A more economical route to a desktop DVR is a hardware/software upgrade that adds a TV tuner, video encoder, and control applications to your current system. Many PCs will need to add a TV tuner card or module, which lets your system work with incoming TV signals from a coaxial cable or antenna. The popular ATI All-in-Wonder line includes the $200 9600 Pro PCI Express-based card and the $150 AIW 9600 AGP-based card. Both combine a powerful graphics accelerator, TV tuner, and video processor on a single card. They also come packed with the ATI Multimedia Center application suite, which includes everything you need to watch, pause, record, and schedule the capture of broadcast video.
Don't want to scrap your current graphics card? You can install a PCI card like the $150 Happauge WinTV-PVR-350, which comes with hardware to accelerate video encoding and playback. Like the All-in-Wonder family, Hauppauge WinTV-PVR cards include software that lets you record digital content on your PC, and pack nifty DVR tricks like timeshifting.
If you own a notebook PC or don't want to crack open the case to add a TV tuner, consider the $150 Happauge WinTV-PVR-USB2. About the size of a paperback book, this device plugs into your computer's USB 2.0 port on one side and a coaxial TV cable on the other. The built-in TV tuner and encoder hardware lets you work with and record the incoming video stream. Best of all, it's easy to move the device from one PC to another.
Drawbacks: External devices like the Win-TV-USB2 and similar Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe can suffer from occasionally choppy video or lower video resolution. Moreover, the quality of software included with cards or modules can vary.
Option 3: Install Software on a TV-Ready PC
Already have TV tuning hardware handy? If so, consider installing software that can tap into that hardware and upgrade the media handling features of your current setup. Applications like SnapStream's $60 Beyond TV 3 expand on the usual watch-and-record features found in bundled software, offering the next best thing to a TiVo in your PC. In fact, Beyond TV 3 turns your PC into a media-streaming Web server, so that other devices on your local network--or even over the Internet--can play back compressed video captured on the hard drive. With its unique interface and powerful scheduling and recording options, it's a great fit for getting the most out of your current hardware.
Drawbacks: Compatibility can be a question, particularly with older hardware that you might hope to "upgrade" using third-party software. Also, while Beyond TV 3 in particular is powerful and unique, the nonstandard interface may confound novice users. Some of the server-side features may also prove challenging to novices.
After the Deed Is Done
So now you've got a PC doing the duty of a DVR set-top box. What if you don't want a whirring, buzzing PC spinning away in your den or family room? A growing selection of "media extender" devices talk to media-capable PCs in order to display their output on TVs and stereos located across the room or across the house. For video playback, users connect the devices to their TVs using standard video connectors, then link to the PC over the home ethernet or Wi-Fi network. While wireless devices offer terrific flexibility, performance and setup, issues can stymie even battle-tested tech veterans.
Windows Media Center Extenders offer a nice mix of features and ease of use, but they must be mated to a Media Center PC to perform their magic. Products like the $260 Linksys WMCE54AG Windows Media Center Extender come with a remote control and display the familiar Media Center screen interface. That makes the devices much easier to use. Most important, these adapters interact with the Media Center PC, so you can schedule a recording session for the PC from the media extender. Very slick.
More generic media adapters (i.e., non-Media Center Extenders) do a lot of the same things, but they'll work with many networked, Windows XP-based PCs. The Netgear Model MP115 Wireless Digital Media Player, for instance, will detect media-capable PCs and let you view hard disk-based video, audio, and photos.
Compatibility issues in the past made these devices quite frustrating, prompting Microsoft to launch its PlaysForSure logo campaign. Any device displaying this logo has been certified to run on PlayForSure-approved PCs and hardware. Like the Garanimal pajamas of my youth, even novice users should be able to mix and match PlaysForSure-compliant devices, and feel confident the combination will work.
In the end, watching TV on a PC may not be enough to make someone convert his system into a desktop DVR (although in some circumstances--like mine--it makes perfect sense; see the accompanying article "Why TiVo Your PC?"). My editor likes to say, "I've got a nice comfortable couch in the family room. Why do I want to watch TV at my desk?"
But even he admitted that the prospect of building his own DVR to avoid renting a new box and paying any extra money to his dreaded cable company (a sore spot with him) is worth all the manual-reading and trial-and-error he might have to put into it. Hey, I don't have anything personal against my cable company, but he could very well be right.
