[yusky03]

i managed to get my hands on a old school laptop (lifting weights with it right now lol) and i decided i want to make a dvr out of it and i was wondering if it has enough power to get the job done

also i was wanting to know how many hours 10gb of video would get me

i was looking at this program SageTV
http://www.dvrplayground.com/article/12576...d-your-own-DVR/

and this card
http://cgi.ebay.com/Laptop-Notebook-PCMCIA...1QQcmdZViewItem


win xp professional
intel pentium II processor
300MHz
160 mb of RAM

every video captureing card i can find needs at least a 800mhz processor... is it possible to even do this????... overclock???

[JohnWill]

I think you'll need to consider something with a bit more HP in the processor area. Most DVR's have hardware video compression, which allows them to run with lower performance processors. I see their recommended card for the SAGE software is one with the encoding on the card, a mandatory step for any sub-1ghz processor I would imagine. 10gigs will only get you a few hours at best.

Note that the card you picked specifies: Pentium III 800 MHz and above

[Soundy]

Depending on the format you want to record in, you might just be able to pull it off, as the listed specs for the card are probably what's recommended for recording at its maximum quality setting. Recording at MPEG-1 (VideoCD quality) is a lot less processor-intense than at MPEG-2 (DVD) or high-quality WMV or AVI. VCD video will fit an hour on a standard CD, or just under 700MB, so you could probably get upwards of 12-14 hours of recording in that space. Quality will be about that of a decent VHS tape at SP.

A bigger consideration would be Windows itself: 160MB is pretty minimal to even run XP, let alone do anything with it. I'd recommend looking at Windows 2000 instead (Win9x would scream on that thing, but the card lists 2K/XP as the only supported OSes).

[JohnWill]

Personally, I think spending any money on this configuration would probably be a bad idea, but it's not my money...

[yusky03]

Originally Posted by JohnWill

Personally, I think spending any money on this configuration would probably be a bad idea, but it's not my money...

if it works i will do it... and from the feedback i am getting i take it, it will not work

also thanks fot the info Soundy it was helpfull

to recap: if i did install and run it all the computer would most likely freeze... and if i took Soundys advice the video quality would be like a crappy vhs from back in the day

[Soundy]

VCD is certainly watchable - think VHS on a *good* quality tape at SP speed... not a $1.50 WalMart tape at SLP.

However, you'd probably be better off getting a whole new PC for <$300. Put a low-cost tuner card in it, load it up with MythTV (free Linux-based home-theater software bundle), and you're off to the races.

As for a tuner, I just picked up an Adaptec GameBridge TV box: USB connected, tiny little box, standard A/V and RF (ant/cable) inputs, and it works just boffo with my laptop (granted, it's a Celeron 1.7GHz with 512MB RAM). Cost $40 from A-Power. Doesn't do A/V out, so you're stuck watching on the computer screen or rigging some other output method if you want to feed the TV (some cheap machines may have a composite video out on-board, or you might find a VGA-to-SVideo/composite adapter).

BTW, I doubt your computer would freeze... if it is underpowered, you'd more likely just get dropped frames. The problem with that tuner card is that you're pretty much limited to using it with a laptop, so if you did get it and it didn't work, you wouldn't be able to use it in a standard PC (at least not without an expensive PCMCIA adapter). If you went USB and tried it on the laptop and it didn't work, you could still use that with another PC. Or you could look at getting a better laptop - I got mine used for only $400.

[yusky03]

Thanks again Soundy for the info

i am not going to buy a new laptop if it does end up not working then i will wait till i have the $$$ to build a new computer because then i will have no problem (2.8ghz)... that is what i was going to do until i found this laptop and decided what the hell

the laptop has a Infrared card in it so i figured i could get the SageTV remote on my PSP and use that

also i do want to view it on my TV not just on the computer

so if i do not use it now i will definitely use it later.... what one would you recommend

"There are plenty of cards available, but I've had great experience with the Hauppauge PVR-150, the entry card in the Hauppauge line of cards. To ease the load on your CPU, the Hauppauge PCI cards do the video encoding on the card, meaning TV recording will take up very few CPU cycles (perfect for an older PC)."
^^^ that is the reason i was looking at the card... but i ges it did not make any dif.

[Soundy]

Yeah, the Hauppauge card is pretty good, I put one in my wife's computer. Came with an IR remote and an IR mouse to transmit codes to a cable or satellite box. Software that came with it is... okay. Something like that would probably be better for you because it will output composite/S-video to run to your TV as well. But again, you might want to look into something that's USB rather than PCI - that should let you use it on the laptop, for experimenting with, and then use it on a regular PC when the time comes.

[kiwiguy]

The grunt you need for either a PCMCIA or USB is several times the CPU speed you have now. I use a 1.5 GHz CPU laptop with a TV interface and its *just* enough.

Tried it on a 600 MHz CPU and it would only get about 1 frame in 5.

You have a 0.3 GHz in that laptop.

[Lost in Here]

I would ask people here. It's a project I've been thinking about too.