Can I turn my old PC into something useful? (1 Viewer)

[Thundordan]

Hi.

I've recently bought a nice little quad-core and my old 1500MHz, GeForce FX 5700, PC hasn't got a purpose anymore..



What I would LIKE to do is, buy a tv tuner and connect my old tower to the digital Cable Box's "Recorder Out" and use it as a sort of recorder.

Is this possible to do? My cable box's remote has the option of controlling a dvd writer through the cable box (conected through the "recorder out"). Can this work to control MediaPortal?




my cable connections should look like this: Digital Cable Box -to- TV (scart -to- scart), Digital Cable Box -to- PC (scart -to- whatever the tv tuner has), and PC -to- TV (video card -to- second TV scart).



Help me out please

 

[Thundordan]

-Bump-


Okay let me put it simpler:


My cable box has 2 scart outs: TV Out and DVD R/RW Out.


Does anyone know if you can connect that DVD RW Out to a PC and simply record TV shows etc.?

 

[fromaron]

Thundordan, check the MediaPortal Manual for minimum hardware requirenments, as far as I remember your hardware will not be powerfull enough for the job (at least with MediaPortal). You can get an analog capture card and record your cable box shows this way using software that comes with the card.

 

[Thundordan]

Ah, I looked around but didn't see the requirements. >.< I did now..


One more question. If I would do this, would it be possible to record tv on the PC using just the remote?

I wouldn't want to keep a mouse and KB around just for that...

 

[etheesdad]

Ah, I looked around but didn't see the requirements. >.< I did now..


One more question. If I would do this, would it be possible to record tv on the PC using just the remote?

I wouldn't want to keep a mouse and KB around just for that...

yep. sure. you can run MP without mouse or KB, just using a remote control as long as you have an IR receiver plugged into it.

But I guess you're not using mp to do the recording?

You can map the remote to work like a mouse. So yes, its possible.

 

[Gixxer]

about hardware requirements, give it a go, i had a amd1400 runing with tvserver included. but dont expect things to be easy.

 

[Thundordan]

Ah, I looked around but didn't see the requirements. >.< I did now..


One more question. If I would do this, would it be possible to record tv on the PC using just the remote?

I wouldn't want to keep a mouse and KB around just for that...

yep. sure. you can run MP without mouse or KB, just using a remote control as long as you have an IR receiver plugged into it.

But I guess you're not using mp to do the recording?

You can map the remote to work like a mouse. So yes, its possible.

Okay.. Could I dare to think Media Portal could be "controlled" by the TV Box's remote?

[Edit] I noticed my media boxes remote can be programmed to command the TV, a plugged "recorder" of choice etc.
Would it be possible to program that remote to controll the PC through a IR USB Adapter?

about hardware requirements, give it a go, i had a amd1400 runing with tvserver included. but dont expect things to be easy.

Okay. I don't really want Tivo. Just wanna record a couple of shows every now and then..

Hope the channels aren't encrypted by UPC...






And about those 600 GB of HDD space required, it's more of a guideline right? I mean the application doesn't actually need all that space if I don't record a large amount of content.