In the hartford Courant: Build Your Own PC-Based TV Recorder

[rampy]

I got a little write up in today's Hartford Courant about me and my site ( byopvr ) in the weekly tech article in the life section.

Build Your Own PC-Based TV Recorder

There weren't any *shrug*'s in my quotes though 

rampy

EDIT link fixed!!

[Stingray]

I had no idea that your site gets that much traffic, seems like you just started it not that long ago. I take a look evey now & again, but I still haven't decided if I want to give the whole BYOPVR thing a try.

In any case congrats on the writeup, sorry you were misquoted.

*shrug*

-S

[missioncontrol]

clicked link

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Most news stories remain on ctnow.com for about two weeks. If you're looking for a story published earlier, you can try the paid Hartford Courant archives.

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*shrug*

well congrats on the write up anyways..........

just remember us little people when you become a big-time famous writter.............

[Stingray]

Build Your Own PC-Based TV Recorder
July 21, 2005

Early last year, Erik Pettersen found himself wondering how a personal computer might be used to record TV programs.

Information available on the Internet was sparse. So Pettersen, now 29, of Colchester, whipped up a website and asked for ideas. Suggestions poured in by the hundreds.

Today, Pettersen's website - BYOPVR.com, for "build your own personal video recorder" - has nearly 3,000 registered members and gets 10,000 to 25,000 "hits" or page-views a day.

"It just kind of took off," said Pettersen, who is employed as a technology coordinator for the Connecticut Policy and Economic Council, a nonprofit public policy organization in Hartford.

With the availability of digital video recorders such as Tivo for as little as $100, you might wonder why anyone would bother building such a device from scratch. Pettersen said there are several motivations.

One is flexibility; consumers who make their own recorders can build to suit themselves. Some might favor extra-large hard drives for spacious storage. Others might lean toward wireless connectivity or some other feature. Still others want to store photos, music and other data. Whatever the goal, the PC can be molded to achieve it.

"It's a little bit like hot-rodding a car," Pettersen said. "Anything you could think of adding in there, you can."

Then there's freedom from technical restrictions. Devices like Tivo typically require a monthly subscription to access programming schedules. The units might also limit the ability to copy programs onto DVD discs. Creating your own recorder gives you the freedom to manage recorded data as you see fit.

"I don't have to ask permission to add a piece of software to my PC. So beyond just trying to be cheap, it opens up a whole new world where there's all this exciting, cool stuff you can do," Pettersen said. "Mostly it's about control and freedom over the programming that you record."

Finally, there's the "hacker chic" of doing it yourself instead of buying off-the-shelf components. Some people just like the challenge of building their own systems.

As it turns out, upgrading a PC so it can record TV programming isn't really all that difficult or expensive - at least in its simplest form.

The fundamental component is a TV tuning and encoder card, which sells for as little as $80 to $100. Desirable add-ons can include special recording control software, a remote control, a large hard drive and a DVD burner, if you don't already have one. Relevant products, available for both the Windows and Macintosh computers, are reviewed and discussed on the BYOPVR.com site.

The people who frequent BYOPVR.com come from a range of perspectives. Some are hard-core hobbyists who want to build an "

[rampy]

They changed the URL for some reason... I must have linked to the version before they posted it/published it to their site/sections...

not sure why they changed it... it's weird that they don't have clickable urls in the story... but i digress...

here's the article again

[Zakk]

The article does need a few more *shrugs* in there.  Congrats Rampy. 

 I've visited a few times, but damn there is TOOOOO much info!    I need a solid week to absorb everything and start on my own PVR project.  Drew and I have been shuttling back and forth info, the last piece to the puzzle is finding cheap or free Canadian channel listings *shrug*

[rampy]

The article does need a few more *shrugs* in there.  Congrats Rampy. 

 I've visited a few times, but damn there is TOOOOO much info!    I need a solid week to absorb everything and start on my own PVR project.  Drew and I have been shuttling back and forth info, the last piece to the puzzle is finding cheap or free Canadian channel listings *shrug*

Well don't be afraid to ask questions in the forum, i've tried to make it as accomodating & friendly as over here...

There's even a special "oh canada PVR" subforum...

FWIW SnapStream's BeyondTV (commercial PVR software) comes with canadian EPG included ... i'm not sure if http://labs.zap2it.com works for canadian TV listings or not (it might), but there's a lot of canadians doing the DIY PVR thing because TiVo doesn't work up north (and they don't like waiting for the cable companies meager offerings) so somebody has figured out *something* for canada epg/XMLTV.

rampy

[Zakk]

Links bookmarked and appreciated!  Hot diggity, now I'm getting somewhere!

Oh yeah, *shrug eh?* 

[DrewKaree]

From what I've been looking at on Zap2it, Canadian support is getting better, but isn't quite as good, and Saturday I'll be trying to hook this thingy up to my TV!  w00t!

Hey rampy, what's with that obviously poor reporting about what you use your free time for?  Nowhere was there mentioned that you consume beer in your spare time, and set time aside from your beer drinking to attempt those other endeavors. 

Hey, we know you're just starting to take off, so make sure you don't forget us "little people" when you make it big, a'ight?

[xar256]

Zap2it works fine for me in Winnipeg...I'm guessing most major urban centers in Canada should be covered.

Xar256