Well I've done it!!
I went $40 over budget 'cos Australia (yes the ENTIRE country) sold out of Athlon CPU's over xmas, so I had to pay a little more than I expected as I ran around a few retailers to find one that had what I wanted in stock!!!
Building the box was actually reasonably straight forward and with the help of lots of 'googling' I have got it mostly configured now.
I can watch and record any of ABC, 7,9 and 10 but my SBS reception isnt
string enough to maintain a 'lock' (I might get the 'antenna man' in to fix that).
I have no troubles with coding/decoding mulktiple streams (can record 2 channels and watch a recording with no problems and CPU doesnt even break a sweat).
I have even discovered to my surprise that "commercial flagging" works on some channels!! I recorded "Die Hard" last night and looking at my "MythWeb" site this morning from work I can see that it found 9 commercial breaks which it can edit out automatically if I wish!
My remote doesnt work correctly yet (I havent mapped the keys - and there arent enough buttons for all the functions required) - So I might find myself a cheap IR cordless keyboard ($55) and use my universal learning remote to send the necessary key-strokes...
I also dont have DVD playing working yet.. (no sound for some reason?!)..
But I expect in a couple of weeks to have full DVD ripping capability on the box (as well as Bit-Torrent for some serious bulk downloading of major TV series!
)
As far as noise goes - my cheap case came with a 80mm exhaust fan that running at the stock 12V could drown out an A380 Airbus, so I will be spending a few dollars ($15) on a 92mm fan that I can run at 5V and cut the noise down dramatically.. My PSU makes no noise at all so the only other source of noise might be the CPU fan - and if needs be I can spend a bit ($70) on a specialist fan-heatsink combo to reduce noise still further (I'll see if it needs it after changing the case fan first).
So its all going well!! I *love* having my tv guide update itself automatically and just being able to browse it from anywehere to set up recordings!!
..All the functionality I could have wished for and a cost of ~ AUD$1200 (Tax Deductable
)
Anyone out there thinking of doing a similar thing - GO FOR IT!! You wont regret it!