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Build Your Own Personal Video Recorder 101: (Part 1)
Page: 2/2
(1211 total words in this text)
(287699 Reads) 
I'll gladly pay 150 - 300 for some electronic entertainment gadget, but if I have to pay another 300 dollars above and beyond that for "service", that bothers me. I'd rather spend the equivalent amount on hardware and build my own (the building and tinkering is half the fun to me, which is a point that shouldn't be lost). It's a question of value: I'd gladly (and actually do pay for) pay for the service, but it's not worth 13 bucks a month... I'd be willing to pay maybe 36 bucks a year tops (if that!) But that's just me, I'm cheap like that.
Another reason to build your own homebrew PVR is privacy concerns. Those of you paranoid tinfoil hat types may have noticed all the wonderful data that Tivo announced regarding the super bowl. Tivo (for example) has a privacy policy and supposedly none of your personal viewing habits that can be identifiable to you individually ever leaves your set top box... but if you have an ingrained distrust of corporations having access to your viewing habits (even if they promise they won't, sorta) building your own PVR can ensure that YOU control what happens with the viewing data (if any) is collected. The men in the white jackets will never know that you tape bugs bunny cartoons and you constantly pause and rewind the love scenes in General Hospital.
Besides the love to build/tinker/mod PC's, the BEST reason to build your own PVR is that you can add whatever you want to you PVR to extend the functionality beyond just watching and recording shows. People in the HTPC (home theater PC) community have been adding all sorts of neat functionality to their HTPCs. You can pull in RSS feeds of all your favorite sites to see what's going on in a glance, grab weather dynamically (no more waiting for your local weather on the weather channel), you can play games (like MAME and othe emulators), surf, mp3 jukebox, DVD/DivX/MPEG movies/clips, digitial picture slideshow/viewer, phew! Roll your own digital convergance box!
I'm still skeptical...
Can I really build something that will work as well and be as easy to use as a Tivo? Yes you can for the most part. It might require some patience and tweaking to get your homebrew PVR setup just the way you like, but the end result is worth it. Building your own PVR is still a petty new endeavor and there are some growing pains. The good news is that the tools are getting better and better all the time (both software and hardware) making it an exciting time to be rolling your own PVR.
How do I get started?
Well you are in the right place! Check out the site FAQ, browse/post in the Build Your Own PVR forums, and check out the article links in the BYOPVR link directory.
Continue on to Part 2 of Build Your Own PVR 101 where we outline some of the basic options for rolling your own tivo like home entertainment system.
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