Antec Veris Max

The case arrived and I moved the motherboard and other bits from my P4 PC over. Even though it has been designed for clean installation, I still managed to have wires and cables going everywhere. I must try harder and get some longer and neater cables for the job. Here is a picture of the TiVo sitting on top of the beast of the case:



I have not powered on the PC yet, and have not played with the remote.

BTW way, the price for this box on Play.com has now gone up - to £155! The case can be found at the old price at Lambdatek @ £140 plus delivery. I problem with Play.com was the delivery - they have to delivery it to your Credit card address, but can't tell you when (even a date, let alone an afternoon or morning time!)

The next generation PVR

The main reason for building a Freesat and Freeview PVR is to combine both sets of broadcast channels onto one box. Of course I would rather purchase a CE box to do this, but at the moment there is none on the market.

This has lead me to think about the next generation PVR, and its features. Hopefully, this HTPC will turn out to be able to fulfill all of the specification, but to see and produce some kind of checklist, I am going to put down some below.

Specification for next generation PVR
1. Quad tuner (two DVB-S2 and two DVB-T2).
2. HDMI, optical, CI, DiSEqC, and low power consumption.
3. At least 1Tb of internal storage. Blu-ray recordable media.
4. Networking, wireless, and USB connections.
5. Unified EPG; data from Freesat+, Freeview+, and internet.
6. Enhanced autopadding functions (works with AR/AT).
7. Enhanced and smart viewing and recording confict resolutions (using +1 and regional channels across both Freeview + Freesat channels).
8. EPG browsing and timer scheduling from the internet.
9. TV/Radio streaming over LAN and wireless.
10. Recording and archiving to Blu-ray discs.
11. Full editing, transcoding functions.
12. Smart storage management, with auto-deletion rules, and space saving channel choices (part of 7).
13. Video on demand facilities, such as iPlayer, and other paid services.
14. TiVo suggestions and of course Series recording, etc.

Any others?

A good case

Well, it is not as though I've made major progress on this project, but just small ones that will affect it.

Firstly, I have been upgrading my P4 PC with working memory, and a CPU fan to make it quieter. I've also being installing and re-installing MediaPortal and having a play with that - finding out about how it handles aspect ratios, etc.

Secondly, I've been trying to get the TiVo box going. After finding out about what it can do (for me), I finally had time to plug it in for a mess about. Unfortunately, first thing that happened was an error screen! (See this screenshot.) Apparenty, this error is due to an old TiVo OS, so it means I have to get the latest image and install it to get the TiVo box working. I will keep on at this, although, I think it might be a waste of time since the box does not have a lifetime EPG subscription and I'm not going to pay £10 a month to get the EPG data.

Finally, I've ordered my HTPC case: the Antec Veris Max case. I had been waiting for the right time, and was going to order from eBuyer, but the price had gone up. It was £140, but now it eBuyer is retailing it at £175! Fortunately, I found Play.com stocks this case, and it was still at £140. It is ordered now and should be on its way. I hope it turns out to be a good investment...

TiVo: an alternative?

Well, I just got a Series 1 UK TiVo box off a colleague. After having an idea that a TiVo might fullfil my Freesat and Freeview recording combo needs, I began looking more into this.

The idea is to connect a Freeview and a Freesat STB to the TiVo and by upgrading the hard disk to something a bit bigger, say 1TB, then it might just be able to satisfy my needs. First of all, I needed some questions answered:

1. Does TiVo provide a Freesat EPG as well as a Freeview EPG?
2. Can TiVo use a mixture of EPGs?
3. Can it control more than one STB? Can it control specific STB for specific programme/series recording?
4. Can the HDD be upgraded to one with a 1TB in size?
5. Can I use the EPG facilities if I don't have a life-time subscription? Can I use an alternative EPG source, if not?

Some questions were posted here on AVForums, and I am about to post on the TiVo forums to ask for more help. You can read this thread here. Or maybe I ought to go ahead, build my HTPC and wait for Nero 9 LiquidTV | TiVo PC media center software to come out in the UK?

What do you all think..? Is it possible to use 9 year old TiVo box to solve a 2009 problem? I can see the immediate downside already - that is, recordings will be analogue. But the immediate upside, is the great TiVo facilities that I'll be gaining...

Links to forums

Well, I just thought I'd post - just to say I'm not making any progress due to lack of 'play time', but I havent given up on this project yet. I've ordered a new CPU fan for my P4, however, and am waiting for that to arrive. The current fan is a little noisy and since the P4 PC is sitting on my desk next to my ear - something has to be done!

<- I would like to point out the side menu and especially the links to the forums. If you have any other suggestions of forums to add to the list, please leave a comment.

I'm going to link online component shops where you can buy parts for such a HTPC build.