[plug] PVR advice

[Derek Fountain]

> There's another issue you may not be aware of. There is no way to get
> suitably formatted TV listing data, say as XMLTV - you currently have to
> battle websites with rather painful interfaces to get the information. A
> perl-based screen-scraper could do the job, but that's another world of
> fun :-( .

Yes, I did know that. I was assuming a hand crafted screen scraper of some 
sort. I can do Perl... :o)

To be honest though, the auto programme thing wasn't the main feature I was 
looking for. I want to be able to play AVI files on the TV in the lounge, so 
I need a PC in there. Since I'm at it, I like the idea of being able to 
record 2 programmes while watching a third, all at the same time. (Although 
I'd probably never do it. :o}) I also like the idea of being able to hit the 
record button when the phone rings, then go back to what I was watching 5 
minutes later - the supposed "time shift" type of function advertised on TiVo 
etc. I like the idea of no piles of tapes, no minutes spent winding the 
buggers, easy indexing of what I've recorded, instant access to what I've 
recorded, quick commercial skipping, and so on.

> As for the hardware, though - things like the shuttle mini-PCs are
> common choices.

Yeah, a friend bought one round to my place a few days back. I've never seen 
one before and I liked it lots. :o)

> If you want to be realtime encoding _and_ recording,
> you'll need a lot of CPU power.

Or a dediciated card. Hardware MPEG2 encoding is works fine on a lot of 
hardware, and decoding is almost there.

What are the options for fanless CPUs these days? I've heard of exotic flower 
shaped heatsinks which don't require fans. Anyone using one, and if so, what 
sort of CPU?

-- 
> eatapple
core dump

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