Here is a pretty cool case. http://www.directron.com/a102.html There are several microATX motherboards that will fit it, and of course, you want to get one without video. It leaves only 3 pci slots available. ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Stephen Davies <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Reply-To: video4linux-list@xxxxxxxxxx Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 16:10:04 +0000 (GMT) > > >On Wed, 23 Jan 2002, Kevin Atkinson wrote: > >> I would like to start a project and/or work with existing project such >> home-brewed TiVO system for two main reasons 1) for the fun of it and 2) >> to make a statement to the RIAA and the MPAA that they are not going to be >> able to control the flow of information period. This project will be >> different then some of the other projects I have seen in several key ways: >> >> 1) Will focus on producing a deliverable now by gluing together existing >> software. >> 2) Will be based on generic hardware, ie it should be able to work >> with a wide variety of receiver and video cards with TV out and >> should not relay on hardware encoding cards. >> 3) For now will focus on recoding and playing back NTSC and PAL tv >> signals, with digital tv coming latter. > >I have a box that I use as a PVR. My approach has been just like yours >(except that I do have a digital TV card in my box too). > >There's quite a few people working to the same general objective, though >often the tradeoffs differ. There's not too much code sharing yet. > >For my box I've mostly integrated various open source code. I've >contributed back various fixes etc, but haven't anything written from >scratch to a state for sharing. > >Here's my hardware roll call: > > - Generic Athlon based PC (1.13GHz, more than enough CPU) > - 2 WinTV FM cards, providing video w NICAM and FM receivers too. > - 1 Nova-T DVB-T card, recently added > - Voodoo3 TV card for TV output > - IRDEO infrared receiver/transmitter, mildly hardware-hacked > - Infrared keyboard/mouse (www.keyboardco.com) > - SBLive 5.1 > - Hard disks: 1x20GB for system, 1x75GB, 1x60Gb for video > - dvd drive > - Ultra-quiet power supply, PC cooler etc (www.quietpc.com) > - 4x20 LCD display module (not yet integrated) > >This lot works very well for general use. I can capture off both analogue >cards simultaneously whilst also playing back another file. Each >FFMPEGrec instance uses around 25% CPU, the playback uses < 10%. Haven't >tried but I'd expect to throw capture of a DVB-T channel into that mix >too. > >In your hardware selection that key thing will be your video output >card. Its important to find a card with 24bit/32bit colour, with XVideo >support or some other accelerated video output support that fits your >environment, and with TV-output that works properly. > >I'm happy with my Voodoo3 TV card, but I did have to do some work on the >bt869 TV-output driver to add support for 720x576 resolution with >overscan. Still - that's done now so if you can find one of those you are >away. > >I know Matrox has stopped supporting their TV-out on newer cards. If you >can find a G400 card I believe that that works well for TV-out on Linux. > >I'm not sure of the TV-out status for ATI cards. > >You could consider devices like DVB-S cards or DXR3 which can be driven by >mplayer. But this does make presenting on-screen user interface harder. > >Research this all carefully before putting your money down on this item! > >On the hardware side all I'm missing is the right case. I think I will >have to customise something myself. > >On the software side, I use (and you should consider): > >To drive video capture cards: > bttv to drive WinTV cards. I use bttv 0.8 in order to get V4L2 support. > I use the included btaudio driver to get audio straight off the > capture cards without needing to loop through a sound card. > DVB driver for the Nova-T card > >To capture mpeg1 in realtime: > Justin Schoeman's NVrec, specifically FFMPEGrec > I've also used mp1e, but for me it shows gradual AV-sync drift > If you don't mind higher CPU usage, DIVX4rec makes DIVX4 .avi > files that are smaller for similar quality. > >To record audio/radio: > I use mpegrec for mp3 capture > >To playback video/dvds: > mplayer. No debate for me. I should say that video is a minefield of > patents etc etc so I wonder if you can completely solve your > questions about freedom/legality. What are your specific concerns > about mplayer? > >To playback audio: > I use xmms. mpg123 or madplay are simple non-X apps that could > be used. > >To organize video disks: > I use LVM (the linux volume manager) > I use XFS as the filesystem. Saves fscks, performs great for > me even capturing 2 to 3 streams whilst playing a couple. > >For infrared receive & transmit: > LIRC > >For reformatting video files: > mplayer's mencoder > ffmpeg > >For speech synthesis > flite. Just for fun... > >To drive the LCD display: > lcdproc > >I find it amazing to look at that roll-call of excellent open software! >And it all works together. Truly I've received more than I could ever >contribute! > >In addition to all that, my box uses a Postgres database which stores >channel, schedule information. I have a Ruby program that feeds this >database daily with schedule information kindly provided by Ananova. Idea >based on xmltv but reimplemented. > >Most of my time so far (I've been working on this project say 8 months of >spare time) has gone on features and improvements for al this software >above, together with the database development. > >I can still think of things I'd like to do in these apps, but the "next >thing" for me needs to be user interface. Right now I simply use various >SQL tools to query the schedule database, "at" and a simple shell script >to schedule recordings, and Konqueror to browse my captured video files >(.mpg associated with a playvideo shell script). The family can handle >the latter, but not the former - so I currently have **TOTAL POWER** >over what gets recorded... ;-) > >I've just started sketching out and playing with a user interface. I'll >use Ruby and ruby-fltk for a toolkit. For TV output you need to take care >with your display for legibility and to avoid flicker, so I will use >simple widgets only. > >The idea is for the interface to be drivable with a remote control for the >main functions of scheduling recordings, selecting programmes to playback. > >I'm not bothered to provide a friendly interface for more exotic things - >the advantage of the open platform is I can just ssh in and do all that. > >I hope that this is interesting for you. I've had the best fun with the >project, and learnt a load about digital video etc - which was the main >point. On the downside, I could probably have bought 3 TIVOs for the same >money... > >Steve > > > >_______________________________________________ >Video4linux-list mailing list >Video4linux-list@xxxxxxxxxx >https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/video4linux-list >
