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Topic: standalone hard disk video recorder

Josh Jones
Redhat

Posts: 1207
From: Plano, TX
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 12-13-2001 05:11 PM

Ok here is a neat idea. A recent article in Poptronics sparked this idea, based on their HDD mp3 player. The thing can hold 91 days worth of music(assuming worst quality). Why not do the same thing for video, something along the lines of a rackmount piece of gear with a LCD panel and navagation buttons. kindof like TVO except with a removable HDD and no on screen interfaces, using a separate LCD navagation system instead. Could this be built using off the shelf hardware, or would some programming and other stuff be needed to make it run. I think this would be a great idea, since, face it, we all have VHS right?
think of it as a VCR that uses Hard disks instead of tape.

What do you think?

Josh

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 12-13-2001 05:32 PM

Interesting concept. Is this the one we talked about the other night? I wonder if it is cost effective. If you think you can make it run, I have a spare HD I can give to you to fiddle with.

Paul

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 12-13-2001 05:56 PM

That would be cool if all you wanted to do was timeshift TV shows. I don't recommend things like Tivo since they REQUIRE you to subscribe to their service.

Personally I would like the ability to archive recordings. That's why I like the Panasonic DMR-E20 DVD Video Recorder. It has a built in tuner to record TV shows off the air or from cable. No need to subscribe to some lame service. Blank DVD-Rs are getting pretty cheap, and they'll play back on most consumer DVD players. If you want rewritability it also records to DVD-RAM carts. The quality is very good. You can also play back part of the disc while it records on a different section. The unit is $1000 so EVERYBODY can afford a few for each room in their home.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 12-13-2001 06:02 PM

Also, if you want to build your own, you'd need to have an A/V input card, an Operating System (probably Windows since that's all everyone uses for some messed up reason) and MPEG-2 real time encoding software or hardware (not cheap). Then you'd need other software to set the times it was to record, etc. You could hook up a tiny LCD monitor to be the function screen.

Good luck!

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Josh Jones
Redhat

Posts: 1207
From: Plano, TX
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 12-13-2001 06:17 PM

http://www.cadsoft.de/people/kls/vdr/

This is kindof what I had in mind. This guy is using Linux and a Philips satalite card for DSS. The operating system would be the big problem, it would have to boot directly into the video server utility.

Josh

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Josh Jones
Redhat

Posts: 1207
From: Plano, TX
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 12-13-2001 08:21 PM

Now this is more like it..... http://www.doremilabs.com/products/v1.htm

it handles 2 channels of Audio, and video compression is variable from 2:1 to 34:1

I do However, fear the price.

Josh

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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 12-13-2001 09:22 PM

Joe, you can pay a flat fee for Tivo programming info. I did that, it has paid itself off and now the info is free to me. I've heard rumors that Tivos can be hacked, but I haven't bothered to check into it. My bet is that in a couple of years what Josh wants to do will be commonplace.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-13-2001 09:33 PM

It sounds like the Qubit player that is being used for many of the DLP setups will do exactly what Josh wants. It can even be connected to a film projector automation system and controlled by the same start timer. I don't know if it has the ability to do its own recording and compression, however. For the DLP shows, the "movie" arrives pre-compressed on DVD-R disks.

I'd be amazed if it were possible to get decent-looking DVDs with the compression done in real time. For feature films, the DVD creation process apparently requires a high-end SGI workstation and a skilled "compressionist" to get all the information to fit on a disk while maintaining the best possible picture quality.

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Brian Hogan
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 119
From: Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 12-18-2001 03:35 AM

aparently there is a card you can put in the computer to decode digital television broadcasts. comes complete with software to allow the puter to be a digital vcr as well.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/accessdtv1.htm

yeah, another how stuff works page... simple yet effective.

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Bill Carter
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 162
From: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 12-26-2001 09:46 PM

There have been a number of units like this manufactured for the broadcast industry for a few years now. Until the more recent "MPEG2" era, many of them used proprietary formats to capture and store the video, and stuff like wavelet compression, etc. The price for some of these units was truly staggering, especially the ones that were available 5 or so years ago.

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