[TriLUG] Networked DVR (was storage with 4 x 80G hard drives?)

[Owen Berry]

On Mon, Aug 01, 2005 at 01:54:28PM -0400, John Turner wrote:
> On Aug 1, 2005, at 12:34 PM, Owen Berry wrote:
> >Sorry to hijack this thread (seems to have run out for now anyway),  
> >but
> >I was wondering if there were any thoughts on using the Linksys NSLU2
> >and Debian (or other Linux based firmware replacements) to build a
> >networked DVR.
> >
> >The one sticking point that I can see is the video output. It looks  
> >like
> >you can get a USB to s-video cable, although they seem to be aimed at
> >capturing video to a PC, not the other way around. Maybe there are  
> >more
> >promising solutions out there.
> >
> >Any thoughts? Other devices out there that would be more suitable?
> >
> >Thanks.
> >
> >-- Owen
> >
> 
> Well I read lots of posts on media servers, but have never seen  
> anyone using one of the storage devices for the recording part.  
> Buffalo makes one also.
> You can go here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=39  
> to read about many of them and how people are using them. There are  
> ports of some of the streaming media player software that works on  
> many of these also.
> 
> Many people use the hardware media players for playback (front end  
> machines in Myth terms) and a PC or Mac for recording. This is the  
> route I am taking using a Mac for recording and serving the media  
> files and it looks like the IO-Data LinkPlayer2 for the clients.
> 
> John
> 

I guess what I really want is a device that has a big hard drive, can
output video for playback on a TV, and can participate in a network.
Preferably it would take a wireless network card. The recording side of
things is not so important.

Putting together a cheap (but reliable) PC with a video card that has a
TV-out port, running some form of Linux, seems one of the better options
because it is so flexible, except that I want something quieter humming
away in my living room. If it was more like a device it would be even
better.

This one looks interesting ... but isn't out yet, and I don't need all
the extras that will probably drive the price up.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2695151209.html
http://www.mediabolic.com/products/nmp.html

-- Owen