How to record HD content without BHN?

[wallinbl]

I really only watch a few shows anymore, most of which are on the broadcast networks, so I'm looking to cancel BHN. My wife insists on retaining the ability to record shows (we had a Tivo prior to the BHN DVR). I can get an antenna and a tuner for HD, but how can I record HD content with BHN or DTV? Can I do it from an HTPC?

[SixIron]

Yup, there a few HD TV tuner cards. I have a ATI HDTV Wonder (but dont use it all that much). It works well as long as you have pretty decent signal strength. Recording a full Bucs game about a month ago took 20 gig of hd space.

MyHD and Divico Fusion both make HD cards as well.

[bdraw]

There are alot of great Over the air capture cards. I just bought this one from newegg for $78.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815100134

Works great with MCE. You can also buy a PC already setup if you don't want to mess with setting it up. Just buy alot of hard drive space because 250GB only gets you about 30 hours and that is if you didn't have anything else on it.

[wallinbl]

What type of CPU do I need to handle recording? I have an older machine (P4 1.8GHz) that I don't use anymore that I was thinking of using. What about RAM?

[wallinbl]

There are alot of great Over the air capture cards. I just bought this one from newegg for $78.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815100134


Do you need a separate tuner or can the card do it? ATI sells one that comes with a remote and an antenna, although I can't see how the antenna could work well.

Users will need to have an analog TV tuner card (like UltraTV 1500 MCE, AVerTV PVR 150 or AVerMedia M150) pre-installed in the system in order to get AVerTVHD MCE A180 to work properly in Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
So, you end up with two TV cards and the video card? Which one do you output to the TV?

[Bschneider]

I have a myHD-100 card in a 800mhz computer. I haven't had any issue with it. In fact for about 6 months it was in a 400mhz computer and I still didn't have any problems.

I am going to be purchasing the myHD-130 soon so that I am record QAM. That is the only thing I wish my current card could do.

The software could be improved but I am also using an older version of it but it is extremely stable. Perhaps if I updgrade the software features that I would like would be there.

[bdraw]

The processor depends on the capture card you use. Some cards do the mpeg decoding on the card so you don't need much processor power. The card I linked to uses to proccessor so you need more power.

I am using a AMD 2600 and the proc is about 56% utilized while I watch HD.

The ATI card also uses the processor to decode. Either way I think a 1.8 would do it but you woudln't have any power left for anything else.

I bought the one I did because I wanted to use Windows Media Center to stream HD to my Xbox360 and there are problems getting the ATI card to work with MCE. Plus the avermedia card was less expensive. I believe they both support QAM.

[dprice]

Any suggestions for an out-of-the-box (or built to order) HTPC? I suppose I could build one starting with a HTPC case but something tells me to at least look...

Thanks,

Don

[bdraw]

If you are going to go with a MCE you can buy an OEM.
More money but less work.
http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/Results.aspx?collID=99

[pilotbob]

I really only watch a few shows anymore, most of which are on the broadcast networks, so I'm looking to cancel BHN. My wife insists on retaining the ability to record shows (we had a Tivo prior to the BHN DVR). I can get an antenna and a tuner for HD, but how can I record HD content with BHN or DTV? Can I do it from an HTPC?

You could get this LG Unit. It is like $420 at Circuit City online:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/LG-Electronics-HD-Receiver-DVR-LST-3410A-/sem/rpsm/oid/124025/catOid/-15608/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

BOb