bsoft posted : You also have to consider power consumption. A decent Media Center PC is 60W at idle; my DCX3400 Comcast DVR is 28W.
If you leave both on 24/7 (the Comcast DVR doesn't actually use less power when it's "off", and Media Center's "wake for recording" is flaky) then you're looking at 23.8kWh/mo more for the PC.
At my rates, that works out to $3.57/mo. Not huge, but it cuts into your monthly 'savings'.
Not that there aren't huge advantages for owning a media PC, but you need to know what you're getting into.
If you leave both on 24/7 (the Comcast DVR doesn't actually use less power when it's "off", and Media Center's "wake for recording" is flaky) then you're looking at 23.8kWh/mo more for the PC.
At my rates, that works out to $3.57/mo. Not huge, but it cuts into your monthly 'savings'.
Not that there aren't huge advantages for owning a media PC, but you need to know what you're getting into.