Build/buy a computer for television: DVR, DVD, high-def, etc.

[wheel son]

building your own setup has downfalls like no warranty, so unless you are really computer litterate i would go with something you can get a warranty on and get someone to help you out.. I heard Windows Media Center was decent for these types of setups but i have not had first hand experience with it and have only heard that..

[sixfour]

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building your own setup has downfalls like no warranty

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Er, you'd have warranties on each of the parts, so if one of those goes busto you just send that bit back, which is a lot more sensible than sending back the whole thing

[Josem]

there are a few threads on media center (centre?) PCs in recent months, so it may be worthwhile to browse through that.

depending on the resolution, even relatively low end stuff should be able to do what you want - eg, i watch standard-def video on a P4 machine with a GeForce Ti 4200 (!) graphics card and get great results.

[Freakin]

I just built one (without PVR functions). It's pretty sweet.

Also, x264 pwns xvid.