old Thinkpad as DVR question

[epbrown]

I'm thinking of using an old IBM X20 I have as a DVR. What I'd like to do is attach a tv tuner to it, connect my cable, and record shows to a removable drive I can detach and use with my Transnote. I don't see any information how much space good quality video takes up, though I know 2 hours at DVD-quality (MPEG-4) is usually 4GB or so. Anyone have an idea offhand what the same length is in MPEG 2?

[smugiri]

Hmm. could I ask how you will get the videon into the machine since the X20 does not accept video in?

The only machine that I know of that you can do this are A3xp or some of the old 600 series although I am not sure which.

The normal method to get video into a laptop is Firewire. I do not know of any solutions that can do a TV to FireWire conversion that are available in the US.

This and this are available only in Japan.

There are some USB based TV tuner solutions out there but I think that image quality will not be worth your time of you want to do something like say burns to DivX of any kind of quality. ( you will probably get 320*240 video at best for resolution )

[epbrown]

I'll be using a pc card tv tuner, and I plan to capture at 320x400 - that's not so bad on a Transnote, where the max res is 800*600 anyway.

[LtTPfan]

My UltimateTV records up to 105 hours on a 120gb drive, 35 hours on a 40gb. I'm not sure what commpression method they use but believe it might be MPEG 4.

@smugiri,

770EDs or any of the 770 series equipped with an enhanced video adapter can accept video input. I have recorded video on mine and later used the output for classroom presentations thru a TV or projector.

[beeblebrox]

Use a USB 2.0 PC-Card and attach the Hauppage WinTV PVR USB 2.0 and you have full video resolution on cheap price.

[smugiri]

hi

Can you send links to these products please so that I can check them out?

thanks