Need your opinion on a first build

[snoosebum]

I could be wrong but I think all the boxs with dual tuners are already PVR's. Not sure what dual tuners would do for you if it wasnt a PVR. (other than PiP I guess)
The PVR's can schedule your recording too, I'm guessing recording isnt that simple with a regular reciever and external HD?

[MAK]

Yes the BEV dual tuners are PVRs and come with their own built-in hard drive. In this case (the 92xx series i believe) you can add another external USB hard drive.

I guess you could use the extra hard drive to archive your shows... if you want to keep a whole bunch of programs to view later, you could record them to the PVR, then archive them to the external hard drive. You then disconnect the extra hard drive and put it away, and plug in another.... This comes in handy for events like the soccer world cup where you have 3-4 matches a day.

[Realityshift]

If your not going PVR through your HTPC, why not look at trimming the cash and jump to a atom - ion box for dirt cheap ($300 or under depending on specs) and run ubuntu + xbmc? I have seen a few models that include blu-ray drives. I went with one for my parents TV setup because of the tiny foot print and ease of use, and it just looks amazing when your done.

[veedub6]

Originally Posted by MAK

The Bell 6141 set-top box can connect in a similar way. But why? The 6141 has a USB port - you can get a hard drive in a USB enclosure (between 60GB-1TB in size), plug it into the 6141, and now you should have a PVR.

That is it - just plug in a USB hard drive to the 6141 - and no need to mess with a tuner card in a separate PC.

I appreciated your explanations there MAK

So let's say I get an external HD, will I need to load a software like beyondtv that takes care of recordings or is the Bell receiver software capable of recording live TV.

How big of a HD it supports? I read up to 750GB, is that correct?

[MAK]

Originally Posted by veedub6

I appreciated your explanations there MAK

So let's say I get an external HD, will I need to load a software like beyondtv that takes care of recordings or is the Bell receiver software capable of recording live TV.

No software required. None! From what I understand, the "PVR" mode will activate after the 6141 has detected your hard drive and formats it. You will then notice some text appearing in the top corner of your TV saying "Live" or Recorded or something like that as you go from watching live TV to recorded shows.

This external hard drive thing started in January 2009, when Bell released the V165 firmware update for the 6141. If you've been using your 6141 after that date then I'm pretty sure it would have updated the firmware several times already.

How big of a HD it supports? I read up to 750GB, is that correct?

The upper limit that Bell mentioned for their first firmware update (the V165 update) was 750 GB, however there are many users who have plugged in a 1TB drive and it worked fine. YMMV. You can try and see, I guess - there are no guarantees.

Recommendations:
- The hard drive must be always on. Every time you disconnect the USB or turn off the hard drive, the Bell receiver will reboot into non PVR mode. When you plug the HD back in (or turn it on), it reboots again into PVR mode.

- Buy a very well ventilated and quiet hard drive enclosure. If you get one of those "passive cooled" enclosures and it is a cheap one, you might have heating problems. Active ones have fans, but the cheap ones will be noisy.

- Avoid getting one of those "green" hard drives that sleep - it seems they may cause issues with the Bell receiver if the hard drive is not always on and available.

- Get a powered USB enclosure. While some people have mentioned that they managed to get the power for their little USB hard drive directly from the 6141, why would you risk burning out something in the receiver? Get a USB enclosure with its own power supply.

- Get one without a front LED (or cover it with black electrician's tape). I once had a Samsung monitor on a PC in my bedroom that had a LED that would blink nonstop if I left the monitor on but turned off the PC - the standby mode blue blinking flashing LED just drove me nuts.