I have a series one standalone TIVO with no subscription. It was last updated to version 3.xx with a 1 month sub to get the upgrade. I can confirm it works fine as a digital VCR with no sub.
Well, better than a VCR actually since you can pause live TV and timeshift, etc.
Beautiful. See, that's all I want. The functionality of a Tivo. And since the series 1 are going for like $150 on eBay, does it make financial sense to build your own? Hell, get a Tivo and a Gateway Connected DVD Player. Done.
And Bill_S - > I read somewhere that the only way (without hacking) to set the time in the Tivo is to hook it up to your phone line. Is that correct? Also, when you do record a show, does it show the date and time stamp when you view the list of recorded shows?
OD
You have clearly forgotten the face of your geek fathers!
(i'm only kidding --> I realize you only want a subset of Tivo/PVR functionality and it makes sense what you are trying to do)
Part of the allure is the fun in shlopping stuff together (I'm not makeing a site called "buy your own pvr" after all =P)
But the gist of my point is... eh?... *Shrug* I've done the math and you can build a pretty cool one, in a small form factor in a consumer/console friendly looking case for like 550 with shipping.
Forgetting for a moment eightbit's supreme bargain hunting skillz (I don't say that sarcastically, btw) ReplayTV NEW is like 450 with a built in 3 year subscription (according to their site)
A "base" Tivo is 199 (i forget if that is after rebate or not) and is either 299 lifetime of the unit or some monthly charge a bit over 10 beans. But suffice to say 500 beans.
If you factor in the subscription (which is what original drove me to think building my own was economical...) It's pretty darn close to a wash... and if you wanted to nitpick... my model would have more storage capacity, more flexibility (although tivo's hackability is attractive)... and the pride of doing it myself/geek chic.
If I were to go with a normal PC instead of the uber sexy mini-itx VIA m10000 and a normal case ... I bet I could make it cheaper... but I don't want a beige tower sideways on my entertainment center.
Eightbit. I can't speak for your 400 ducat ATI card... But the 150 dollar Hauppapag (spelling) 250 PVR tuner card is supposed to be excellent... The heavy lifting of encoding in mpeg 2/etc is done by the card not the processor. (the 350 PVR is 200 beans or so and does encoding AND decoding and a bunch of other goodies)...
*shrug* Did I mention you can play mame on it? Mp3's? Surf? Hell the savings of canceling your SPICE channel subscription alone .... er.. what... disregard that last bit, mmmkay?
Rampy