1st timer needing some assistance

[radi4fun]

Hi guys, I was thinking of doing HTPC for my room/house. I just realized that I pay way too much for Internet and cable tv. Time Warner cable is charging me $160/mo for their degital 200 channels and their slowest cable Internet that's I think 10down/ 1up.

I was thinking of going with some basic cable tv and get their turbo speed Internet. I want to ditch their HD DVR service as that's 20/month and I can only record 2 shows at a time. I have a pretty good desktop just sitting here in the room that no longer gets used as I don't game anymore.

This is my current setup. I live with 4 roommates, I have the master bedroom so I have the main cable box/DVR in my room. Rest of the 4 roommates don't have any cable box in their room. I'm the only one that gets 200 channels and they only get the regular 70 channels from the cable coming out of their wall.

I have my cable/DVR hooked up to a Denon AVR Receiver via HDMI, from the receiver I have a HDMI going out to my Epson 8350 projector. And the receiver is also hooked up to a 5.1 surround sound system. I have my ps3 and laptop plugged into the receiver too via HDMI.

What I want to do is, cancel my time Warner 200 channel package and just get standerd cable tv with 70 channels that my roommate only get and upgrade the Internet to maybe 20 download and 2 upload speed.

This is my desktop setup at the moment.

CPU: I7 920
MB: Gigabyte GA-UD7 EXTREME
RAM: 12GB
VIDEO: XFX 5870 Eyefinity 6 2GB w/6 mini display port out.
PSU: silverstone ST 1000w PSU
HDD: 256GB SSD (I will add mechanical hdd for storage)
Everything is enclosed in full tower case.

My question is, what do I need to add to my desktop to make it into a Cable Box/DVR? Do I only need Ceton Infinitv 4 card and just hook up the cable that is coming out of my wall ingot the tv tuner card? Then hook up a HDMI from the 5870 to my receiver and that should carry sound and video? Basically I want to get what my roommates get w/out having the cable box as I don't watch much tv at all.

Any advise would be helpful.

 

[azanimefan]

My question is, what do I need to add to my desktop to make it into a Cable Box/DVR? Do I only need Ceton Infinitv 4 card and just hook up the cable that is coming out of my wall ingot the tv tuner card? Then hook up a HDMI from the 5870 to my receiver and that should carry sound and video? Basically I want to get what my roommates get w/out having the cable box as I don't watch much tv at all.

you'll need a cablecard from your cable provider to work with the Infinity4. otherwise, you got it about right.

 

[Solder]

This should set you up with Windows Media Center as a DVR and you can adjust the storage size and location among others. Also check this out from one of my favorite sites. There's more than one way to
skin a cat but this is just my initial thought.

 

[glorp]

My question is, what do I need to add to my desktop to make it into a Cable Box/DVR? Do I only need Ceton Infinitv 4 card and just hook up the cable that is coming out of my wall ingot the tv tuner card? Then hook up a HDMI from the 5870 to my receiver and that should carry sound and video? Basically I want to get what my roommates get w/out having the cable box as I don't watch much tv at all.

Take a look at the SiliconDust HD Homerun Prime. Given your situation you probably don't need 4 tuners and the HDHR is cheaper. Plus you might even be able to "share" cable among roommates with it to defray costs even on the more expensive channel package if you really wanted to. Also there's a really cheap 2-tuner cablecard tuner from Hauppauge.

Ceton has a minimum requirements page for hardware here but basically any PC with an HDMI out to an HDCP compliant monitor will work. Hardware demands are low. You will need Windows Media Center as the DVR software so you must have Win7 Home Premium or Ultimate. Win8 is supported but I would not go there if I were you. There is a linux option but with TWC almost nothing will be useable for you with something like XBMC because of the way T-W handles DRM.

This is a good place to get more background: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/index.php