WholeHome

You have been following the new “Build-your-own-DVR” project(s) faithfully, I’m sure, but beyond all the subtle little things you are learning about how to put one of these cool toys together, I’d bet you are wondering where to get all the cool stuff…

Allow me to share some of my favorite online guides and software – I’d even go so far as to say that before taking on any project like this, you should definitely at least browse through all of these places. As always, the full eBook is freely available at http://www.bocsco.com/dvr

BOCS – THE standard for whole-home distribution of your new HTPC solution. (Yes, yes, a shameless plug, and first in the list, but really – it’s COOL)

PreWire Guide – Wanting to put in low voltage A/V wiring for audio/video distribution, understand matrix switchers, or just prepare for the future.

Hardware Guide: For hardware configurations – choosing which processor, motherboard, case, memory, and other accessories, there is no better online source than renethx’s thread on AVSforum. He regularly publishes details and recommendations for low, mid, and high performance systems both Intel and AMD based. That thread is also THE best place to post your chosen configuration for comment and get great hardware tips. Go to the thread, find a post by renethx, and in his signature will be a link to the latest hardware guide.

HDTV tuner and software reviews – Good research site. Hdtvtunerinfo.com

Afterdawn howto guides – hundreds of well done guides on just about any DVD, audio/video, and HTPC topic.

Link list (AVS) of just about anything you will ever need for an HTPC

Powerstrip – a utility to allow custom resolutions to compensate for overscan/underscan and correct strange behavior of video cards.

Karnis’ Custom Resolution Guide for PowerStrip – AVS Forum thread for powerstrip

Reclock – Critical utility that fixes most jitter, audio/video sync issues, and smooths playback of most video files. Excellent.

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack – Good core codec pack for your PC

MPEG codec(s) – If your computer does not already have an MPEG2 codec, check the Cyberlink.com website. PowerDVD9 is the latest all-in-one MPEG codec pack – MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, and full BluRay support, but you can get just the MPEG2 codec for ~$20

XVID codec – Really, you need this – Xvid is da bomb…

Ffdshow – codec/filters for playback and decode of virtually any format.

Ffdshow FAQ – AVS Forum ffdshow FAQ thread

Remote Control – THE forum that focuses on jp1 enabled remotes (UEI based) – tools available to customize most remotes with custom codes, macros, and special setups.

Broadcast mapper – planning on putting up an antenna? This site lets you map your location and find out exactly what is available in your area.

Autologin – Running windows XP and want the computer to skip the login screen and boot right into yor DVR program? Here’s how

DVD Ripping – Lots of programs out there, my favorite is DVDFab

TightVNC – free remote control of any PC – from anywhere – in our out of the home.

GSpot – audio/video codec information appliance (show the codec used for a file)
HIP from ByRemote – “Driver” that accepts IR and can translate it to just about any program – VERY handy
TV-Cards.com – information on TV tuner cards & PVR software (6/12/04)
XBMC Media Center – excellent media center/front end (11/25/08)

Titan TV – the most definitive source for what is on TV

SchedulesDirect.com – Online TV schedule EPG source

And – my favorite software packages (See eBook for details):

Boxee – Absolutely THE BEST front end for online media – not a DVR – an Internet connected TV

GB-PVR - a FREE PC-DVR program – excellent stability and features

knoppmyth – for the daring – a linux based PC-DVR package – again – free

More? feel free to send me a note with others I’ve missed (I’m just trying to share the really core-critical ones)

David

As you know, I’m working on a “Build your own DVR” eBook, (www.bocsco.com/dvr) – and I’ve had multiple requests to include MythTV in the discussion. I think it is a bunch of guys who want to be able to say they have a Linux box at home like a friend of mine from my boxing class. So I decided to dive in and put a simple system together for him. I’ll preface this by saying that I’ve not been a big Linux dweeb although I have strong roots in Sun based Unix systems from my days at Texas Instruments. Similar commands, an online support system, and an excellent find of Knoppmyth (a nice combo debian linux distribution with myth-tv) gave me legs.

It really is a beautiful thing in that low memory(512MB), a video card with a hardware encoder, and a really crappy old PC Pentium III 2 (ish) GHz is plenty to get started. Download the free iso from HERE, sign up for schedules direct EPG HERE, burn the iso to a CD and boot from it. Be sure to have your computer all set up before you do – all the memory in you will be adding, the video card and TV tuner card, and any peripherals plugged in. Pretty much, you type knoppmyth at the prompt and the system installs linux and mythtv. There are a few setup options but this video covers most of the basics.

