1) I want to do a couple of things with my Linux box which may or may not be separate:
a) Record local television stations which do not come in via my cable connection
b) Record cable television stations which come in via my cable connection

2) Some background information: I currently have my Linux box directly connected to my cable modem, and a 200 GB hard drive that's not doing much. I do not have a TV card

3) a) MPEGs and AVIs and other standard video seems to run fine on my Linux machine. Also, I have a CD R/W Writer. Can I save these files in some standard format like MPEG or AVI or something so I can just write them to a CD for future viewing?
b) Or would I need a DVD Writer to do something like this

4) Can I somehow backup old VHS tapes to CD or DVD?


I am open to any ideas you have. Hardware? Software?

Should I open separate threads? Any good links to other great threads on these subjects?

Thanks!

everything is fair enough on a mid range machine. you might want to use a tivo clone, like freevo or mythtv. alternatively you can easily use mencoder (in mplayer) to record directly. recording from video is identical to a tv channel... it's just a video input.

A project is in the works! It will permit RSS feed of TV, NOT as 'Streaming video'. A project development team is moving forward, with design proposals and testing.

June 1st is the proposed 'test' release date, and, right now, some really great programmers are working on the initial steps of the project.

Stay tuned, because I am hoping that this will be issued on a Knoppix LiveCD distro, for FREE download, under the GPL!

But, until we see the alpha testing model, there is not much more to add. I am volunteering to be the promoter/advocasy/ and test proctor. We'll see how it all goes!

RSS means something different to me, so could you please tell me what it means to you? Thanks!

Any recommendations on a card to get? Obviously, I'd like to get a card that allows for both Analog Video Capture and Digital TV Capture.

Also, is there a way to configure either Freevo or MythTV (both of which look awesome, by the way) to be able to record from both sources (on the same card)?

Thanks in advance as always, folks.

Found these which may prove useful:

http://freevo.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/doc/FAQ
http://freevo.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/doc/TVUsage

http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythInstall
http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures