I’ve been thinking about building/buying/acquiring a media center for several years now.  I’ve never been happy with any of the choices available.  I would like to be able to view and record HD content (from 2 sources at a time), view and rip DVDs, and manage it via a remote control interface.  It seems simple enough to me but nothing seems to really provide all of these options in a nice easy manner.  I have a Logitech Harmony Remote which seems like it should be programmable to manage any media center.  HD content can (supposedly) be retrieved via firewire from a cable box or OTA (other-the-air) using an HD tuner.  I have a HD HomeRun and an EyeTV Hybrid providing me w/ three HD tuners.

Some of the options I’m researched include MythTV, LinuxMCE, WindowsMCE, Tivo,  EyeTV, and various “media center” software packages like XBMC.  MythTV is the first one that interested me but the guides for determining a good hardware configuration are severely lacking.  WindowsMCE provides a decent enough interface but the hardware is extremely expensive and you’re limited by the limitations Microsoft sets forth (which are many).  I really like the idea behind LinuxMCE – it has the weath of features of MythTV and the interface niceties of WindowsMCE but it is still in early development and the hardware costs are as high as for WindowsMCE.

I picked up an EyeTV during MacWorld earlier this year when they were on sale.  I like being able to use my MacMini as my media center though it’s a little underpowered.  Unfortunately, the EyeTV software is really suited directly to recording from the tuner, not for providing a “media center” experience.  I’ve been following the recent development of the XBMC project as it’s been ported now to the Mac.  Again though, the hardware requirements are a little steep for my G4 MacMini.

If someone would just come up with a solution that supported the HD Tuners out of the box, provided a nice unified interface that wasn’t “sluggish”, allowed playback of media from any source, and didn’t require expensive hardware… I realize it’s probably only a matter of time but I’ve been waiting ~5 years already.