RichardBerg: Quick and non-exhaustive meta-guide to PVRs

Quick and non-exhaustive meta-guide to PVRs

(v0.1. 10/07/04)

Who?

The focus of the VidCapFAQ is archival quality, software-based flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. You are here because you'd rather give up another couple bucks and videophile nuances in order to click one button on a remote control. If that sounds appealing, and you're here for PC-based home theater fun, you should probably read the PcToHomeTheaterFaq too.

What?

A Personal Video Recorder (PVR) is like a computerized VCR on steroids. A good PVR machine should be considered a consumer-oriented "black box" no more unreliable or difficult to operate than a toaster. Once you try one for a week, there's no going back; it changes the way you consume TV. So long as you don't need one that integrates with satellite, digital cable, or HDTV, there are a lot of good products and smart people to help you with them. The Tweeter A/V store∞ next door to our Durham shop should have a good selection of set-top boxes (STBs). Sample links:
http://www.replaytvfaq.com/∞
http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/∞
http://www.tivofaq.com/∞
http://www.tivocommunity.com/∞
http://www.avsforum.com/∞

But I /do/ have cable or satellite!

Cable companies like our local Time Warner have started offering their own PVR boxes. Their advantage is cost and the ability to tune 'digital' channels directly (standalone STBs have to control the cable box via an infrared transmitter, serial cable, USB, ...). The disadvantage is that they've rolled their own solution which is currently not as polished as what the 3rd-party companies above are offering -- if you're already used to the features of your ReplayTV, you may be disappointed.

Satellite companies have been in the PVR game longer, most notably with DirecTV's licensing of Tivo technology to create the DirecTivo. This box usually represents the best of all worlds for satellite customers. Since it pulls the MPEG2 stream directly off the airwaves onto disk without recompression, your recordings will have the exact same quality as the original broadcast (for good or ill). They achieve the aforementioned integration with digital & encrypted channels, while making it relatively easy for the company to support new services like HDTV and video-on-demand (VOD) on the same box, though you shouldn't expect them for free ;-)

Random note that doesn't fit anywhere else: Tivo is teaming up with Netflix∞ to offer their own VOD service behind the cable/sat companies' back. Sweet.

So what is PVR doing in a FAQ for Intrex customers?

First of all, some people connect their PVR STBs to their network in order to archive things they've recorded onto the larger hard disks found in their PC. This is exceptionally easy with ReplayTV but enterprising Tivo users can probably find the requisite info at the links above.

Naturally, some people want the utter flexibility of a PC to do PVR-like things for them itself. This is different from normal video capture in many ways:

Large, easy-to-navigate graphical interface designed for use with a TV screen and remote control instead of the Windows keyboard/mouse/monitor paradigm.
TV listings, with program guide info constantly updated by XML-TV∞ or similar.
Stores captured shows to a library you can traverse inside the program -- emphasis on instant access vs. time spent achieving the highest possible quality.
Timeshifting. Anyone familiar with Tivo et al. knows how cool it is to pause live TV.
Support for hardware MPEG2 encoders. Cards like the Hauppauge PVR-250∞ make it much easier for a system to perform PVR functions without taxing the CPU, PCI bus, and hard disk excessively. (All commercial PVRs use similar chips).
Many other 'HTPC' (home theater PC) features integrated into the same interface. Examples include:
- High-quality DVD playback (supporting Dolby Digital & DTS, progressive scan, upscaling, zoom controls, overlay controls, color correction, and other features you won't find on all but the most expensive DVD boxes).
- Playback of movies stored on your hard disk or home network.
- Audio jukebox features (think Winamp for HTPCs).
- FM radio tuning and recording.
- Arcade / console game emulation e.g. MAME∞.
TV-friendly web browsing plugins.
Further customizability and an active development community.

PVR software available today:
(all of these will want a hardware MPEG2 capture card as described above to work optimally; most of them require it outright)
SnapStream aka BeyondTV∞ ($$)
MythTV∞ (free, requires Linux, available as standalone 'KnoppMyth')
SageTV∞ ($$)
ShowShifter∞ ($$)
MyHTPC∞ (free -- new version is called Meedio [$$])
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition∞ ($$, and requires you to register as an MS System Builder∞)
FreeVo∞ (free, requires Linux)
MediaPortal∞ (free w/ Zap2It subscription, requires XBox)
GB PVR∞ (free w/ Zap2It)
GotAllMedia∞ aka GotTV PVR (free w/ Zap2It or XmlTV)
Others (front-end GUI only): Prismiq, WebVCR...

Jukebox software (mostly geared toward audio playback):
JRiver Media Center∞, for all-around awesomeness
foobar2k∞, for super-geeks
iTunes∞, for Apple zealots ;-)
Lesser software I won't endorse with a link: MusicMatch, XMMS, RealJukebox, Windows Media Player 10, Winamp 5, Sonique...

How should I hook up to my TV and/or the rest of my home entertainment system?