PC as PVR and Multimedia Megabox

[WarDekar]

I'm sure there's some other people out there that have done or want to do what I want/plan to do. I want to have my old desktop (not too old though) converted into a PVR and multimedia megabox for me. I want to stock it with several LARGE capacity HDDs to store all this media. I want to be able to have it hooked up to a TV obviously, and I want to have a remote and be able to control what's playing with a simple to use GUI (which I may design myself). I want to be able to play my entire music library in a convenient way to choose playlists, artists, albumbs, etc., play emulators with cordless controllers, and play any DVD or TV show in my collection via the remote. Schedule programs to record. Etc., etc. I want to have at least 2 200GB HDDs in there so I can rip all my DVDs to hard drive and be able to view them like that. I want an easy to use interface where I can pop in a DVD and convert to a good format and save it on my hard drive and view it later.

Has anyone done something like this? What formats do you store your DVDs in? Do you keep any extras or just the film itself? Is this feasible? Any good software already out there to use? I also want to be able to have Dolby Digital so I will need a new soundcard with optical out, but I have to make sure the format I save my DVDs in on my HDD will be able to play it in the correct format. Any guides out there dedicated to such an undertaking?

[crazydrve]

try this thread and\or forum

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=506278

but what u want to do might take a long time.

good luck
crazydrve