May 13, 2008

Curious, George: Cheap HD Recording? What is the absolute cheapest way to record over-the-air HD?

So my wife and I got an HDTV, I made a kickass antenna for it that proudly resides in our attic, and we love the change from fuzzy analog, but the one drawback is you can't just hook up a VCR and record it. Which sucks, because the only way we can record shows while we're tending to the baby is a crap picture over rabbit ears in the bedroom. I don't have a spare PC I can repurpose as a hackamariffic Linux DVR. I don't have a modded XBox or a Tivo. What is the absolute cheapest route for me to be able to record shows on my widescreen? I'm even fine if the recording itself has to downgrade the picture quality from HD -- really all I want is the clear, widescreen picture.

posted by middleclasstool 15 years ago
  • Oh, one other limiting factor: no wi-fi as of yet, just one desktop pc running XP with 512MB of RAM.
  • So I'm going to go with "hire a guy to do live re-enactments" then.
  • My knowledge of HDTV is theoretical. What connectors are there for the antenna, the HDTV, and the VCR? I guess you've already tried coaxial from antenna -> VCR -> HDTV? If there's some sort of output from the TV, one possibility would be to add a TV card to your PC and run a coaxial or USB cable between the telly and the computer. I guess this would cost 30 to 50 dollars? The problem then is getting everything set up to capture while junior is screaming at you. A less hassle option could be a cheap DVR.
  • The antenna and the VCR are coax, yes. The TV's got it all: HDMI, S-Video, component video, coax, even a port for a PC monitor cable. I haven't tried hooking up the VCR to the antenna because it won't work -- the VCR's tuner is analog only, so it won't see channels with numbers like 2.3. The PC option is one I've thought of, but I have no idea how much power I'm going to need under the hood to record and play back HD. Probably a RAM upgrade, at least. I'd also have to run cables through the attic, since the PC and the TV are in different rooms, but that's not that big of a deal. Anybody use any Windows-based DVR software?
  • You won't store a lot if you record in HD - you'd have to downsample, wouldn't you? This suggests a 32 Mbps bitrate, which would give about 7 GB for a 30 minute broadcast. This software suggests you've got the minimum necessary RAM. I would normally take that as a sign to double up.
  • I just found SageTV and looked up its requirements as well -- looks like I've got more than enough for it. Trouble is the TV tuner card. If I want to record in HD, I need a pricier tuner card (roughly double an SD tuner card), plus it looks like my cheap onboard video ain't gonna hack it, so I'd have to buy a video card as well. HD tuner card + new graphics card + SageTV gets me pretty close to set-top box prices, looks like, but then again there's no subscription.
  • Ah, plus the HD tuner card's likely going to require at least a RAM upgrade as well. Poop. It's kind of frustrating that I have all this awesome free TV and can't record a second of it without dropping three hundred bucks. Suppose it serves me right for having a five-year-old computer that I bought on the cheap.
  • Swap out the entrails of your work computer and home computer. Then complain incessantly about how slow your work computer is until they upgrade it. Aren't there any boxes you can buy without a subscription?