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Im basicly thinking of replacing the pain in the ass TiVo with a Mythbox and add a few WD 1TB USB/Firewire drives and rip the movies to it cause i saw they have a plugin for that stuff.. Also thought maybe Id run my hardware past you guys and see if theres anything that might stick out as a potential linux problem for me? And if maybe you might know of a dual tuner PCI card that would work well? The HD Componet module uses a PCI slot bay so that would leave me with only one. Thanks guys!

Case: Antec Fusion
MB: Asus M2NPV-VM
CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4600+
CPU Cooler: Thermalright SI-128
Ram: Corsair 1GB PC2-6400 x2
DVD: DVD+-RW Drive
HD: WD Caviar RE2 400GB
Tuner: ???

For tuners, go with ones that have built-in encoders. No chance of dropping frames that way. Avoid the Hauppauge PVR-500 (nice dual-tuner board), unless you can get a full refund if necessary. There are two versions of this board, one with larger Phillips tuners, and one with smaller Samsung tuners. The Samsungs are absolute crap. The Phillips are great. (ditto for some models of the PVR-150 single-tuner card, too!)

Anyone want a Samsung Hauppauge PVR-500, cheap ?

Note that you will likely have only 2 (or maybe 3) PCI slots available since the Fusion case requires a mATX form factor mobo. So a dual tuner card is a Good Idea; just avoid the Samsung modules.

For HDTV, you'll probably be using component video cables from your cable/satellite box, and the PVR-500 does normally have a dual set of inputs for that.

For off-the-air HDTV, and unencrypted cable HDTV, the HDHomeRun external dual tuner is excellent, and won't take up a PCI slot.

I have the Antec Fusion case, and like it. There are only two normal internal hard disk bays, though -- plenty for me but maybe not enough for a massive DVD collection.

The front knob is kind of useless. Myth has plugins to use the display and knob.

But I didn't like their "busy" displays, so I wrote a nice standalone app to manage the display for me -- no drivers, no mythlibs, no chain of servers talking to servers; just my vfd_updater gizmo.

Cheers