What should I buy?

[mrgreen4242]

I need to combine the features of a DVR and an AppleTV. I need to be able to record shows from cable, or maybe OTA HD, or at least a composite video source with a simple TiVo like interface, pause/rewind live TV, and I also need to have access to a library of MPEG4 DVD rips for instant, on demand viewing. Online HD rentals a la the iTMS would be pretty spiffy, too.

So, is there a way to avoid having to have a TiVo and an AppleTV, or am I going to have to suck it up and spend the money for both?

 

[waw74]

Mythtv can record from cable, and OTA HD depending on your capture card, I believe you can even hook firewire up to your exisisting HD cable box, but you can run into DRM issues.
You can have multiple recording (backend) and/or playback (frontend)machines on the network, that will work together
It aslo has a plug in to support movies, it will give you a nice interface to browse them with artwork, and descriptions and everything.

It all runs on linux though, although there is a frontend available for mac so you watch tv on your laptop (both live and recorded), and at least standard def is fine on even a wireless G network

 

[mrgreen4242]

Mythtv can record from cable, and OTA HD depending on your capture card, I believe you can even hook firewire up to your exisisting HD cable box, but you can run into DRM issues.
You can have multiple recording (backend) and/or playback (frontend)machines on the network, that will work together
It aslo has a plug in to support movies, it will give you a nice interface to browse them with artwork, and descriptions and everything.

It all runs on linux though, although there is a frontend available for mac so you watch tv on your laptop (both live and recorded), and at least standard def is fine on even a wireless G network

I've looked at MythTV several times, but to build a box capable of handling HD OTA I'd have to spend at least as much as an ATV and TiVo HD combined, plus all that time, so it seemed sort of pointless since I wasn't interested in it as a hobby project (I have enough of those).

 

[sandman42]

For TV recording, check out ElGato's EyeTV products. Their stuff can record HD and SD broadcasts, including the ability to schedule recordings and export automatically to iTunes upon completion for viewing on TV. I use the EyeTV 250 with my TV all the time. Works great. Depending on your computer the H.264 encoding process can take a while, but ElGato's Turbo.264 speeds it up quite a bit.