Is there a way to turn an external Hard drive into a digital video recorder? If so how?

Question

Is there a way to turn an external Western Digital hard drive into a digital video recorder. I like the idea of a dvr but don't want to be locked into using the premade ones one way and don't like the idea of the additional hassle of having to pay subscription fees.

I know that in theory it should be possible to make your own digital video recorder but not the specifics as to how. I don't see myself buying anymore dvds to record on a dvd recorder. Hd and blu ray simply put don't interest me as they most likely are plagued by the same issues as dvds when used as a recording medium. Likewise my vcrs are old hat. I'm seriously thinking a hard drive recorder is the way to go. I don't want to buy into Tivo nor Direct TV because they BOTH have an additional subscription fee you have to pay and I'm not always going to be recording what's on tv. I've heard of sling box but I'm not interested.

Answer 1

Get a PC
Get a TV Tuner
Get Microsoft Media Center OS, or Vista Home Premium

That's it. Media Center comes with a TV guide and all the s/w you need to set up a PVR using your PC.