Do it yourself DVR

In this article I will detail how to turn your desktop PC into a powerful DVR capable of storing hours of recordings with no monthly subscription fees. You can even use this setup if you use a TV antenna over the air instead of cable or satellite. This would be a great project if you have an unused, older P4 class system and a spare hard-drive. My current DVR setup is an older Dell desktop system that I don’t have much use for. It is a Pentium 4 1.8GhZ with 384MB RAM and 160GB of free hard-drive space running Windows XP Professional SP2 and all available Windows Updates.

The beauty of building your own DVR instead of purchasing a TiVo is that you can easily transfer the programs to a CD or your mobile device to watch on the road. With TiVo this generally involves buying one of their high-end systems and then worrying about licensing for the programs you record. The licensing for the programs you record on your DVR is the same as if you were recording on a VCR. You may distribute the programs you record freely to your friends, but you may not remove any commercials or charge any fees for their distribution.

Your computer will need to meet a few basic requirements: the processor needs to be at least a Pentium 4 (or the equivalent Celeron or AMD processor) greater than 1.5GhZ, 256MB of RAM (the more, the merrier), 40GB of hard disk space free, one free USB 2.0 port and have Windows XP (home or professional) or Windows 2000 Professional installed. You will also need a connection to the internet to download your local program listings. High-speed is great, but dial-up will suffice. If your computer meets these requirements then the only equipment you need purchase is an ATI All-in-Wonder USB 2.0 TV Tuner. These generally run for about $100-120 at most major retailers.

Once you have ensured that your PC meets these requirements, and purchased your ATI TV Tuner, you are ready to begin. Before installing any new hardware, especially one whose application will use large amounts of hard-drive space, it is best to begin with some simple computer maintenance. I recommend running the Windows Disk-Cleanup Wizard to free up disk space for your programs. After you remove data, it is always a good idea to defragment your hard-drive. This process will physically sort the data on your hard drive to locations on the disk that speed up access time and the overall performance of your system. After you have performed this maintenance, you can install the ATI software. Install the software before you actually plug in the TV Tuner device to the USB 2.0 port. At a point during the software installation, the installation wizard will tell you when to plug in your device.

As soon as the ATI software is installed and you have suffered through a re-boot you are ready to attach your ATI tuner to it’s input. The device has many choices for input, the coaxial input being the most common and easiest to use. After you have attached your cable/satellite/TV Antenna to the device, it will be detected and the ATI control center will run through its initial setup. This is where it can become a little confusing. You will be asked to choose which format to record your programs in. The default will be ATI-VCR. This uses a proprietary version of the Divx codec to encode the file. This is the only format that supports closed-captioning. As this is a proprietary format, you will need to install the ATI Catalyst Media Center program on any computer you want to view your recordings on. If you don’t care about closed captioning, then I suggest you record your files in MPEG-4 format. This is the standard Divx format and has portability to Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems and their media players by default. This format requires the lowest CPU load while recording, giving you a smooth, clear picture with the audio and video synchronized and also produces relatively small file sizes (about 200MB per 30 minutes of record time). Pre-SP2 Windows XP installations and pre-SP4 Windows 2000 installations will have to download and install the Divx codec manually (http://www.divx.com).

The ATI Program interface is simple and easy to use. It mimics most standard DVR interfaces. You are presented a web-based control program with TV Guide supplied program listings. You click on the program you are interested in, and then click on record or view. It’s that simple. If you have an always-on internet connection like DSL or cable, you can use Log-Me-In or other similar remote control programs to access your computer from anywhere on the internet and setup recordings. Say you’re at work and you realize you have forgotten to set your favorite program to record; you can log into your DVR computer from work and setup your program to record. The only caveat being you may not use a remote control program that uses Windows Terminal Services (Remote Desktop Connection). Windows Terminal Services uses too much bandwidth and processor time and will cause the ATI program to crash. This is why I recommend Log-Me-In (http://www.logmein.com).

Using this method to record your favorite programs also makes them portable. If you record in the MPEG-4 format the file sizes remain relatively small. You can burn 1.5 hours to a standard CD-R to watch on your laptop or DVD player. If you have a home network, you can use your DVR computer as an entertainment server, either transferring the files directly to your laptop or mobile device, or just watching them over the network. I find it nice to sit out in my backyard on a nice summer evening watching my favorite programs on my Wi-Fi enabled laptop.
-Brandon Brown