Dvr possibilities?

Yeah, trevyn, TiVo is the most easy option on the market now, but that could change very quickly given the number of developers and how quickly the market is evolving. Every dollar spent in this market is like a vote for what technology you want. One of the reasons I won't buy a TiVo, an iPod, or (another) MiniDisk is that the hardware is deliberately crippled by the manufacturer. Whether we're playing/recording sound files or video files, there is no reason why consumers should support any system that doesn't give them the freedom to record/play any codec that the hardware will support, or store/move whatever data they want on the storage device. As processors get faster and storage gets smaller and cheaper, the bottom line becomes more clear: cameras, dv recorders, mp3 players, etc are all just hard drives with encoding/decoding hardware and software. All attempts to convolute that simple set of functions with "features" designed to prevent full freedom for the user should be opposed on principle.

madman -- Keep in mind, though, that you will still need to invest in some kind of TV capture hardware if your PC does not already have one installed. These packages don't just record TV signal from the ether. The most widely available card is the ATI All-In-Wonder, but for similar money, you can get far better quality from Hauppauge's WinTV cards. These cards should come with some rudimentary recording software built-in, and if you just want something that functions like a non-intelligent VCR (record this channel at this time) then the bundled software should be satisfactory. However, if you want to do more (ie. show me all movies starring Richard E. Grant for the next two weeks and allow me to choose which one I'll record, record all episodes of Deadwood from now until forever) you will need to look at getting PVR software. on the Windows non-MCE side of the shop, you're looking at either http://www.snapstream.com/ or http://www.freytechnologies.com. Both of these are commercial packages that require (and should be supported by) some kind of license fee. (about $70). As far as comparison of the two -- BeyondTV has some nice recording features that SageTV lacks, like remote recording (so that you could, say, login to your PVR from work and have it record a breaking news program) and WMV compression of recordings to save drive space. SageTV, on the other hand, has a great library interface that doubles as an MP3 jukebox, video/DivX library and DVD player. Personally, I went with Sage since the comprehensive media interface meant that I could replace my DVD player, CD jukebox and VCR with one PC, while also having a convenient system for viewing unlicensed, fansubbed anime. Granted, it's possible to duplicate this functionality on a PC with BeyondTV, iTunes and PowerDVD installed, but it's nice to have one seamless interface that's controlled by a single remote. The remote recording stuff I can accomplish via XP's Remote Desktop, and video compression isn't that necessary if one can just burn archived recordings to DVD.

I'm typing this right now on my brand new HP Media Center PC. I needed to upgrade from my 6 year old PC anyway, and found a good deal on the z545 Entertainment Center through http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecsplash/shop/detail~dpno~545020.asp. The computer uses Microsoft's equivalent of Tivo, but it's free with the media center version of XP. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like it'll work just the same as Tivo, and I decided that the cost of a new computer plus a tivo box and subscription was going to be about the same as the cost of the z545, so I went ahead and got it.

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=M&Category_Code=allmediacenter makes some. I have not bought from them, and cannot judge their service or quality (although I've heard good things about them).

http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html is the way to do MythTV. A linux distro made for MythTV. For video, a PVR-250 from Hauppauge, not expensive. The remaining hassle may be changing the channel on your input, depending on source (satellite or digital). We're hoping to get the computer to send infrared to the satellite box.

mythtv user here. not in the US so tivo isn't really an option. i've been using mythtv for the past couple of years now. i really love it and wouldn't know what to do without my mythtv box. the only real problem is that there's no 'official' program guide distribution in europe afaik and it scrapes the info off websites. worst comes to worst i can grab programming data from an EPG being broadcast (unfortunately not all channels are on there last time i checked). maybe TVCentral (http://www.sceneo.tv/) suits your needs? I have no experience with it but saw that it now comes bundled with the fanless pc i bought to run myth. there seems to be a trial version you can download.

Is there a mac solution to this? I would have thought that a mac mini would be ideal.

I've played with myth. If you build a myth box, you're doing it for the geek-fun factor, it isn't cheaper than a TiVo with service.

i've been using BeyondTV for a year with almost no problems. you have to pay for the software, but there's no subscription fee to get the tv guide information. it supports up to two tuner cards, and i think you can pay them more money if you want a version that supports more than that. it records as MPEG or (i think) WMV. you probably want a tuner card that does the MPEG encoding for you (like hauppauge's wintv-250) so the processor doesn't get bogged down.