Dell Dimension 4100 make a good PVR?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

I have a Dell Dimension 4100 with following specs:

800 mhz Pentium 3

512 megs ram

40 gig hard drive

Windows XP Pro

21" monitor

CD drive only


What Im wondering is if I could make a good PVR (Tivo clone) outta
this thing? Does it have enough horsepower and resources??

Initially Id just like to ut a DVD drive in this thing and be able to
hook it up to a standard 32" analog TV and play DVD movies with it.
Can that be done cheaply to start with?

Then....Id like to put a TV card and PVR video card in it to record TV
programs to the hard drive....and watch them later on the 32" analog
TV

Advice? Can I do this at reasonable cost with above hardware?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

you can add a dvd rom for about $35 or a dvd writer for about $85 and play
dvds on your tv if your video card has tv out.

your system might be a little slow for real time mpeg encoding but you can
find out for about $50 with a leadtek winfast tv2000 deluxe card.


<me6@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:uk2q80dqops7c2gg20eocrsd2uvkl1kq1i@4ax.com...
> I have a Dell Dimension 4100 with following specs:
>
> 800 mhz Pentium 3
>
> 512 megs ram
>
> 40 gig hard drive
>
> Windows XP Pro
>
> 21" monitor
>
> CD drive only
>
>
> What Im wondering is if I could make a good PVR (Tivo clone) outta
> this thing? Does it have enough horsepower and resources??
>
> Initially Id just like to ut a DVD drive in this thing and be able to
> hook it up to a standard 32" analog TV and play DVD movies with it.
> Can that be done cheaply to start with?
>
> Then....Id like to put a TV card and PVR video card in it to record TV
> programs to the hard drive....and watch them later on the 32" analog
> TV
>
> Advice? Can I do this at reasonable cost with above hardware?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 14:18:48 GMT, "Wooducoodu"
<wooducoodu@hotmail.com> wrote:

>you can add a dvd rom for about $35 or a dvd writer for about $85 and play
>dvds on your tv if your video card has tv out.
>
>your system might be a little slow for real time mpeg encoding but you can
>find out for about $50 with a leadtek winfast tv2000 deluxe card.
>
>

Or go right an buy a Hauppauge PVR250 board for $120 or so.

If you have OTA DTV you can get an ATSC tuner board (or if you are
Europe, a DVB-T board)

><me6@privacy.net> wrote in message
>news:uk2q80dqops7c2gg20eocrsd2uvkl1kq1i@4ax.com...
>> I have a Dell Dimension 4100 with following specs:
>>
>> 800 mhz Pentium 3
>>
>> 512 megs ram
>>
>> 40 gig hard drive
>>
>> Windows XP Pro
>>
>> 21" monitor
>>
>> CD drive only
>>
>>
>> What Im wondering is if I could make a good PVR (Tivo clone) outta
>> this thing? Does it have enough horsepower and resources??
>>
>> Initially Id just like to ut a DVD drive in this thing and be able to
>> hook it up to a standard 32" analog TV and play DVD movies with it.
>> Can that be done cheaply to start with?
>>
>> Then....Id like to put a TV card and PVR video card in it to record TV
>> programs to the hard drive....and watch them later on the 32" analog
>> TV
>>
>> Advice? Can I do this at reasonable cost with above hardware?
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

>Or go right an buy a Hauppauge PVR250 board for $120 or so.

Well PC Mag did a review of such software and hardware awhile back

I think they recommenced the Hauppauge 350 in conjunction with a
SnapStream Beyond TV3

see link

http://www.snapstream.com/Products/

What do you guys think of that setup?

And ....I wonder why they recommend the Hauppauge 350 rather then the
250 model you mention above?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

me6@privacy.net wrote:

> I have a Dell Dimension 4100 with following specs:
>
> 800 mhz Pentium 3
>
> 512 megs ram
>
> 40 gig hard drive
>
> Windows XP Pro
>
> 21" monitor
>
> CD drive only


Coupled with a PVR-250, that should make a decent MythTV machine. You
might grow out of that 40GB drive real quick, though.

If your capture card doesn't do hardware encoding, your CPU isn't going
to cut it.


-WD

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

me6@privacy.net wrote:

>>Or go right an buy a Hauppauge PVR250 board for $120 or so.
>
>
> Well PC Mag did a review of such software and hardware awhile back
>
> I think they recommenced the Hauppauge 350 in conjunction with a
> SnapStream Beyond TV3
>
> see link
>
> http://www.snapstream.com/Products/
>
> What do you guys think of that setup?
>
> And ....I wonder why they recommend the Hauppauge 350 rather then the
> 250 model you mention above?


The 350 has high quality TV-out functionality, but I do not believe this
is supported if you're running Windows.




-WD

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

you'd be better off with the leadtek.

<me6@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:if9q80lbpgrhk5feoi1hsa2gpcthcm030l@4ax.com...
> >Or go right an buy a Hauppauge PVR250 board for $120 or so.
>
> Well PC Mag did a review of such software and hardware awhile back
>
> I think they recommenced the Hauppauge 350 in conjunction with a
> SnapStream Beyond TV3
>
> see link
>
> http://www.snapstream.com/Products/
>
> What do you guys think of that setup?
>
> And ....I wonder why they recommend the Hauppauge 350 rather then the
> 250 model you mention above?