(2013-05-17, 18:01)teegray1124 Wrote: so u guys wouldn't recommend another computer or a laptop that I have hanging around. I want to put a tunner on my HTPC can a pi access the tunner and watch regular TV?
My configuration in full is:-
In the basement I have some really old machines - we're talking Pentium 4 with 1GB ram that were cobbled together from bits and pieces laying around! Anyway, I have a total of 4 of these things ...
Server 1 - Runs Mythbuntu and has a Hauppage Nota TD500 twin freeview TV tuner.
Server 2 - Has a couple of TB HDDs in, running Centos it simply provides SMB shares for Music, Music Videos and Movies.
Server 3 - Has three 1TB HDDs in, running FreeNAS, this holds my TV Series.
Server 4 - Has a 500GB drive, it's got LAMP configured and does my torrents.
In my living room, I have an Acer Aspire Revo, it's a pretty basic machine but its perfect for sitting quitely under my TV. This runs Windows 7, has XBMC configured and talks to my Myth TV backend. I chose a Windows platform as it's nice to play games and stuff on the big-screen.
In the kitchen, we have a Pi with OpenElec. As I said earlier, it's just hooked up to some 2.0 speakers and is controlled via iPhone app.
In my bedroom, I have a pretty basic desktop PC, running Windows 7, this has XBMC installed and has a Huppage U80 USB Freeview TV card connected. The machine also has Myth TV client installed outside of XBMC.
Finally, in my children's room, there's another PC, this one runs Windows XP, has XMBC installed and connects to the Myth TV backend for Live TV.
All of these use wired RJ46 Gigabit network as I also found that Live TV over Wireless isn't worth the hassle!
Our mobile devices, iPhone, Nexus etc all have XBMC remote installed which are on the WLAN.
In all my experience, the ONLY problem I ever had with the Pi was when it first came out, the Flash player wasn't included in the distro and it was a pain in the backside to get it installed (handy for UK radio stations which aren't on shoutcast). Other then that, it connected to my LAN in a few clicks and was up and running with XBMC literally within an hour!
To summarise (sorry, I tend to waffle!), if you have an old machine laying around, it can be used in one way or another, but you're best sticking to wired networking.