Build A White-Box TiVo

Turning a PC into a PVR can cost less than $200 and provides even more features than your clients can get from TiVo and ReplayTV, such as upgradabilty and control over captured video so they can edit and burn DVDs or render video for streaming to Web-enabled devices across a network. PVRs also let your clients watch live or recorded TV on a resizable or full-screen window while running other PC applications.

TV on the PC monitor is not a new idea. In fact, TV tuner cards have been around since the days of DOS. But, today, as hardware and operating systems have become more video-friendly, the concept of integrating TV onto the PC has come into its own. Microsoft even has a special version of XP with integrated video software called XP-Media Center Edition (MCE). Fortunately, a basic PC-based PVR does not require either MCE or a high-powered PC. In fact, the major differences between a PC built for a general-office application and a PVR are the additions of a TV tuner card, PVR software and an appropriately sized disk. (OK, you'll want that DVD burner, too.)

The TV tuner card is the heart of a PC-based PVR. Tuner cards convert the analog signal coming from the user's cable service provider into digital data to be compressed and stored on a local disk. The digital signal is also converted back to analog for display on a PC screen. In addition to providing 125 cable channels, the tuner cards used in PVRs can do hardware encoding, dbx-TV stereo decoding and video capture from other sources, like VCRs. Most tuner cards also come bundled with impressive digital video recording and playback software.

How much disk space a PVR consumes varies with the quality of the video captured and compression method used. At a DVD quality of 4 Mbps and using MPEG-2 compression, a typical one-hour show will use about 2 GB of hard disk space (see "Recording Capacity," above).

Parts List
Following are the components I used to build my PVR:

• Case/power supply/cables: Antek Sonata. Quality case with quiet, 380-W power supply.
• Motherboard: Intel 865PERL. Rock-solid board with great 5.1 audio and network.
• Video: GeForce MX400 with 128 MB nVidia; GeForce MX4000 with 128 MB of DDR memory.
• CPU: Intel P4/2.6 MHz.
• Memory: 512 MB DDR 400.
• DVD/CD Burner: Plextor P67-1100 DVD++/-R/RW.
• Disk: Maxtor UltraSeries SATA, with 80 GB for the OS and software, and 200-GB SATA for data. Partition disks so that video data will reside on one partition and OS/swap on another or separate disk.
• OS: Windows XP-Home Edition.
• TV tuner card: WinTV-PVR250 from Hauppauge Computer Works includes bundled software, remote and on-board MPEG2 encoding. Another good option is ATI's All-In-Wonder RADEON 9600.
• PVR software: Hauppauge bundles the basic WinTV with the PVR-250 package, but SnapStream's BeyondTV and Sage are two other outstanding packages.
• Remote: Hauppauge bundles one with its PVR-250 package, as does ATI with the All-in-Wonder 9600. SnapStream also has one called Firefly. Check compatibility if this feature doesn't come bundled with your client's software.

For the really adventurous, check out MythTV, a suite of programs that lets you build the mythical home-media convergence box using open-source software and operating systems.

Andy McDonough is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.