I want the functionality of a TiVo but I don't want a monthly service fee... What can I buy or build?

You may want to take a look at www.mythtv.com. It's basically free. Also cruse over to revision3.com/systm and take a look at their video tutorial.

I use Windows Media Center Edition 2005, which has no monthly fee and is quite powerful. I can watch DiVX movies shared on my home network, record ATSC HD and cable shows simultaneously, and burn DVD's of my recorded content (including anamorphic downconverted HD TV). I'm quite happy with it. Other packages which have no monthly fee but work quite well are MythTV and SnapStream. As for hardware, I recommend avermedia and hauppauge products. The WinTV PVR has a much better conexant encoder than my tivo, and my AverMedia HDTV tuner works much better than the ATI HDTV Wonder.

Tivo offers a one-time product lifetime serivce fee option for $299... http://www.tivo.com/2.3.asp You can either pay a monthly fee of $12.95, or the one-time $299 for lifetime use. The one major caveat is that the lifetime service only applies to the Tivo model you purchase. If Tivo comes out with new hardware with improved features, your lifetime service can't copy over to a new machine.

If you have a computer just buy any video capturing device (add-on pci card, usb attachment) with an integrated tv tuner (ATI, WinTv). If you dont have a computer, buying one with WMC (Windows Media Center) is your best choice.

The DVR that I purchased a while ago had a free programing service built in. The DVR decoded the TV Guide channel and used it as a built in guide. I could set it to record a show based upon this schedule. The guide updated weekly when the unit was off. It was a Panasonic dmr-e85. Quite easily the best investment in home entertainment ever made.

I bought a Hauppauge PVR150 card (encodes and decodes on the card so that the computer doesn't bog down during recording) and then purchased the Snapstream Beyond TV software. My total expense to add this to my XP computer was around $150 or so. First, I need to say that I use my set up mostly for recording and archiving to DVD. I never connect this set-up to a TV directly. It can certainly be done, but I don't use it that way because that computer is too far from my main TV. The Hauppauge card just works so there isn't much to say about it. The Snapstream Beyond TV software is very good - good guide, good interface and great search capability. Plus lots of other features that I don't even take advantage of. Version 4 has recently come out and I intend to upgrade to that soon. The installation was fairly simple and is probably even easier now that it was 2+ years ago when I purchased mine. Be sure to get a good TV card, especially if you plan to use the computer for things besides recording and playing back TV. I hope that this is helpful to you.

I bought a Hauppauge PVR150 card (encodes and decodes on the card so that the computer doesn't bog down during recording) and then purchased the Snapstream Beyond TV software. My total expense to add this to my XP computer was around $150 or so. First, I need to say that I use my set up mostly for recording and archiving to DVD. I never connect this set-up to a TV directly. It can certainly be done, but I don't use it that way because that computer is too far from my main TV. The Hauppauge card just works so there isn't much to say about it. The Snapstream Beyond TV software is very good - good guide, good interface and great search capability. Plus lots of other features that I don't even take advantage of. Version 4 has recently come out and I intend to upgrade to that soon. The installation was fairly simple and is probably even easier now that it was 2+ years ago when I purchased mine. Be sure to get a good TV card, especially if you plan to use the computer for things besides recording and playing back TV. I hope that this is helpful to you.

I use Windows Media Center Edition 2005, which has no monthly fee and is quite powerful. I can watch DiVX movies shared on my home network, record ATSC HD and cable shows simultaneously, and burn DVD's of my recorded content (including anamorphic downconverted HD TV). I'm quite happy with it. Other packages which have no monthly fee but work quite well are MythTV and SnapStream. As for hardware, I recommend avermedia and hauppauge products. The WinTV PVR has a much better conexant encoder than my tivo, and my AverMedia HDTV tuner works much better than the ATI HDTV Wonder.

Tivo offers a one-time product lifetime serivce fee option for $299... http://www.tivo.com/2.3.asp You can either pay a monthly fee of $12.95, or the one-time $299 for lifetime use. The one major caveat is that the lifetime service only applies to the Tivo model you purchase. If Tivo comes out with new hardware with improved features, your lifetime service can't copy over to a new machine.