Convert an HR10-250 into a DVD Jukebox

[adessmith]

Has anyone tried this?

Just wanted some ideas on how it could be accomplished.
I used to have DirecTV, and I have an old HR10-250 with no HDD hanging out in the garage.
I currently use a Tivo HD with digital cable, and have another on the way for our bedroom.
I'm runing PyTivo from a PC for serving up vidoes ripped from DVD.
I was thinking it would be nice to throw a 1TB drive in the DirecTivo and use it to serve the DVD rips instead of doing it from the PC.
I could even hook it up to a secondary HDMI input in the living room to play the videos locally, and just use MRV to transfer videos to the bedroom.

If I used TivoZipper with a new HDD to hack the HR10-250, would it work without the directv service?
I dont know much about hacking the HR10... I was hoping I could enable MRV and name the DVR something like "DVD Library".

Also does anyone know much about the transfer speed of the HR10, and compatible ethernet adapters (not wireless) ?

Thanks

[stevel]

I suggest asking in the Underground section of the forum. However, the HR10 will not participate in MRV with the TiVoHD (unless you've hacked the TiVoHD as well.) The HR10 will play recordings without service.

Transfer speed is not particularly good. There's a good discussion of Ethernet adapters and alternate drivers at the forums at deal database dot com. Just don't mention "zipper" there.

[JimSpence]

I would spend the time and money just setting up a regular media server.

[su_A_ve]

WD TV - $100 plus an external drive and you'll be set...

[adessmith]

I would spend the time and money just setting up a regular media server.

The time isnt the problem (well, I dont have much of that either)
I just cant spend the money. I MIGHT can swing a nice big HDD, but thats about it.
Wanted to use some of the stuff I had laying around the house.

I setup a windows home server and ran pytivo on it and it worked great for the media streaming thing, but it was trial software and now that my trial is up I cant justify it anylonger.

I might just setup a Linux box and run pytivo from that. I just dont have anything as compact as I would like.
I wanted something that would fit on a shelf under the TV. I'd like to access it from the tivo menu also. I like the idea of one interface for everything.

[JimSpence]

What you need is small form factor pc. Such as one on this page.
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/
Or
http://www.stealth.com/littlepc.htm?gclid=CPfUwYuwqJoCFR4hnAodW31S2A
And there is the Shuttle option.
http://us.shuttle.com/

Or get the main board and build your own.
http://www.mini-itx.com/

Many other options if you do a Google search on "small pc".

[bengalfreak]

What you need is small form factor pc. Such as one on this page.
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/
Or
http://www.stealth.com/littlepc.htm?gclid=CPfUwYuwqJoCFR4hnAodW31S2A
And there is the Shuttle option.
http://us.shuttle.com/

Or get the main board and build your own.
http://www.mini-itx.com/

Many other options if you do a Google search on "small pc".

You guys aren't listening. He said it would be a struggle just to scrounge the money up for a new hard drive.

[adessmith]

yeah, just had a baby.
Gotta afford insurance and daycare now.
Wife is out on maternaty leave (unpaid)

Money is THE issue here. This isnt a project that I MUST take on right now...
Was just tryin to see what I could do with the hardware I had laying around.

Gotta HR10-250 and an original series 2 (5xx).
Also got a mainboard, cpu, memory, etc... in a rather large case.
I had this setup running windows home server at one time (before my evaluation software expired) so I know it would be adequate for linux and pytivo... Probably gonna be the route I go...

I dont think it would be possible to fit a normal size ATX board, and a standard power supply in the HR10, so I might have to "roll my own" case,
Unless any of you guys can point me in the direction of a nice little barebones deal with a small form factor case and a nice big HDD (750GB - 1.5TB)for $150 or less.... Thats right, didnt think so...
Any links out there for ideas on custom case building?

[JimSpence]

There are any number of small form factor PC cases out there.
However, most can only fit the 2.5" hard drives.