The Capital Times ran a piece on "home-brew," open source DVRs (digital video recorders, in the tradition of TiVO). Though TiVO's software is open source, any "unsigned" modified code is blocked from running on these devices. Home-brew DVRs act like TiVOs, with a few side benefits. The article mentions, incidentally, that this is not a project for the faint of heart.

My MythTV box has been humming in my living room just shy of a year. It's not a project for a new user, but it's a better application, and less complicated to install and maintain than you've been led to believe.

Opting for a MythTV powered DVR requires some planning. Building a MythTV box might cost roughly the same as TiVO (or equivalent) hardware. As MythTV is surprisingly easy on hardware resources, even if new components are needed, they don't need to be cutting edge.

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