Media Networking: Cheap Experiment Results

My initial attempt at Media networking is a big success!  The world of the Personal Video Recorder (PVR) is now open to me.  Here is the formula you need to know:

TV Tuner Card (Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150) + Hauppauge MediaMVP + GB-PVR + Zap2It + Hard Drive + Network = WOW

Assuming you already have the Hard Drive and the Network, and GB-PVR and Zap2It are free, the total cost of the above system is around $160.  And $80 for each additional TV in your house, as you will need a MediaMVP unit for each TV you want to enable.

Um, what are you talking about?  What does this do?

This setup gives you Tivo-like functionality over your home network without any membership fees or other reoccurring costs.  I can now use a remote control to pull up an interactive TV Guide on my television, select to record shows in the future, recall pre-recorded shows, watch Live TV with pause and rewind features.  I can also pull up other videos on my network, as well as photos and MP3s.  I can also browse YouTube and play videos directly on my TV... though it's feels kind of strange to do that.  Then there's also access to Net Radio stations and even things like Google Calendar if you want.  Heck, I can even connect to my PVR over the web to schedule show recording remotely.  Technology rules.

I still don't get it.  Really.  I'm a little lost.

I'll step through it following the path of the television signal.



1) Your incoming cable/satellite service comes into your house and plugs into your TV Tuner card, which is in your computer.

2) You download and install GB-PVR, which is software that provides Personal Video Recorder functionality.  GB-PVR connects to the free Zap2It service which provides your interactive TV Listings.

At this point, you can launch GB-PVR on your computer and browse TV Listings.  You can schedule shows to record just by clicking your mouse.  You can watch Live TV on your computer monitor if you want.  Recorded shows are stored as MPG files on your hard drive.  On the default setting of "medium" quality, a half-hour show takes 1Gig of space.

This is all great as long as you are willing to only ever use this functionality at your computer monitor.  If you want to experience all of this through a TV, though, you need a MediaMVP unit.

3) Connect your MediaMVP to your television using normal audio/video RCA jacks.  Connect your MediaMVP to your network by plugging it into your router.  Turn it on.  It will find GB-PVR on your network and link up to it.  You will see the GB-PVR interface on your TV screen!

4) Point the included remote control at your MediaMVP and control the on-screen interface.  Have fun.

5) Add additional MediaMVPs to each TV in your house and now you can pull recorded shows and other content from your network onto any of those TVs.

But how well does it really work?

"Surprisingly well" is the best way to describe it.  I would say that LiveTV via the MediaMVP is probably 90-95% broadcast quality.  And most likely that has to do with settings that frankly I don't know much about... like which MPG encoder/decoder I have elected to use, etc.  I just chose the defaults and it seems to work well enough for me.

What are the benefits?

1) Watch TV when you want.  I have already set up my system to record all episodes of "The Office", as that is really the only show I want to watch, but I don't want to remember to watch it on the day that it airs.

2) Watch TV that interests you.  We are remodeling our home, so I've set the system to record all episodes of "This Old House" because I find that show to provide lots of relevant information and ideas... but I have no idea when it airs.

3) Stockpile shows.  My kids like Arthur, Curious George, and Fetch... but we don't always catch them at the right time.  So the system is set to record all of the upcoming episodes of each.  So we will be able to deliver when the kids ask to watch Arthur.

No monthly costs.