Media PC Solutions?

[MannyE]

Does anyone think that building a powerful media pc might be able to stand in for the non-existent DirecTV HD Tivo?

I am starting some research into this possibility and will appreciate any advice since I have never built one of these before.

I'm looking at the Antec horizontal-style case and a quad-core all-Intel mobo/cpu setup with large SATA drives.

I can also eventually include an HD-DVD drive when it becomes available or blu ray when the prices come down (or whichever wins)

I'm still figuring out video card options and if anyone has recommendations I would be appreciative.

The goal is to make this my music/video archive and playback solution (eventually) for HD disc content as well.

I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to make it my music and movie archive as well as making it east to watch live TV, but the DVR function has me a little baffled. There are a few software options out there, but I have no experience with them at all.

Playback of the video will be handled by both a LCD flat panel (yet to be purchased) and a Panasonic AE900 projector.

[TyroneShoes]

In my research of that very subject, which I will admit was not exhaustive (just exhaust-ing), the conclusion I came to is that yes, you could do it, and the advantages would be more storage and minimal cost savings, possibly. The disadvantages seem to be that the reliability and user-experience issues would probably approach the level of cable DVRs or DBS DVRs and never scale the heights of Tivo, plus it would be a hobbyist project, meaning a lot of B, S, and T would probably be spent in the process. This puts it at a level probably below just settling for a 8300HD or a HR21.

Now if Steve Jobs bought Tivo and made it a part of iLife......(excuse me while I dream a little.............)

...we'd probably really have something. And Apple would probably sell a lot of towers.

[emania]

Is this where you want to go ? May not be exactly what you want to do, but it sure looks like the right direction.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/28/tivo-coming-to-pc-via-nero-software/