Free HD TV and DVR!

Wouldn’t it be nice to watch your favorite TV shows anytime and not have to pay for expensive cable or Tivo just for the DVR provided by them? I was tired of paying over $70 a month to the cable company and I decided to find a cost effective solution which would be able to provide me sufficient entertainment anytime I wanted.  You can create this “DVR” to record free and paid shows. I cut off my cable as most of the shows I watched were free. But I will also show you how to record via cable as well.

The system I built cost me roughly $1000, but I only spent this much as I wanted to use it as a high-end multipurpose system for gaming and rendering animation. So I spent a lot on my graphics card and RAM. You could probably do with a much cheaper system as long as you have an Ethernet port, PCI/PCIe slot or USB port and large enough hard disk. Each 10 min HD recording takes up 1GB of space, while a normal recording takes upto 5 times lesser space. So you can do the math and buy a hard disk large enough for your needs. 

But here are my current systems configuration. Most of the parts were bought from Frys. 

System Configuration:

Component	Specs
CPU	Intel Quad Core i7 950@3.07 GHz 8 logical processors, 8MB cache
Memory	6.00 GB 1600MHz Triple Channel
Storage	1TB WDC WD10 SATA 7200 RPM
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 1GB RAM
Motherboard	ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Chassis	Antec DF-85 Dark Fleet 14 Drive Bays Fleet-Release Technology with 1 cooling fans
Power Supply	Cooler Master GX 650W PS
TV Tuner	Diamond ATI TVW HD 750 PCIE with windows media center remote (Internal) SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Television (external)
Antenna	Terk FDTV1A Flat Digital Omni Directional Amplified Indoor Antenna Also buy a two-way splitter
Operating System	Windows 7 Ultimate

Steps to setup the personal DVR:

1.     Assemble the system with the TV tuner cards. You can get this at stores like Frys. Attach the system to the TV either through HDMI or DVI cables.

2.     Attach the remote control sensor(which came with the TV tuner ) to the internal TV tuner

3.     Setup the external TV tuner. SiliconDust TV tuner attaches to your router and any system on your LAN will potentially be able to stream live TV through it.

4.     Attach the HD antenna to the two TV tuners using a two way splitter. This setup makes it possible for both the TV tuners to record simultaneously.  This current setup lets you watch & record free to air TV shows. You could also attach the cable TV directly to TV tuner if you have cable channels to record. I purchased 2 TV tuner cards as it’ll allow me to record up to 3 HD channels (one of the TV tuner is a dual tuner) simultaneously.

5.     Setup Windows Media Center. This is the piece of software that will turn your computer into a free DVR. Windows Media Center is included in Windows 7 Home Premium, Ultimate, Professional, and Enterprise; and in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. Make sure you update Windows before you set up Media Center

These instructions can also be found on Microsoft’s website at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-media-center/get-started/first-time.aspx

To set up Windows Media Center

Click Start in Windows 7, then All Programs and Windows Media Center.

On the welcome page, select Continue, and then select Express or Custom.

Custom Setup checks components like networking and Internet connection for you, then gives you the opportunity to set up the features and advanced settings that fit your needs.

If you choose Express Setup the first time: you can return to Custom Setup later from the Windows Media Center start screen by selecting Tasks | Settings | General | Windows Media Center Setup | Run Setup Again.

After selecting Custom, select Next to reach a page titled Get the Most from Windows Media Center.

Select Yes to enable Windows Media Center to periodically download content to improve your experience—like music and movie information, and TV listings so you can schedule recordings.

 Advanced Custom Setup options

(These options are not critical to getting started.)

After the required setup occurs, you can continue to set up additional preferences: optimize your display, set up your speakers, set up your media library, configure a TV tuner, or further configure your guide.

Advanced Custom Setup

With optional settings in Custom Setup, you can enhance your viewing experience by optimizing your display, setting up your speakers, and setting closed captioning on or off.

This overview covers the following:

§  Optimize your display

§  Set up your speakers

§  Use closed captioning

To open the Display Configuration wizard in Custom Setup any time

Use your mouse or press the green Start button on your optional Windows Media Center remote:

1.     Open Windows Media Center to the Start screen and scroll to Tasks.

2.     Select Settings, select General, select Windows Media Center Setup.

3.     Then select Configure Your TV or Monitor.

4.     If the Display Setup dialog box is displayed and prompts you to switch to full-screen mode, select Yes.

5.     Select the display type that you most often use to watch video using Windows Media Center; then select Next.

6.     Select the type of cable that connects your PC with Windows Media Center to your monitor or TV; then select Next.

7.     Select Adjust Display Controls, and then select Next. On the first Display Calibration page, select Next to see a list of the controls you can adjust.

From this point on in the wizard, you will not be making any more changes to your PC running Windows Media Center. Instead, the wizard will be helping you to configure your TV for the best display quality.

To set up speakers

You can set up your speakers so that audio plays properly when you use Windows Media Center. The speaker setup that you choose is determined by the capabilities of the audio hardware that you have installed on your computer, the number of speakers, as well as the type of connection that is used to connect your computer to your speakers or audio receiver.

1.     On the start screen, scroll to Tasks, click settings, and then click General.

2.     Click Windows Media Center Setup, and then click Set Up Your Speakers.

3.     Follow the steps to set up your speakers.

To turn closed captioning on or off

If you want spoken audio to be in text format when you are watching TV shows and DVDs, you can turn on closed captioning in Windows Media Center.

By default, closed captioning is turned on for Windows Media Center and Windows Media Center Extender when both are set to Mute. You can change this setting if you want.

Windows Media Center displays closed captioning that is broadcast by your TV service provider. Check with your service provider to see if they broadcast closed captioning for the TV show you want to watch.

1.     On the start screen, scroll to Tasks, click settings, click TV or DVD, and then click Closed Captioning. In some regions, you may need to select Subtitles instead of Closed Captioning.

2.     Under Caption Display, click either On, Off, or On when muted.

3.     After you have completed your changes, click Save to return to the settings screen.

6.     To reconfigure and scan the TV tuners for new channels, follow the below guide

7.     To check signal strength

Follow all the steps above until “Scan for More Channels” steps. Instead chose “Digital TV Antenna Signal Strength” and follow rest of the steps

Select a TV tuner and click next. Once complete, redo the same steps for other TV tuners

8.     To add and view movies, photos and music from local drive or Network Access Storage (NAS) drive (see post “How to share folders, drives across computers and to mount Network Storage Array (NAS) drives on Windows”)

Select the media library you want to add. Repeat this step multiple times if you want to add more than one media type

For network drive, select “Let me manually add a shared folder”

Enter the IP address or hostname of the shared network drive and enter the optional username and password

9.     Windows Media Center has a great built in plugin for Netflix. At about $8 a month you get to view thousands of great movies and TV shows instantly on your TV.  This could truly transform your entertainment experience. An added advantage is you could watch these shows on your cell phones as well.

10.   Schedule recordings for TV shows

Search for the show you like to watch and hit record.

You can select settings for recording. It is available under the actions tab

11.   Plugin for Media Center

There’s a bunch of very cool plugins out there for WMC. Here’s a website which shows you some of the best

http://lifehacker.com/#!5475774/top-10-windows-media-center-plug+ins-and-boosters

You are now all ready to start enjoying your new home entertainment system. I will have additional posts detailing how you can start, shutdown your system and automatically login at pre-defined times.

For details on automatic login refer "HOW TO TURN ON AUTOMATIC LOGON IN WINDOWS XP, WINDOWS VISTA AND WINDOWS 7"