Trailer-park DVR

[Nabubrush]

Shouldn't there be some kind of easy way to buy a cheap-ass hard drive and hook it up to my cable and download shit from the TV to watch later, with some kind of front-end computer interface through my laptop or something? Why doesn't this exist?

So you pretty much all know I work in a remote location half the time. I've got coax coming in to my room and a fairly new laptop (last six months or so). Yeah, I could just break down and buy a cheap VCR, but it seems like there ought to be a way to get around that, what with the brave new world and all. All I really want to be able to do is have copies of football games that I miss while I am working.

Most of you are more computer-savvy than I am. Explain to me why this is or is not possible at the present time. You should explain it as if you were talking to a five-year-old, your aged and infirm grandfather, or a tree stump. It does not need to be terribly detailed.

[Arachno-capitalist]

This exists, i do it, but I dont have time to break it down for you right now. Ill get back to you, or fanta will write a book-long post about it in the mean time.

[Nabubrush]

Well, at least now I know it's possible. I just hate having my wife DVR shit and then I don't even want to watch it two weeks later.

[AugustWest]

Windows XP Media Edition will do this.  I have a DVR, so I don't need it to, but all I'd need to do is buy a 1TB drive and hook up my satellite to the computer and bingo, bango, bongo and Irving, there you go -- recorded TV on the computin' box.

[Arachno-capitalist]

It won't work with most satellite because the satellite boxes are specifically designed to keep you from doing that... because they want you to buy a new sat box.

If you have cable, what you need is a "tv tuner card" which is just a coaxial input for your computer. There is also a USB version of a tv tuner card called "eye tv"

Windows Media Player in Windows 7 has an easy set up guide for this once you have your tuner card installed. It takes like 5 minutes. This is where the trick with sat box comes. Any software that youre going to use to run your dvr whether it is the eye tv software or Windows Media Player is going to need a schedule that you can point to and tell it to record. Sat boxes wont tell your computer what the schedule is and wont let it change the channel to what you want.

[Nabubrush]

Makes me wonder if it'd work for me. It's satellite tv up here (no cable company) and then they send it to the rooms over coax cable.

[wombat]

While we're at it, is there any way to copy the stuff on my DVR onto my computer or some other kind of storage I can use on my computer? I can play each show and record it onto a disc but it turns out this is such a pain in the ass that it's just not going to happen. I want to just copy them like any damn computer file. Is that too much to ask?

[Choop]

Is that too much to ask?

yes

[smick]

Windows Media Player in Windows 7 has an easy set up guide for this once you have your tuner card installed. It takes like 5 minutes. This is where the trick with sat box comes. Any software that youre going to use to run your dvr whether it is the eye tv software or Windows Media Player is going to need a schedule that you can point to and tell it to record. Sat boxes wont tell your computer what the schedule is and wont let it change the channel to what you want.

Windows Media Center generally has the schedules available to download into it, and can control a sat box using a "remote extender".    The TV Tuner that I have came with this doodad:

http://www.amazon.com/Infrared-Receiver-Media-Center-5188-1667/dp/B000Z7XJME

It allows me to control the computer with the remote, but also has a little IR plug that I run over to a cable box, and Media Center changes the channel on the cable box. 

So yea... what you're doing is possible.   You'll need software that is built into some versions of XP, and all versions of Windows 7, a USB TV tuner and an "IR Blaster".   But it WILL require the laptop to be hanging out while you're working. 

USB TV Tuner - There are a bunch of others around.  I just grabbed this one because it came up first.
http://www.amazon.com/Avertv-Hybrid-Volar-Windows-MTVHVMXSK/dp/B002U6KT8U/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1283787219&sr=1-10

Remote and IR Controller - This will give you a remote to use on your laptop, as well as allow Windows Media Center to change the channel on the satellite box.
http://www.amazon.com/Noah-Company-MediaGate-GP-IR02BK-Ultimate/dp/B000W5GK5C/ref=sr_1_16?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1283787314&sr=1-16


*** I fixed some interesting grammar choices.

[Arachno-capitalist]

If you say so, I looked for hours on forums and tech support on a way to get WMC to play with direct tv and no one had anything.