How To Turn Your PC Into A Personal Video Recorder

3-13-2005
This is information on how to turn your TV tuner card into a replacement for your VCR.
My VCR crapped out on me a month or so back from the date above.

I had recorded shows successfully and played them back on my 19" CRT hooked up to my PC.
I would record shows on the PC when the VCR was already in use recording another show.
Watching the playback on the CRT was excellent quality, but I would rather watch it on my TV, which I am now doing.
I will explain here what you need to make this work.

1. Obviously you will need a TV tuner card like I have listed on my PC page that linked you to this article, and here it is below.

2. You will need a graphics card that supports TV out.
Most modern graphic cards these days support the TV out feature, and they have an S Video plug on the back.
The cable I use is from a custom place you can order online called S Video.com.
The cable I purchased from them is 24' long, and it is called the S-Video and stereo audio to 3 RCA converter.

This cable has the yellow S Video plug on it that goes to your graphics card TV out, and the other end has the RCA yellow end that goes to your TVs input for where you would hook up a VCR or DVD player.
The cable also has audio on it, and the RCA end goes to your sound cards audio out, the other two ends are the red and white RCA plugs that also go to where you would hook up a VCR or DVD player for your TV.

You will also need a Y cable that has a stereo 1/8" male plug on it, and two female 1/8" stereo plugs.
I bought mine at Radio Shack, and it is linked below next to the first cable picture.
What you do is unplug your speaker cable that comes out of your sound card and plug it into one of the female plugs.
Take the 1/8" stereo cable from the cable I have pictured below on the left (the black male plug by the yellow S Video plug), and plug it into the other female plug.

Then take the male end of the Y cable and plug it back into your sound cards audio out opening.
Now you have sound going to your PC speakers and through that cable to your TV set, and connect as described above.

3. These instructions here are for an ATI graphics card using the bigger driver package with the Catalyst Control Center.
This driver suite package is a few MB bigger than their standard drivers, and is worth the download.
It offers a lot more options for configuring your TV and multiple monitors, and also for gaming.

Click on the Control Center for your drivers, and click the top left tab called View to enter the standard mode, and not the advanced mode.
Look for the Wizard on the right.
You will need to enter that to configure your TV set or another monitor being added to your PC.

4.  Here you have three choices.
Extended desktop, clone mode, and horizontal stretch mode.
You will want to use the clone mode for your TV set if you want a mirror image of what you see on your PC monitor.

5. Now you need to get back to advanced view again, so look for the "View" button at the top left and click on "Advanced" to get back to it.
Now look for Video in the list on the left that shows you all of your choices.
Click that and you will see Theater listed.
Again you have three choices.
Standard, theater, and same on all.
a. I found that "standard mode" does not work with PIC (picture in picture) mode when playing back recorded sessions and having a live TV broadcast in the same window on the TV.
The player would be blank, but I could hear the audio of a live TV broadcast.

b. The "theater mode" stretches the whole video you are playing back to fill the screen, and you will not see your PCs desktop at all on your TV set.

c. The "same on all" mode will show your PCs desktop and display ALL video perfectly on your TV including anything Windows Media Player is showing on your PC.
This is the option I use, as it is an exact clone of what I see on my PCs monitor.

6. Now you need an online TV guide to see the shows you want to record or watch "live" on your PC if not viewing it on your TV.
I use Titan TV which you have to set up an account for.
It lets you view shows many days in advance, and I use this to set up recordings for a whole week at a time.
It works with many brands of TV tuner cards including my Leadtek.
 

You simply run your mouse over a show and a JAVA script menu pos up so you can set a recording, find out if the show is new or a repeat, and also view detailed info on that episode.
When you click record, it opens up an app for your tuner card and lets you set  the options.
With mine I can click on advanced and tell the PC to shut down after the last recording for that night.
It is pretty slick, and best of all it is free.
You just have to set up your info when you register on their site for you area and cable system you are on.
This also works with satellite I think, but I am not 100% sure since I use cable.

There you have it, this is really simple to setup, and pretty much does the same thing as a TIVO does, and does not cost you any monthly fees.
The video output from the PC to the TV for watching recorded shows is way better than using tape like you do with a VCR.
I see no need to purchase another VCR to replace mine.
The only thing I have to do is when one show ends, I must get up and come into the PC room and use the mouse to click on a button in my Leadtek software to open up the next recorded show.
If I had a PC next to the TV with a wireless keyboard and mouse, there would be no need to get up.
As you can see, I am already thinking ahead, and will probably build one of those small form factor PCs, and set it on the floor next to the TV in the future.

I hope this article helps, and it really is this easy to enjoy TV out from your PC.
This is also useful for gaming, as games look awesome.
But for trying to surf the Internet or read text of any kind from your PC, ah no.
It is to blurry.
If you have a TV set with a DVI input though such as an LCD or a plasma, then the quality for surfing the Internet or reading text from documents would be much better.

Click here to go back to my PC page.
This page was last updated 4-15-2005