Help buying DVR or Building one

[mabus]

I've been looking everywhere for a DVR sort of thing that does exactly what i'm looking for, but am absolutely at a loss. I'm looking for something >VERY< specific.

1) I want the live programming to be buffered (of course), but I do not want the buffering to cause the live television feed to be delayed. At the moment i'm using one of those HDD-DVD recorders (Panasonic) and it does it perfectly. It lets me Record the live television on a continuous stream (up to 8 hours), and I can press "Play" to view the buffered content, if I press stop it goes back to unbuffered, non-delayed Live television while continuing to record what i'm watching discretely in the background, without interfering with my Live experiance. That no delay thing is a total deal breaker for me, because I actually enjoy Live television and don't want to give that up. I enjoy channel surfing.

2) Continuous recording stream. I had to return a Tivo I had bought, because every time I changed the channel, it popped up a blasted warning that I would stop recording if i changed the channel. WORSE... If I changed the channel it would actually ERASE the old recording without my permission. So If i'm watching Miami Vice, and there's a commercial, and I turn the channel to CNN to watch the news for a minute, then go back to miami vice, everything I had been recording was erased!!!!! I want something that will just Record everything I watch flat out. I don't need it to name the file and keep it organized for me, I can handle that manually, but I need it to record everything I watch, and not erase it whenever I change the channel.

3) WIFI. I don't know why almost everything out there is without Wifi. The HDD DVD Recorders out there are PERFECT for me in all respects, no buffer delays, continuous recording, but no wifi! The few devices out there (PVR's) which HAVE WIFI all have the other stuff I hate, non continuous recording, or nasty buffers to the live stream delaying video when you channel surf (an absolute deal breaker).

4) No Propietary Hard Disks. A few PVR's out there have WIFI, but all of them lock the formatting in to some propietary format that a normal PC can't read, and/or can't read normal Mpg format from a PC.

Basically;

I want something like the Panasonic HDD DVD Recorder, which does not buffer the live television stream and lets me view live television LIVE, so I can channel surf happilly. I want it to let me hit RECORD and just record everything I watch. I don't care if it names the file for me, If it doesn't I can do that myself when I edit what i've recorded and saved. I want to be able to upload the recorded (and edited) saved program to my PC for storage so I don't have to burn it to DVD, to some standard format that the PC can read easily, like mpg, and conversely, I want to be able to UPLOAD my mpgs back TO my DVR so I can watch it easily on my television. I want to be able to exchange the file from my DVR to my PC and back again through WIFI.

If there's anything out there that does these 4 things, I'm desperate to find it. If I have to build it, I can do that too (though buying something premade would be preferable). Any help with the exact device to buy, or the exact parts to use to build it would be greatly greatly appreciated as I've been searching for months now with little luck.

[redwudz]

Do you want high definition or standard definition capture? What would be your video display?

Maybe a Hauppauge dual tuner card? http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr2250.html If something like this would work for you, you just need a compatible PC and plug in the card. I would add a few large hard drives, though.

That's one way.

And welcome to our forums.

[mabus]

It would be just a standard Satelite dish feed (not high definition). Just a standard large CRT television. Would that particular card give me the 0 delay thing while continuing to record whatever I watch?

Thanks for the warm welcome

[redwudz]

Not that familiar with that particular card, but I believe it has two separate tuners, so using one shouldn't affect the other. That may not be exactly what you are wanting, but take a look.

Others may have some better ideas.