Goal

Turn my homemade DVR into something that works seamlessly, like a TIVO.

Background

I built a machine that I was using for a DVR that was running MythBuntu (link).  Unfortunately, the update process for new releases of MythBuntu was problematic.  Furthermore, the GUI would crash occasionally, so I had to configure a button on the remote to start the GUI back up.  Then, I made another to force-kill the GUI when it froze.  Still, I found myself having to SSH or VNC in to fix things.  I could never get scheduled start-ups to work. In short, I was spending more time maintaining the box then I was using it.  It was an awesome project, but I wanted a DVR dammit!

Solution

My frustrations came to a peak right when I was buying licenses for Windows 7, which come with Windows Media Center.  So, I thought that I would sell my soul and see what Media Center could do.  In summary:

• The interface looks a lot nicer.  TV guide and menus transparent with fullscreen video behind them?  Brilliant!
• It recognized my VIP222K.  I just had to tell it to go as slowly as possible when changing channels.
• I had to upgrade my video card to a newer, Windows 7 compatible one.
• Free listings!
• Scheduled boots happen automagically by default.
• No problem with power management, wake-on-lan works just fine.
• Power button on my remote starts it up and shuts it down.
• I’ve never had problems with freezing or crashing.
• Netflix built in!
• Sharing recorded shows over my network  painlessly.

This is not to say I don’t have complaints, these were just things that I thought were incredible.  The best part was just that it works.  Painlessly.

Complaints

• No wondrous web interface.
• The video format it records to is stupid dumb and takes up too much space.
• No more commercial autoskip (not that it ever worked that well anyways)
• Removing channels from my lineup is painfully slow (one-by-one)
• The only interface for managing settings is the GUI, which is pretty weak.
• The VIP222K shuts itself off every night, so the first recording of the day is always screwed up.

Solutions

Problem:  The VIP222K shuts itself off every night, so the first recording of the day is always screwed up.

Solution:  I set a manual recording up to record the same channel at 9 AM everyday.  I pick this time because I don’t have any recordings before that and never watch TV before then.  The recording is only a minute long and is automatically deleted after one day.  Seeing it in the list of recorded shows is a minor inconvenience, and this completely solved my problem.

Problem:  No commercial skipping.

Solution:  Jury is still out here.  I have tried a few solutions, including MCEBuddy and DVRMS Toolbox.  I let MCEBuddy do its magic for a few days, only to find out that the sound was mismatched to the video in every recording that it transcoded.  So, I uninstalled MCEBuddy to try DVRMS Toolbox.  This is a powerful software tool, but is not easy to use.  I *think* I have it working, but will need to get back to you on that one.  On a related note, how to I tag the transcoded videos with the title and episode name and all that was present in the WTV wrapper file?  This is a major annoyance.

As far as my other issues are concerned,  I have yet to find a viable solution.  In the meantime, however, I am enjoying the splendor that is a fully-functional DVR.  Microsoft definitely got Windows 7 and Windows Media Center right.