Using older PC as DVR

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wjb

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Jan 7, 2013
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I have an older PC that I would like to use as a DVR. We have OTA TV with Roku, but I want to record the OTA programs when I need to. I am looking at TV tuner cards and an external hard drive. The machine is
Dell Optiplex 745
Processor : Intel Core ™2 CPU 6400@2.13 GHZ
RAM: 4 GB
32-bit OS
Hard drive: 149 GB total, 99 free
Video
256 MB ATI Radeon X1300PRO

Currently it has Windows Vista Business. I could upgrade to Windows 7 to get WMC, but is there another way to do this?
Thanks,
Bill
 
Solution
mjslakeridge
I use WMC to record TV programs on my Win8 machine, using the HDHomerun TV tuner which connects to the cable system and then over to the computer via ethernet cable. The tuner allows for recording of 2 programs simultaneously, plus I can also watch a third channel on the TV itself.

However, if you only have about 99GB free on the HDD, you won't be able to record too many programs without constantly erasing old ones. Depending on where you live, if the TV programs are broadcast in high definition like in the US, a one hour program will take up about 5.5 GB and a full NFL football game upwards of 20GB. Even with my 2TB drive, I eventually have to erase old recordings, of course I have quite a few DVDs and lots of mp3 files also.
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meaga1n

meaga1n

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Dec 22, 2015
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Have a look into Kodi on Linux and live TV recording. That system should handle it well.
Kodi might even run on Vista but moving to Lubuntu or another linux would increase stability
 
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mjslakeridge

mjslakeridge

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Mar 6, 2013
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I use WMC to record TV programs on my Win8 machine, using the HDHomerun TV tuner which connects to the cable system and then over to the computer via ethernet cable. The tuner allows for recording of 2 programs simultaneously, plus I can also watch a third channel on the TV itself.

However, if you only have about 99GB free on the HDD, you won't be able to record too many programs without constantly erasing old ones. Depending on where you live, if the TV programs are broadcast in high definition like in the US, a one hour program will take up about 5.5 GB and a full NFL football game upwards of 20GB. Even with my 2TB drive, I eventually have to erase old recordings, of course I have quite a few DVDs and lots of mp3 files also.
 
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Solution
W

wjb

Honorable
Jan 7, 2013
16
0
10,510


 
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W

wjb

Honorable
Jan 7, 2013
16
0
10,510
Thanks for your help. Right after I submitted the question a friend gave me a Simple.TV DVR so I have gone in a different direction. Thanks again.
 
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