PVR Questions

[TimWA]

Hi All,

Been lurking around trying to read up on a bunch of stuff.  I'm looking into trying to do the following.

* Record OTA HD,SD, Analog Comcast Cable
* Rip DVD to disk to minimize loading of DVD
* Hopefully have some kind of seasonal recording
* Ease of use for WF

I think the ideal setup would be to build a box and store it in my office or basement, and have some way to push that stuff out to my TV's, currently 1 HD, 1 SD.  Is the 360 the only real option for something like this currently?

It just seems if I built a PVR to be next to my TV I'd have to spend alot of money making sure it looked decent and was quiet enough for the WF.

How much Horsepower would I need to be able to do the above?  I have an old Althon 2700+ sitting around collecting dust, that I could pump a couple drives into.  Also have a Althom 64 3500+ that I could convert too, would either of these be enough power or do I need to invest in something new?

Thanks for any help,
Tim

[Miller]

If you were just doing SD then you could do the box in the basement and use a MediaMVP to stream the video. However, there aren't any really good options for this for HD yet. There are HD options, but none of the integrate into the pvr software for good WAF.

If you're building a computer to go in the basement for HD anyway, it won't take that much more to put it next to the tv and this is probably your best bet. Here's a couple of things to consider:

A nice looking case. Silverstone makes great cases for this that are affordable too. I like the LC20.

Quiet fans. This means case fans, power supply, and for your cpu. I don't use fans on my videocard and go with a passively cooler videocard.

A good remote. This might cost you the most depending on how fancy you go. The Logitech remotes are nice and they go from $50-$300.

Check out this build I did for my parents. It ended up pretty quiet and if you don't go crazy on all the parts like my dad did, you could keep the cost down too.

http://forum.byopvr.com/dvr/index.php/topic,7453.0.html