I decided it was time to upgrade our homebuilt DVR to handle high-definition programs, since more and more of the programs we watch are available on HD channels. Unfortunately, the 1GHz Nehemiah processor in the ammo box just isn't up to handling high-def, and the Hauppauge capture box doesn't support HD at all. This also seemed to be a good time to switch from GB-PVR (the Windows-based DVR software I'd been using) to MythTV (a very popular Linux DVR application).

The most important part of the whole setup was the capture card. While the Hauppauge box works well enough for standard NTSC, it adds a number of cables to the already cluttered entertainment center, so I decided to go with an internal card this time. I eventually settled on the pcHDTV HD-5500 capture card, which handles NTSC and all 18 ATSC formats, as well as unencrypted QAM64/QAM256 cable signals... and in a radical departure from usual computer hardware practices, only supports Linux — not Windows or Macintosh!

Normally I'm an AMD fan, but since they tend to run hotter and require more cooling (and thus make more noise), I went with an Intel CPU this time, and a motherboard with an onboard GeForce 7100 (and, very importantly, has an HDMI output). For storage, I went with a pair of 500GB Seagate drives, which I'll be setting up in a RAID-0 array for a cool terabyte of storage. I rounded out the hardware with 4GB RAM, a wireless-N card, and a dual-layer DVD±RW (which will let us get rid of the dedicated DVD player and even more cables). I decided to wait on a Blu-Ray drive, because by the time Blu-Ray support is a bit more mature in Linux, the price on the drives should have come down some. All of this will go into a Home Theater PC case with a built-in infrared module. The case doesn't come with a power supply, but I think I've got a good spare hanging around here somewhere.

Ultimately it ended up being a little more expensive than I'd been hoping for... but it should be powerful enough to meet our needs for a few years, capacious enough to store a metric assload of recorded programs, and I'll be able to press it into service on the 3D renderfarm, as well.