HTPC with TV tuner card

[Minotaurtoo]

Been working on this off and on for a while now, but the results are great.  We cut the cable and now only use this for TV in the living room... we get 34 OTA channels on this.

 

Case:

DIYPC MA01-R Black SECC Micro ATX Mini Tower

 

Components:

Ryzen 3200G

MSI B450 Pro-M2 max

Ultra LSP 750w PSU

GEIL GeIL EVO POTENZA 8GB 3000mhz

PNY CS900 250GB boot drive

MaxDigitalData 4TB hdd for DVR storage

some generic 1TB hdd I found laying around for extra space

Samsung 970evo nvme 250GB for a few games

Digital ATSC tuner card.. generic branding, but works good... antenna is the same old antenna we've had for years... antennas direct 91XG I think it's called.

generic wifi card, again works good though.... we don't play multiplayer games on this system.

 

Software:

Windows 10

various steam games

VLC media player

Brave browser (great for no ads on YT)

SichboPVR4 for TV tuning and DVR recording   LINKY  I tried the software that came with my tuner, about 3 others I found online, but honestly the only one that "just worked" was sichbo... only downside is, it's a dollar a month, but for me and my sanity... it's worth it...

 

Overall, I'm very pleased with a build that only set me back a little over 400$ total.  I bought things as sales came along and used some components I already had laying around.  With the hdd's installed we have a little over 2k hours of record time at 1080p top quality settings.  The build is nearly dead silent and temps are well within acceptable limits.   I know there was some room for improvements, but budget was king here. 

 

Sorry no internal pictures, but rest assured I did a reasonable job on cable management, especially since this is a mini-tower case.

 

Feel free to ask any questions or just make fun of it

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Minotaurtoo

[pio]

Now install Plex media server on there, and you can share those recordings on every device in your house.   You can also use your tuner card as a live TV tuner for any device in the house using Plex as well.

If you're happy with the build, that's what matters anyway.  Those DIYPC cheapie cases aren't actually all that bad, I've got a few of them.  Really thin, but if you treat your rig like an adult does, it'll be fine.  Great component choice, tad overkill on PSU but whatever.  A 3200G should do solidly on the TV with light gaming.

How are you liking the tuner card?  Been thinking of getting one, but there's only like 3 or 4 local channels I'd pick up anyway.

Edited October 30, 2021 by pioneerisloud
redundant

[Minotaurtoo]

18 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

Now install Plex media server on there, and you can share those recordings on every device in your house.   You can also use your tuner card as a live TV tuner for any device in the house using Plex as well.

If you're happy with the build, that's what matters anyway.  Those DIYPC cheapie cases aren't actually all that bad, I've got a few of them.  Really thin, but if you treat your rig like an adult does, it'll be fine.  Great component choice, tad overkill on PSU but whatever.  A 3200G should do solidly on the TV with light gaming.

How are you liking the tuner card?  Been thinking of getting one, but there's only like 3 or 4 local channels I'd pick up anyway.

I'm loving the tuner card, just wish I had done a little more research before jumping on a cheapo... there are some pretty good ones out there with up to 4 tuners in a single card... I'm actually thinking of getting one of those so I can record multiple channels at once or make it look like Back to the Future with all the channels across one screen... might be great for sports lol

 

I'll check into Plex, thanks for the tip... 

 

The overkill PSU was one of those components I had laying around, the original plan was for a 500w, but I was in the attic and happened on that old 750w and thought, what the hey, this was a good one back in the day and just went with it... the only issue with that PSU is it's not modular... lots of cables tucked away in the 5.25" bays since I wasn't using them anyway.

[schuck6566]

Got rid of cable a few years ago, get about 20 ch's ota using the tv tuner, and for the cable ch's we wanted to keep, Sling pretty much fills that for about 30 bucks a month compared to the over a hundred it would be for basic cable.

[Minotaurtoo]

11 hours ago, schuck6566 said:

Got rid of cable a few years ago, get about 20 ch's ota using the tv tuner, and for the cable ch's we wanted to keep, Sling pretty much fills that for about 30 bucks a month compared to the over a hundred it would be for basic cable.

I'm not sure if we will even try to replace the cable channels... my wife says she might miss the hallmark channel, but I  can get it directly from hallmark for about 7$ a month if needed.... as you said, much better than the price for cable/satellite.  I was really surprised to see just how many channels had been added to OTA around here... we pretty much always had an antenna here and last I had checked there was only 20 or so watchable channels, but now it's 34 "good" channels that don't fade in and out with weather... tuner found 50+ channels, but I weeded them down to 34 that stayed in... We live about 60 miles from the transmitters so when we moved in I put up a tower about 20 years ago...back then cable wasn't even available and satellite was iffy at best because of trees... it's old now, but here's a pic of the antenna, it still is doing it's job quite well.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Minotaurtoo
can't spell worth a crap lol