More on the ReplayPC

So I'm really excited about this replay PC thing. I think my next step is to drop a 250 gig hard drive in the computer, and perhaps get a new case. My old case is very big and heavy and noisy. I'm hoping to use this case to get the noise down to about 40db or so. Which reminds me, I should probably get an SPL meter one of these days.

Gwen and I bought the 40 gig model replay tv, and the reality is, it's not worth it to upgrade to the higher models. They charge you an extra 100 bucks for what is basically 40 gigs more storage. I can build a 250 gig hard drive for about 150 bucks right now, which is a much better gig/dollar ratio. I just have to do a little work to get the replaypc setup.

DVArchive supports running scheduled tasks. So currently I have it setup to pull the shows I watch the least off of the replay and put them on the PC. That way they aren't taking up room on the replay. The limiting factor is going to be transfer speed though. You can only pull things off at about 1x. So I guess I'm limited to recording 12 hours of tv a day. ;-)

It's nice to have that extra storage and not worry about the replay automatically deleting shows to make room for more. Plus I might be able to start recording things in high quality which might make better use of our 37" plasma tv. Although it's still going into the replay over composite cables, which has gotta be the bottleneck at the moment. I want an HDTV comcast cable box simply because it supports outputs better than composite video. At least then I could do some side by side trials to see if it actually gives me better quality video.

Here's to hoping that HDTV DVRs come down in price, and aren't heavily DRM encumbered (yeah right).

Which is another topic for another day. I've done some very fun things with the replaytv, all of which I imagine would fall under fair use. However, the powers that be would like to stop me from doing these things... with the broadcast flags and all that other BS. :-(