PVR Wire

We've given you tips time and time again on how to build your own PVR. You can go out and purchase some new parts, or you can dedicate an old computer to the task.

But the voyeur in me just can't get enough of these tutorials, because I love seeing how other folks' home-built PVRs stack up against mine.

Shawn Kent has written up a pretty simple tutorial on building a relatively inexpensive HTPC using parts from an old computer, a new case, hard drive, video card, and TV tuner.

The problem with tutorials like this is that they're getting outdated by the minute. Yes, it's true that you can build a home theater PC to handle standard definition content for just a few hundred dollars. But as the push towards high definition video and high definition television sets continue, these systems may not really suit your needs much longer. Adding a hi-def tuner doesn't cost much more, but you really need to reevaluate your choices in graphics cards, hard drive capacity and so forth if you're making the leap to a hi-def.

And while Windows Vista promises CableCard compliance, allowing you to receive cable HDTV signals (most PC-based HDTV tuners only handle over-the-air signals), there's still no support for advanced features like video-on-demand. In other words, building a home theater PC today means making compromises. To be perfectly honest, I'd only suggest doing it if you don't plan to buy a HDTV for another few years. Otherwise, it might make more sense to get the cable company PVR (especially if it's a Comcast/Cox Motorola box that will soon run TiVo software), and wait another year or two for PVR technology to catch up with TV technology.