DVD/HDD recorder - to HTPC or not?

[John]

On topic because if it's HTPC I'll be doing it myself :-)

We have a four year-old Philips DVD/HDD recorder that has worked 100% reliably until now, but alas it's now developed an intermittent fault and can't be relied on, so it has to go.

Basic requirements - doesn't have to be hi-def as we aren't bothered about that and we don't watch a lot of movies, but it would need twin Freeview tuners so that we can pause live TV, record one channel while watching another, record two channels while watching playback of earlier recording etc., etc. One thing our Philips machine has that's invaluable is what they call a "Time-shift Buffer" - it's like a 6 hour long conveyor belt IYSWIM :-)

I'd literally never heard the term "Home Theatre PC" until just yesterday and I quite like the idea of building my own but, although I've built about 50 computer systems for family and friends over the years, I've never built one for the sole purpose of watching/recording TV before and I know nothing about that so a few questions come to mind.

First question - we have an Amstrad DRX890 Sky+HD box (but we don't have the HD subscription) which has one HDMI socket that connects to the TV (a 3 year-old Panny 42" plasma) and one SCART socket which connects to the DVD/HDD recorder. When I've got something on the Sky box that I want to keep, I send it by SCART to the HDD of the DVD/HDD box and then record it onto DVD. Can an HTPC have a SCART input to accept recordings from my Sky box? If not, how do I do it?

Second question - All recorded programmes are important. People only record what they want to see so there's no room for error - I don't want to have the first five episodes of a six-ep series and then miss the all-important climax of the final episode, so are home-built, HTPCs 100% reliable? I don't want to have to constantly reboot, tweak, fiddle, lose important programmes - I just want it to work with a minimum of fuss like our Philips DVD/HDD recorder has done for the last four years.

Finally, can anyone point me to a website or other group for more information. Google throws up a few but they are dated from 2007 and

2008 so not much use now.

Thanks

[Andy Burns]

If you're not afraid of Linux, then look at mythTV, if you go that way choose your tuner cards and graphic card caarefully ... I've just bought an new AMD Fusion based netbook and suspect an ITX motherboard based on that APU would make a good basis for an HTPC.

[Bert Coules]

John for more information, informed opinions and friendly advice, try the UK AV Forums at

. There's a dedicated area for computers, and a dedicated sub-area for home entertainment PCs, both commercial and self-built.

My impression, for what it's worth, is that the HCPC route *is* prone to fiddling, adjusting, hair-tearing and the like. In your position I'd replace the Philips machine, my personal preference being for the Panasonic range (but not perhaps the very latest models, which have been widely criticised for slugishness in operation - something I can confirm from my own experience).

Bert

[John]

Cheers Andy but I've never touched Linux before and think it would involve too much learning/fiddling for me at the moment - but thanks anyway.

[John]

Thanks Bert, I'll have a look at avforums but if there's a chance that I'll lose any recordings and have to fiddle and tweak, I may well take your advice and go with another dedicated DVD/HDD recorder.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its not that ad a all.

I have nearly all the functionality you want/need in 'Me TV' using a hauppage dongle for freeview.

Not sure if there are satellite doofers.

MythTV is quite a big install, but its not beyond possibility.

[Andy Burns]

But as Bert said, it can fall into fiddling & adjusting territory, I've had to re-compile kernels 3 times over the years to fix bugs, or bodge stuff to work.

[Bert Coules]

If this is going to be something for all the family to use, a PC-based arrangement is almost certainly not the best approach.

Bert

[Andy Burns]

Agreed, see