MythTV

Personally, I live in the boodocks and it's only since the local cable company got bought out by a national provider that we can even get a cable box with s-video out and they're still working on high-def. So, I'm still getting along with my old, and slightly flaky 30" RCA. It's bulky, it's heavy and some day I won't be able to resist getting one of those shiny LED flatscreens.

When that day comes, I may make a lot of changes all at once. I think with HD, it's time to ditch my series one Tivo. I've added a network card and more hard-drive space, but it's just getting old. I'm also downloading more tv-shows and watching them on my PC (watching on the TV would be better). Finally, the new cable company is bumping up their rates all the time, and dumping them and getting DSL to get Internet and getting all my TV via downloads is an option.

MythTV has been around since 2002, but they just keep getting better. Added to that is the recent popularity has resulted in a whole catagory of computer cases designed to be media servers for home entertainment systems -- some have included remotes. Due to legal issues, Zap2It no longer provides free program listings, but Schedules Direct is a very reasonable $20/yr compared to Tivo's $180/yr. There are many variants and competing projects, but the main MythTV seems to do everything I want, plus stuff that sounds pretty cool.

So, there would be a considerable up-front investment, but I would be trading $985 every year in TV, Internet and Tivo charges for $423 for DSL Internet and SD programming. Call it a savings, figure it as a raise in this economy or just apply it to the cost of the hardware -- it's tempting.