I find myself watching less and less HDTV via our Bell satellite receiver, although it can automatically record programs on the internal hard disc. That technology was exciting back when VHS tape was in its death-throws. Now, not so much. Capturing off the air had merits especially with the time-shifting opportunities of east and west coast feeds.
Now, I want to have everything digital coming into this apartment via the Internet. All television, radio, streaming music, mp3's, photos, video and specific Internet sites should be arriving via broadband. It's no longer a pipe dream (Pardon the pun, please.) Most everything that's necessary could be lined up and built in one afternoon. It is nearly time to dump satellite and build a custom media server. I'd just need to create a special Windows PC. It'd need a capture card to pull in local HDTV over the air. Its audio card would have to output to the home-threatre receiver. A graphics card could plug into the HDMI on the TV only. A card reader would make SD cards containing video and photos available. A Blu-ray reader would make it the major way of watching things still on physical disc.
Using my big screen TV works okay at present. In fact, I'm on both the regular screen and the 42" Toshiba at the present moment. It's just that having a little box under the TV connected to my network would seem like the natural next progression.
