All PVR

The Stinger (above) may be “old-school gamer” on the outside, but it’s all modern-tech on the inside.

David Flagg, President of Game Cabinets Inc., describes it like this:
“Anything you can do on your home computer you can do through this joystick on your TV.â€? That includes surfing the Internet and having fun with online gambling, using Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition, loading in PC games and using its DVR function, he says, adding that it also has a DVD drive.”

Upgrade to The Stinger Plus, and it includes about a trillion old arcade games. It’s like a Video Game conjuring genie, magically producing games like Dragon’s Lair (1 &2), EA Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Pacman, Toobin’, and Dig Dug (click here for entire list of games).

It’s geared toward home theaters, but it’s also a fairly portable video game/entertainment system. With dimensions of 28.5w x 13.75d x 5h inches, you can easily take it to a buddy’s house.

Flagg says it successfully unites nostalgia and modern technology: “It wraps everything into one. The functionality is cool because there is so much you can do with it.�

You can even get a Xbox and PSX adapter, which converts the output from the Stinger Controller into X-Box or PSX commands.

Think it’s expensive? Starts at $499 (’nuff said).

If you are still struggling with installation of MythTV on latest Ubuntu, even after our handy guide from last week, it’s time to try another approach.

MythDora is a Linux distribution that is pre-built specifically for running MythTV on your box. This distribution is based on excellent Fedora Core 6, which itself is an open source derivative of the Enterprise quality RedHat linux.

For more info, check out MythDora home page, or just check out the handy videos right away.

mythtv, mythdora, dvr 

We haven’t been talking much about Windows Vista, but the new Microsoft OS is out there and gaining foothold daily. In fact, I am writing this post on my Vista Home Premium PC, which I must say, I am pretty satisfied with.

If you got a computer with Vista Home Premium or Ultimate edition, it has the Media Center interface built-in, and all my kids find very convenient to watch movies/clips that are already on the computer via that interface.

If you are planning to buy a PC in the future, most like it will come with Vista. Make sure you are getting at least Home Premium edition of Vista, it contains Media Center, and the beautiful Aero Glass interface. The version below it, Home Basic, is something you should avoid at all cost. It’s only around $20 less, but stripped of Media Center and many other features. Frankly, looks like Home Basic was put out there just for people who are trying to install Vista on very old PCs, that can’t support modern interface or features.

Next thing to know is that most of the PCs with Vista Home Premium will Not have any sort of Tuner. Worry not, that can easily be added, if you choose to do so.

As I mentioned in the past, your only options right now are either pure Analog tuner card (make sure to get Vista certified one) or HD Over-the-Air tuner card. The Analog one is really designed to be connected to your local basic (analog) cable, and as you guessed, the HDTV expects to get connected to amplified and preferably roof-top mounted antenna.

Apparently market research shows that people will be buying a lot of these tuners in the coming years.

And what about Digital Cable support, you ask? That’s next up on my coverage list, stay tuned!

[via TV Squad via The Green Button via InformationWeek]

Of course I could have linked to InformationWeek article directly, but where’s the fun in that

Vista, PC-PVR

If you just bought a new HDTV this holiday season, you may be in the market for an HD DVR. After all, you probably want to record what you watch, especially in HD format.

But is it better to do-it-yourself and build your own HD DVR or suck it up and buy a Tivo Series 3 DVR for $800? Tim Coyle compares the two. He prices out a DIY system from Dell for $700, which is pretty comparable to Tivo.

He also lists out the Advantages and Disadvantages to buying vs. building. His conclusion? Build it yourself, since you can upgrade and fine-tune your own DVR.

Tivo, DIY, DVR, PVR, digital video recorder, personal video recorder

Shawn Kent wrote a pretty detailed article about his quest to build his own DVR. He describes all the prices, has great links and plenty of pictures. So if you’re interested in (or are thinking about) building your own DVR, this is yet another great take.

He uses an old Pentium 3 computer, a 250 GB hard drive, a DVD-RW drive, Windows XP and Beyond TV.

Overall, he said he spent $800, which is kind of pricey. But then again he won’t have to pay monthly fees, like with cable or Tivo, so it can pay for itself after a few months. Still, $800 for a Series 3 Tivo will give lots more space and HD capability.

Tivo, DIY, DVR, PVR, digital video recorder, personal video recoder, BeyondTV