Here we are! The first steps into building and installing an open-source DRM-free media center. I thought it would be a good start to give a little background. I've been using a Tivo with a DirecTV satellite receiver for several years now. Before that I had been using a VCR to store TV shows and movies for later viewing, as many people did. But, I really got sick of the low quality of most video tapes at one point, and I purchased a 1st-gen Tivo second hand. While limited in storage space, it was WAY better than using a VCR in so many ways. Using a hard drive for storage meant no more missed shows due to bad tapes, and the Tivo program guide meant automatic recording of the shows I liked. To this day, I am still using that same Tivo (after having upgraded to a larger hard drive and purchasing the lifetime subscription), and it has functioned flawlessly. There is no doubt in my mind that Tivo has the best user interface of any DVR I have seen. In fact, if not for certain needs and new opportunities, I would keep on using it. (Note: The MythTV/HTPC project is definitely a major undertaking to build. You WILL have to do some fiddling around to get everything working, and you may have to do the occasional twiddling to keep it working. If you are unable or unwilling to spend the time, and I wouldn't blame you, you should at least check out a DVR for your cable or satellite service. You won't regret it.)

How my needs have changed is due in part to how TV is changing. With the future going to High Definition TV (HDTV), this was bound to be a problem for my old Tivo. It doesn't have the ability to store an HDTV recording without a major drop in video quality. This is assuming I could even find an HDTV tuner that would work with it. Also, one problem with the Tivo is getting the video off of it for longer term storage. In the past I have copied things to tape if I wanted to keep them for a while. But, it is inconvenient, and we all know that tapes are going away more and more all the time. At a minimum, I would like to be able to store things to DVD quickly and easily. Lastly, I would ultimately like to be able to store ALL of my video on one device so I could have access to any movie or TV show at the click of a button. This was unrealistic until the past couple of years or so when hard drives reached a sufficient size to hold that much data. These are the main reasons for me, but the box is capable of many more things, some of which may be important you.

OK. So perhaps you are intrigued. What is it then? Well, the simplest answer is that it is a digital video recorder that can pause, rewind, and fast-forward live TV, as well as schedule and automatically record TV shows for later viewing. Long story short, you control when you want to watch a TV show. But, a MythTV box has many more features. Here are some that are implemented at the time of this writing.

• Edit and store recorded videos to DVD.
  
• Browse the web.
  
• Copy, store, and play back DVDs on the MythTV box.
  
• Store and view pictures.
  
• Play video games.
  
• Store and play music.
  
• View and edit your Netflix queue.
  
• View RSS News feeds.
  
• Get weather updates.
  

These are some of the features, and more will be built in time, but you can already see the power of the system. It truly is a way to store and manage all of your media and put it at your fingertips.

This was enough to tempt me to give it a try, so I started by getting some PC components together. I am going to assume you have some knowledge already regarding PC hardware, as there is a lot to get through. As you get more into the MythTV scene, you will see postings from many people saying how they have used it with older systems like pentium IIIs and such. They may be basically functional, but let's face it folks. Video is one of the few things that will really stress a computer, and it will eat as much processing power as you can throw at it. So, I recommend getting as much horsepower behind it as you can within your cash budget and your temperature budget. I'll talk about what I mean by temperature budget a bit further along. Let's take a look at the pieces I purchased for my rig.

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ 2.0GHz CPU with Heatsink and Fan
  
• Kingston 512MB DDR2-800 RAM
  
• Asus M2N-X AM2 NForce520 Motherboard
  
• Sony 7170A-0B Black 12X DVD Burner
  
• MSI MX7300LE 128MB Video Card
  
• Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-150 Non-FM TV Tuner Card
  
• AthenaTech A3701BB HTPC Case (w/o Power Supply)
  
• StreamZap PC Remote Control
  

Now, close observers will notice that I have left out a couple of key items. I already had an old 40GB Western Digital hard drive, and I am using it for setup and testing for now. Once I am fully comfortable with the system, I plan on purchasing a ~500GB SATA drive. Also, I already had a Seasonic S12 380W very quiet power supply from a different PC that didn't need it anymore.

The processor was chosen for both the low price and decent power. As a plus, it is dual core which offers some future dual video processing capabilities (I.E. running two simultaneous transcoding jobs), and it is overclockable should more GHz be required. Related to the temperature budget I mentioned before, I want this PC to be as quiet as possible so it is not whirring loudly while I am watching a show. This means getting passive cooling devices and low wattage parts as much as possible. This CPU is a 65W part, and with the stock cooling, it runs quite cool and silently. If need be, a large passive cooling device from Zalman is an option.

The DDR2-800 RAM was also to aid overclocking. According to the MythTV websites, there is little to be gained by installing more than 512MB of RAM, but in hindsight, I would have sprung for the 1GB to give a bit more headroom.

The motherboard was chosen for it's features amenable to a Home Theatre PC (HTPC). It has both IDE and SATA drive connections. It has 3 PCI slots and 1 PCIE-x16 slot. It has onboard audio, and does NOT have onboard video. And, it has several USB ports, a com port, and an ethernet port. The hard part was finding the 3 PCI slots, as they seem to be fading away. If you want to install multiple tuners, or run multiple TVs off of the unit, you need lots of slots. The rest of the hardware you will find out the why during the hardware install later.

The next step is to start the build! I'll try to get something up on that soon, so stay tuned!