doing some research for old mate:

he regularly dls tv shows from the internets to watch, but then sits in his computer room, watching em on some dinky 22" monitor when hes got an awesome fullhd tv downstairs being wasted:

used to use a lappy to watch his medias on tele, but it blew up, and hes never replaced it;

refuses to look at a propper media centre pc, but is thinking of buying a hdd recorder for his missus for xmas;

do any of the hdd/dvd recorders accept an ethernet cable so maybe he can copy his dled medias onto the harddrive and watch em that way?

Get an extender for his PC (assuming he has media centre on it).

We have an HD recorder and it's pretty handy, dunno about ethernet connections though, I know mine doesn't.

What about a XBox 360? I got one a few weeks ago and it networks to the puter no worries and I can watch stuff on the tele. I haven't extensively tested its compatability with file types, but its played the few things I've tried on it.

yer, hes a povo and wont buy anything that will help him, just thought that because he was already set to buy a recorder, i mite be able to fix things for him;

But buying a HD recoder isn't going to allow him to watch stuff from the pc on the tele, so what's the point in getting one? Unless he doesn't want to do that in the first place.

But be prepared to pay about $1,000 for a HD recorder with a built in HD digital tuner. I think the cheaper ones with digital tuners are only SD and therefore won't pick up the HD channels. Something to watch out for.

The only way around this is use the 'out' on the tv and 'line in' on the recorder and have the TV turned on and on the channel you want to record, then it will record the HD channels but this method kind of defeats the advantages of a recorder in the first place ie: record s*** when the TV is on another channel or switched off.

yes, HD/DVD recorders do have some network functionality.. Its just a question of what codecs they support and stuff.

have a look around www.dtvforum.info

P.S. should consider one of the Popcorn Hour boxes

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

i think it does everything your after

A couple months ago I was th eguy posting about a device rather than a HTPC Sppook and you recommended sticking with the HTPC arrangement. I'm glad I did - went with a Thermaltake Mozart case - you can't even tell there's a computer in the lounge room anymore!

Paired with a decent mobo the whole thing (I already had a hard drive for the OS and all my medias are on a NAS) was only a few hundred dollars. Had trouble finding media centre software I liked (XP MC and me don't get along so much) but XBMC is out now for PC and works really well.

last edited by Hogfather at 13:10:19 29/Oct/08

mission does have a point though.. if you want to record TV, you will need to either have a seperate HD tuner plugged into the popcorn, or look at other devices.

If the popcorn had an integrated HD tuner, it would be the best device on the planet.

or he could just buy one of these for real cheap
http://www.mvix.net.au/

yer, that is the voice of reason hoggy:

unfortunately he refuses to listen;

basicalyl hes just buying the recorder for his missus, so i was hoping i could fix his problem for him at the same time:

Something else he might be interested in would be buying a $80 DVD player from Strathfield or where ever that has a USB interface. I bought one to hook up to my projector and it f***ing rocks. Plug the USB stick into the PC and copy s*** across then plug that into the DVD and watch. Easy as.

Beyonwiz DP-H1 maybe? Seems to do pretty much everything Popcorn Hour does but also is a DVB tuner/DVR.

burn them to dvdrw
thats what i do

But wouldn't the player still have to have the ability to decode all the different file formats?

That was my problem, the DVD player still wouldn't play the stuff I burnt.

Spook

What you have to get is a Beyonwiz you will not regret it I got a DP-S2

Major Selling Points to me

- 340 gig but you can add a bigger one later
- HDMI
- Ethernet
- Can stream Divx from shared folder on pc
- Plays mp3's
- Can use as photo frame
- Can copy movies to hdd (need firmware upgrade)
- Can record 2 hdtv channels at once
- Can Record foxtel
- optical audio out so is full digital experience
- Can plug flashdrive in front and Have a usb hdd caddy in back
- can plug media cards in front


Why I didn't Get the DP-S1

only difference is it is wireless network and DVD Player
I using an old wireless access point I had lying around and I all ready got a DVD player.



I bought mine from Harvey Norman

What was the damage for that Denominator?

a mate of mine just got one of these
http://www.medianow.com.au/products/tvix6500a.html

he got it with the tuner and is completely stoked with it and after i had a play with it am now looking at getting one, the only downside is that its only a single hd tuner, but he has told me a twin tuner will be released for it by the end of november.

that site currently has a 10% off sale so its around $580 including postage from canberra, after reading dtvforum tho there is talk that the price will go up once a new shipment arrives due to the s*** AUD.

it beats paying the same price for a standard hd pvr that cant play all the networked media or even local mp3/divx/h264, and the beyonwiz's are alot more expensive and dont play fullhd content.

thanks heaps guys!

ive got him checking out both the tvix and the beyonwiz which both look excellent:

Aldi had a DVD player a little while back that has USB port and played divx/xvid and it was only $35 bucks.

I got 2 of em and they are awesome, even takes a usb HDD. I've seen them at other places for about $50-$70.

I have a Popcorn Hour, it owns.

I got the A-110 installed a 750gig Sata 2.5 HDD.

Profit.

Paid as much for the cables connecting to my home entertainment system as I did the device :/

Paid as much for the cables connecting to my home entertainment system as I did the device :/

Sounds like you got ripped.

gold plated cables with digital equipment makes a difference ok!

gold plated cables with digital equipment makes a difference ok!

lol

Sadly that's what many people believe.

"Sir, in order to take full advantage of your new high definition equipment you must buy these high quality overpriced cables that make no difference"

why are you useing colons as full stops?

i am rewriting the book on punctuation;

What was the damage for that Denominator?

$850

http://www.mvix.net.au/

Mvix are great had mine for 4 years now still going strong!!!