Hi Everyone,

Just curious if anyone on the forum has built a PC-based personal digital video recorder / media centre? I'm interested in moving into the 21st century and retiring my VCRs for good. Plus, I figure I should get on board and get something built before the broadcast flag rears its head again.

There's limited Tivo service here in Canada and it seems easiest to just build my own digital recorder. In no particular order, the requirements would be:

- Build-it-myself (save some $$$, maybe )
- Windows, not Linux or Mac (more wife-friendly, and, in the case of the Mac, presumably cheaper)
- Two or three tuners (seems like many of the shows I want to 'record' are on the at the same time, i.e. The Simpsons and The Amazing Race are on at the same time in September)
- Relatively quiet: I don't want to hear a loud whirling power supply fan the whole time I'm watching The Simpsons
- "Audio/Video Component" form factor would be nice, i.e. it would be nice to stack it on top of (or under) my surround-sound amplifier (but this is a nice-to-have)
- Wireless keyboard, mouse & remote control
- Wireless LAN - No CAT 5 in the living room of my old house right now!
- DVD burner for obvious reasons
- Ability to record off of the tuners onto the hard drive while watching another program off the hard drive

I've got sixty-channel analog cable. I probably won't be going to HDTV, digital cable or a dish service any time soon, so tuners don't have to be that sophisticated.

Things I'm wondering about:

- Software: What do people like?

- Machine specs: What processor / RAM / Audio / Video / Hard Disk should this beast have? Particularly with the requirement to 'watch and record' at the same time?

- Digital audio out for surround sound: Should I consider this or just keep playing DVDs on the DVD player?

- Component Video out for DVDs...? See above

- Sending the signal elsewhere: Right now, if we have something 'taped' that we want to watch before bedtime the wife and I will just pop the tape into the VCR in the bedroom. If everything's on a hard drive on another floor of the house this gets more complicated. How do others get around this and 'watch' the PVR in another room? Burn a DVD? Rebroadcast the signal elsewhere in the house? (And if you do rebroadcast how do you control the PVR?)

...what else have I missed?

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada