[Replacing My Cable Box] Suggestions For Building an HTPC
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Background/Overview

I am looking for a practical replacement to my cable TV box. I have been a customer of verizon for about four years and I have been on Verizon Fios for a little over two years now. I currently have a two-year contract for TV, Internet, and Home phone. When my last contract expired eight months ago, I chose to keep the television service because it actually costs more to only have internet+phone (we all know why). However, when they increased the prices of hardware rental, I began looking for methods to drop the box. They currently charge $17/month for the HD DVR box and $8/month for a standard box. I have experience with computer hardware and I have built my own system before.



What I'm Looking For

I am looking for something that will either allow me to downgrade to a HD box or eliminate the box all together. The replacement has to have:

Friendly UI (non-tech savvy people will be using this)
Remote compatibility (For changing channels, volume, pausing, rewinding, etc)
DVR/Recording Capability (Pausing, Rewinding,etc)
Recording one show while watching another
HD Content (1080i via component input)
Any other basics that a STB has and I'm forgetting

What I Know
After doing a lot of research, I realized that I'm pretty much building a HTPC. I will need a cable card tv tuner to decrypt the non-basic channels. My family mostly watches the public channels but they do watch occasional movie or show on the encrypted channels. I know that I will not be able to receive on demand services or pay-per-view without a cable box but no one ever uses those here anyway. I will need an OS, front-end, and a back-end. I was thinking of using a linux distro, XBMC, and Mythbuntu. For the tuner, I was considering either the HDHomeRun Prime or the Ceton InfiniTV 4. As of right now, I have no specific hardware in mind for the HTPC. I am hoping that someone can give me some recommendations based on what I'm looking for.

Final Notes

Even though I have experience with computer hardware, I know very little about tuner cards/pvrs and software. I am capable and willing to learn but I'm hoping that someone with experience in this area can advise me as to what I should go for. Ideally, I would want to spend less than $400 in total. I would like to thank everyone in advance for reading my post and assisting me.
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[Replacing My Cable Box] Suggestions For Building an HTPC0