[PissedHippie]

I’ve been kicking the tires on XBMC on my tablet for the past week or so and anxious to start my first build around the application. I’ve built tons of Windows boxes since before there was even “Windows”, so I have a pretty good understanding of slapping hardware together. My only real trepidations center on whether a DIY box can do everything I need to do reliably enough for me to cut the cables with good old Cox Communications.

I was planning on a Windows 7 Box with an Hauppauge dual tuner and a Bluray player on a MicroATX board with on board video. I’d like to replace my receiver, DVD player and CATV PVR with one PC. My wife and daughter are reasonable tech-savvy, but my fear is that the change to what is really a hobby-box will result in the occasional, “we can’t watch TV tonight because Daddy is fixing something”. In other words, in the history of XBMC have there been builds that have resulted in community-wide down time? What about times when “must have” add-ons have been disabled by preventative measures taken by the big content providers.

I don’t know much about Linux or OpenELEC, but if the consensus is that those are more stable OS platforms, I will look into them.

I would of course consider a NUC solution, but from what I’ve gathered, my needs may be more that what that architecture can currently provide. (Feel free to kick me in the right direction if I’m off course here)

To recap:
I’m dropping cable TV and need to watch and record OTA programming as well as XBMC content and other subscription content that plays nicely with the platform (Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.) I will also be adding a Bluray player and central HDD storage for now. I may build a NAS server at some later date, but for now I want it all in one quiet box.

Looking forward to the community’s responses.

[katsup]

Netflix doesn't work in Linux so you are stuck with Windows. I prefer Linux, but my TV has Netflix and Amazon so I switch to that when needed.

How do you plan to get channels to your tuner? Are you switching to an antenna?

I wouldn't spend any money on hardware and built a system with what you have. Try to use it exclusively for a few weeks (or track your time compared to watching Cable TV) to see if you and your family can survive. I was able to drop Cable TV 7+ years ago and I am happy. However, my buddy and his girlfriend failed when they tried.

[PissedHippie]

How do you plan to get channels to your tuner? Are you switching to an antenna?

I wouldn't spend any money on hardware and built a system with what you have. Try to use it exclusively for a few weeks (or track your time compared to watching Cable TV) to see if you and your family can survive. I was able to drop Cable TV 7+ years ago and I am happy. However, my buddy and his girlfriend failed when they tried.

I'll be using an antenna for sure. The tuner I was considering is the Hauppauge dual card. I don't know if folks hop out of XBMC to watch live or recorded programming that comes in OTA. I know some prefer the native Windows Media apps for that. I'm still on the fence on which Windows version to run everything on.

I'd say we're mostly watching basic channels but I usually have it on MSNBC for background noise. That will be the toughest change to get used to I suppose.

I take your advice seriously and will be spending quite a bit of time making the box bulletproof before making the terminal call to our cable provider. It's weird how old farts like myself have been conditioned to watching TV in such a spoon-fed way. I look forward to the change however since most of what we're being overcharged for is garbage.

[katsup]

If I were to do what you are doing, I'd look at a HDHomeRun for the tuner and research a chromebox or Fire TV for XBMC. This way you can load Netflix and Amazon from the same box. They do not have disc drives, but you can add a USB drive to the chromebox (and maybe the Fire TV). You'd have to use an addon like MakeMKV to play BluRay in Linux. I have not used either of these boxes, but someone else who does this may chime in. Plus, there is a lot of users so troubleshooting will be easier. However, my preference may not be yours.

I still use a now 4 year old Shuttle XS35GT with HDHomeRun to get the basic channels. It works perfectly for me, but I would not recommend buying it as it is old technology. It took a few tries until I found the right setup that fit my needs.

[PissedHippie]

I think I would rather have one box that does it all. There's just something untidy about a string of little low-cost appliances. We have a Roku 2 that we sometimes use and it feels like a toy designed for planned obsolescence. Maybe I'm still clinging to some old thinking here, but I don't want to spend the money I'll be saving from cutting cable on a bunch of leap-frogging technologies all vying for the same market space.

Is this just wishful thinking?

BTW, I've had a few Shuttle boxes very similar to the model you have. I love those things. If the model I have now had HDMI out, I would use it.