    My wife and kids use my htpc to watch tv every day with a ceton card setup. The only difference is you will have a different interface, which IMHO is much better than the fios interface.

    Basically you will have a pc running windows 7, a ceton card, and that is it. Media Center is your DVR then, has the guide, the gui, everything. You won’t get Disney, Nick, NickJR, ect… via over the air.

     

    [quote]

    And what do things like Sage and Boxee even do with respect to all this? Same stuff? Different?/How?[/quote]

    SageTV is a PVR/DVR interface/front end just like Media Center for windows 7. IT does DVRing, ect.. but it doesn’t have native, out of the box support for a ceton cable card tuner. It can be accomplished but it harder to setup, Also with the purchase of SageTV by google, if you don’t already have a license for SageTV there is no way to purchase one right now.

    Boxee is a media front end, great if all you do is online streaming of content and have all of your movies and videos ripped to a network storage device. Boxee doesn’t have any DVR/PVR capabilities.

    I hope this was helpful.

    -Josh