A few suggestions :

• Do not stray from the recommended hardware unless you are ready to dive into linux setup files and know how to run vi. (Don’t know what vi means? – reread this bullet). In fact, I highly recommend using the Hauppauge 350 card as setup becomes automatic
• Get a big hard drive – it will keep you from having to mount new drives and set up remote sharing
• Read the Linux Basics howto on the knoppmyth wiki site – a great primer for getting you around in the command prompt enviornment
• Write down the basic hidden commands – from the GUI, Alt-S reruns setup, Ctrl-Alt-1 gets you a new Xwindow to perform linux commands, ctrl-alt-7 gets you back to the gui.

Me, I had a defective Hauppauge 350 card and spent 3 hours trying to figure out why it was not even recognized by the system – ah, yes, the joys of defective hardware.

So – if youknow linux, this is a great option… If you don’t this will end up being a dead end of frustration for you.

Some tips concerning Hauppauge cards – specifically the internal PCI and PCI-e cards – call it a FAQ for the DIY’er

• Both the Windows Media Center cards and the non-Windows Media center cards will work in Media center, Hauppauge’s own WinTV application, and third party apps like GB-PVR. The main difference is in whether the cards have an IR in/out port or whether they rely on a supplementary system to handle IR
• Drivers are the same whether you use these cards on standard windows or the media center version.
• Make sure you have the “right” drivers – yes this sounds straightforward, but the Hauppauge website is confusing. The 150/250/350 cards are under support – Wintv-pvr NOT the legacy PCI card selection. Those older drivers “kind-of-work” and have really wasted a lot of folks time until they figured out they are not the right ones. A major way to tell is if your recording is taking up HUGE amounts of disk space the internal MPEG encoder is not running and either you have the wrong driver or something is set up wrong.
• Generally, Hauppauge requires you to have the original cd that came with your card even if you download the new driver package from their website – do not lose that cd or you will be ordering another one.
• The 150/250/350 cards will auto recognize under media center once the right drivers are installed – the external HD-PVR is not supported natively under windows media center as a recognized tuner (which makes sense since it is really just a stand alone HD-mpeg encoder) but with third party applications like dblink, you can fool media center into thinking just about anything is a tuner (even the network connected tuners for instance)…
• Except for media center, which handles guide information automatically, you will need to use a converter like mc2xml to grab data off a guide service, convert to a standard xml file, and upload to the PVR software of your choice. This pretty much applies regardless of what software you choose.
• For media center computers (and a number of third party apps) if you are building a custom setup – you will likely need an MPEG decoder. Strangely enough, that is one piece that is still a “must purchase” and a critical part of any system.

More to come

Got something really cool working this weekend that I wanted to share: I can now use my BOCS remote (you know, the one that already controls all your home A/V stuff and works all over your home) to control my lights, drapes, and adjust the temperature in my home.

I’ve always had everything hooked up with X10 controllers (www.x10.com) and activehome running on my home server (so I can control my devices on a schedule, run macros that activate when I get home, and control everything from my phone), but over the weekend, I was able to tie it all into my BOCS remote.

Why? Now I have a SINGLE remote that does everything – all over my home – AND since the range on the BOCS remotes is so much better than what I get on the standard X10 remotes I am in control regardless of where I am at home.  The system is much more reliable since the BOCS remotes know if an RF signal got through and keep trying until it does – so a button press ALWAYS turns my light on – no more hit and miss!!

OK, so I’m a little excited, but this is so easy. Just contact amperordirect.com to get a BOCS-to-X10 interface – all the instructions on how to implement this can be found at www.bocsco.com/x10

And – combined with the new macros available on the remote, you can hit a single button on the remote to fire up the tv, turn down the lights, close the drapes, and start a movie – your significant other will be secretly impressed even while she is rolling her eyes at you – I promise.

D

As you know, we decided to go open source on the firmware – and that is huge for the remotes as this is the only remote on the market with both full IR local (yawn) and TWO-WAY RF capabilites. The BOCS unit itself is a very capable basestation that has routable IR outputs and is all controlled by the 900MHz BOCS remote (repeaters also available) …

So – a customer has already taken us up on this and added full macro capabilites (yeah – just like a Harmony remote) – so now you can program sequences and even completely reprogram the function of the BOCS buttons. More info can be found on the AVSforum thread HERE.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1218246

Programming is very simple – you know you need a new weekend project!