HTPC Diary Part 1: Introduction and Justification

I've been spending inordinate amounts of time over the last several weeks researching components to build my own home theater PC (or HTPC, or Media Center PC, etc), so I thought I'd serialize my thoughts, processes, difficulties, and conclusions for anyone who might be interested, or who might be able to give me advice along the way. This will be the first in a series of posts as I select components to buy, put them together, and test the machine. Today I will address the most obvious question about this task: why?

DIY HTPC: Not Just a Really Expensive Tivo

My VCR had been on the fritz for several months before my wife and I moved from Oakland to Boston to attend grad school. It played tapes reliably, but recording was a crap shoot. About half the time it would shut itself off after recording was engaged. So when hard decisions had to be made about which items would earn valuable space in our packing crate, it didn't make the cut. And I couldn't bring myself to buy a new one for our new home. Buy a VCR? Why not churn our own butter? Hello, digital technology.

But some deep-seeded geekiness (or genetic cheapness) also prevented me from buying a Tivo. It's just a function-crippled Linux box with a TV tuner, I could make one of those! More pointedly, my student budget would not bear the monthly service charge.

Subsequently, during a busy year of graduate study, we missed all of our shows. I resolved to find a solution by the end of the summer. As God as my witness, I will never miss The O.C. again!

Tivos are now essentially free. Buy one at retail and you'll get a rebate covering most of the cost under the condition that you'll subscribe to the monthly Tivo service for one year. Depending on how you look at it, they're either subsidizing the cost of the hardware or the first year of the service. They've also introduced two- tuner decks which can record two shows at once, and are experimenting with direct delivery of content to Tivo boxes over the Internet. Still, I refuse to buy a Tivo.

Here's why. Unlike when VCRs first came out and the hardware manufacturers fought the media industry tooth and nail in the courts to protect the consumer's right to record and archive broadcast TV, Tivo has cozied up to the TV industry, presumably to avoid such costly litigation. Instead of fighting, they've simply sold their customers out. First, they buried the 30 second skip function to make it more difficult to zap commercials. More recently, they've allowed the networks to flag shows for restricted access. Some shows will self-destruct if you don't watch them soon enough, others can't be recorded at all. This is unconscionable.

Frankly, I also refuse to pay for the Tivo service on principle. What is it that they're charging you for? Let's look at the elements that go into it. First, there's the program guide, the list of shows and showtimes and other metadata. This information is important, sure. But another way to look at it: these are advertisements. TV networks aren't carefully guarding the secret of when their shows are airing. They want you to know! Second, there's the data about your viewing habits that Tivo uses to make recommendations for other shows. The key word in that last sentence: YOUR. This is data you provide, and valuable demographic data at that. Tivo should be paying you to access it.

Those are the only truly dynamic aspects of the service. Tivo synthesizes these streams together with some statistical intelligence and a graphical front-end to provide their characteristic new media experience. What's a better term for this "service"? Software. But software you pay $13 a month for.

Other Options

Given my stand against Tivo, I did consider some other options.

Comcast offers cable subscribers the ability to lease a DVR for about the same amount as the Tivo service charge. But since Tivos now subsidize the cost of hardware, why lease when you can buy? Also, you have to have digital cable to lease the box, and I don't.

You can find DVD Recorders/Hard Drive hybrids which allow broadcast recording without paying a service fee, many of which also pull schedule information off the air for very limited Tivo-like functionality. These seem a good step forward, but they are also quite pricey, starting at $300. I feel confident that, for about a hundred bucks more, I can build something far more versatile.

The Dream Machine

My goal is to create a low profile, lowish noise PC that can sit with my other home theater equipment but do a whole lot more: the fabled convergence box. It should be able to do all the stuff Tivo does (program guide, "season pass" recording, pause live TV, etc), in addition to these things:

play all of my digital media
network with my desktop PC to share files
browse the web
run bittorrents when necessary
serve as an emergency backup word processor when my wife and I both have papers due

and maybe even:
run limited games (ideally arcade and early console emulators)
pull down over-air HDTV signals

That's the project. I've seen a lot of HTPC tutorials, but most are pitched at a much higher budget than mine; people building high-end vanity equipment or otherwise high-powered PCs with DVR functionality. My aim is to get a minimal configuration working for around $400, but which will support plenty of future upgrades.

The components are interdependent, but I have to start somewhere, so next I'll be looking at the heart of any HTPC: the TV tuner card.