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just build your own friggin media center pc for this price

You can build a HD media center PC for this much?

#1: The reasons not to do this are. 1) no CableCard support in PCs yet so you can't get digital cable channels in HD. 2) The Tivo interface is a million times better than Windows Media Center. The reson not to, of course, is the monthly subscription fee. The other reason not to go with this deal in you can get the newer TivoHD for less with M-Card support.

Just sign up for Dish Network (better HD programming) and get a free HD-DVR.

You guys are right on target. Just as an example to prove your point using rebates I picked up one of the EC-2 HTPC boxes from NewEgg last month for $40 (came with a remote), 1G memory $35, 500g hard drive $80 and Geoforce motherboard with AMD chipset $80 (package deal) and DVD reader/writer ($30). So for $265 you can build a decent system yourself if you catch some rebates and sales. If you have extra parts lying around you can do it even cheaper.

$399 shipped AR at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/TiVbaconCD648250B-Series3-Digital-Recorder/dp/B000I661J0/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6/002-7051462-0481646?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1190757280&sr=8-6

I have considered building my own for several years and if you love doing that (as I do) then it's a great project. I have not done this yet because here's what I think it involves:

(1) research and purchase hardware/software ($$), (2) wait for it to arrive, (3) put it all together (your time=$$), (4) it's not ready so load OS, (5) configure & troubleshoot (more $$), (6) load apps ($$), (7) configure & troubleshoot ($$), ( test, (9) enjoy. And don't forget those fun and exciting rebates.

With a Tivo you (1) purchase ($$$), (2) connect ($), and (3) enjoy. One big rebate to send in.

I probably won't purchase this TiVo because Buy.com charges sales tax to TN so I would have to add about $55 to price.

How about you rodeo cowboy listen to what #3 said. There is no such as a digital cable tuner for PC. burp retards.

Actually there is 'burp retard'.

#7 there isn't any debugging to do if you buy a decent tuner card. It's plug and play all the way. I have a low cost Athlon 4200 dual core system running Vista Premium (WMC) with two Hauppauge WinTV 1600 HDTV cards running without a single hitch since May. The cards do OTA ATSC, clear QAM or analog cable. While there is a 4 tuner limit (2 dig, 2 analog) there are hacks that overcome this. The biggest hassle is that WMC uses its own container format, DVR-MS, for the mpeg2 recordings. This makes archiving in divx a little more complicated without buying 3rd party software to remove the mpeg2 stream from the container.

#8, are you wrong, there are, I own one.

Apparently the Tivo Series3 is upgradable in terms of storage, but the TivoHD (the cheaper product) is not. Can anyone confirm? If the TivoHD is upgradeable so I can slam a 750Gb hard drive on it, then I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

I was a tivo fanboy until they raised their sub prices unless you commit to three years. burp 'em.

Thanks #10. I don't mean that there will be guaranteed debugging on all builds, it's just one of those things that can be a 5-minute Google search or 2-day phone tag with Tech Support.

Sounds like you've got a great system. I'm impressed that you used Vista, how much hardware did it recognize? Did you try a Linux distro?

Now that HD is more mainstream I may look into doing this soon.

Tivo is releasing a new HD model for $300. Was in the latest issue of Sound & Vision magazine.

My system (handles OTA HDTV fine, probably would choke on HDVD or Blu-Ray):

Antec N2400 HTPC case $80 AR
Biostar TF7050-M2 mobo $80 (onboard graphics & sound)
AMD M2 X2 3600 CPU $60
Quiet CPU cooler (can't remember brand) $20
2 GB Patriot performance RAM $60 AR
250GB HD $70 AR
A180 HDTV tuner card $80
Wireless RF keyboard $60
Media Center remote $30
Vista Home Premium $115 (unless you torrent)

Total $595 (I had a bunch of this stuff lying around from old builds, so it cost me less). I don't think you can build an HDTV capable system for much less. You could knock off a gig of RAM by using MCE 2005, but then you'd have to add an NTSC tuner card, so that's a wash.

And still not a single link to a pci card that will tune Digital Cable.

#16 you could add one of these drives to your system when they come out late next month and cure your HD/Blu-Ray issue (see article link) If this is true it is going to eliminate the format war between Sony and the HD guys.

http://displaydaily.com/2007/09/17/red-laser-hd-capacity-discs-brings-new-life-to-dvds/