Is anyone able to post a summary of what DVB-S PVR's are currently on the market (either from retailers or via TradeMe) right now? A review of comparison would be great too.
Hiya. Usually the Trademe ones are MythTV based devices. Feeeviewshop.co.nz has MyPVR based ones which is a MythTV repackage.
If you are thinking of buying one, try rolling your own first and see how easy it can be. (Most of us geekzone'ers have a spare PC kicking around to use for a test).
Basic requirements for your own DVB-S MythTV-based PVR are;
PC with 1.6GHZ or bigger processor & 1GB RAM. Enough HD space to cater for ~2GB/hour recording. Mythbuntu needs about 10 GB by itself. Hauppauge Nova-S DVB-S PCI card (comes with an IR remote, too) DVD-Writer if you want to archive what you record off to DVD's
Download Mythbuntu 8.10 from www.mythbuntu.org (both the x32 and x64 variants ship with the DVB-S drivers suitable for the Hauppauge cards), burn it to CD and boot up on it. Follow your nose through the install, remember to turn on both VNCServer and MythWEB during the installation. (Once you use MythWEB to shedule the TV recordings you want, you'll never go back to using a remote, it's awesome)
Also search for and download PuTTY if you haven't already got it somewhere so that you can ssh in to the box from your PC.
If you get stuck on the configuration PM me and I'll document some bits for you. Once set up (it's straightforward, the DVB-S bits are the hardest) the interface is lovely (heaps of themes to choose from) and the PVR side of things is brilliant and very easy to use.
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