SpacemanSpiff2000

[SpacemanSpiff2000]

I can’t thank you all enough for providing all this help; it’s esp. appreciated after I’ve searched and read and posted and got basically none of this before.

So my way seems more clear now …

Phase 1: I need either a Colossus 1414 or a 1212 PVR (in case I want the PVR to be more mobile).  I was going to pull the trigger on the 1212, but everyone except Hauppauge is out of stock right now and the eBay market is getting pricier. So I’m thinking 1414 also due to price (even though the 1414 seems to get few, and sometimes convincingly bad, user reviews on Amazon & Newegg). Makes me nervous but y’all sound convinced. That handles 1 and 2.

Phase 2: Dumping the DVR for a Ceton can come after the (non-silicon) dust settles to handle 3 & 4.

Still wondering, though, if it’s better to build a smaller, component-looking unit in the TV stand now and go with an extender later … or just build it bigger in the office and go extender immediately.  I only have this 1 family room TV being used for the next year/s or so. (The tube TV is still on the kitchen bar, but that’s probably hopeless, beyond maybe getting an OTA converter just because we have it sitting there.)

To clarify:

While Netflixing is a great idea that hadn’t hit me yet, my #1 is actually >1yr of cooking shows (in SD) my wife & I use for reference … not on Netflix.  DVR has done a great job of filling up with non-repeats. We used to collect them on 6hr VHS and catalog what was where, but obviously doing the same thing digitally makes it a whole lot easier, and then I can start collecting them slowly in HD (but I’d rather have them at all first).

And my #2 is actually home made movies on VHS-C from when my 14 & 11 yrs old were ~2yrs old (from a 1995 RCA “small wonder” CC612, which is larger than my DSLR and my Canon Vixia put together).  No choice there; the time on both will be worth it to me. But for anything Netflixable, I totally get it; thx for the idea.

You all have also taken the amorphous sea of products, as seen by a noob, and helped me distinguish parts … so I now know I don’t need pay attention to non-CC tuners or other boxes that are not extenders. To a noob, at first, all this stuff really does look like one might need one of everything, and then different combinations for different purposes without redundancy are indistinguishable for a cost/benefit analysis. It’s also helpful to know that a Ceton can work w/o a card and a sense of what Verizon FiOS (in MD) may provide.

So, again, I can’t thank you enough.  I have a 3D BluRay drive question but I’ll research/post that separately.  :^{D

[SpacemanSpiff2000]

I’m in the same position as kalyko. Need soup to nuts, know some building, don’t know entertainment tech at all and am overwhelmed. I was excited to get started months ago, but now I’m exaperated and desparate at the learning curve time and feel barely closer. The best primer I’ve seen so far I found on this site, but that was 3 years old and clearly out of date, esp. if only OEM HTPCs could function with cablecards back then.

But one of my main questions, and difference from the OP, is that I want to know how a PVR card works in this mix, with or without a Ceton-type card.  Like, should I choose a Hauppauge 1414 (or similar, whatever is similar) because I want to re-record off my Verizon DVR’d shows and my VHS kid videos?  And could that be my new DVR and get a plain set top box?  If so, can the 1414 or similar record channels I’m not watching?  How does a PVR card with a tuner but not a cablecard figure into this?  And do I even need a PVR if I go with a Ceton (and still digitize VHS)?  Do I need a Ceton if I get no premium channels, but want DisneyHD/NickHD/UnivisionHD?  I’m having a devil of a time finding this kind of basic, what-its-like-in-the-family-room info in the Internet haystack.

Or do you want me to open my own thread for this one?

Otherwise, I’m listening intently to other component info, as well.

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