I saw an excellent podcast over the weekend at http:/revision3.com Systm regarding the usage and configuration of MythTV. MythTV is an O/S extension that is coming bundled into several Linux distributions and provides Tivo like experiences in recording, streaming and storing all sorts of media. The set-up requires you to get you’re geek on, but not in an extreme way and should be easy enough for person comfortable with installing windows say to perform. The system doesn’t use extreme resources, any old Pentium class machine will work. They recommend getting a TV tuner card that does some on board processing to lighten the load. The MythTV box will identify UPNP devices automatically so you can stream to you’re PS3, Xbox, and media servers. The package I saw demonstrated looked ready for prime time and serves as an awesome way to extend the life of the old machines taking up space in the garage.

MythTV isn’t for everybody but it certainly is worth a good look. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythTV