I've been building it up slowly for a couple of years

Denise started it by moaning about the VCR and asking for a capture card!! We ran it under Windows for a week whilst we went on holiday. It crashed on day 2. We installed MythTV the next week - we now have about 2Tb of storage...

Sky SDTV is not a problem (for me with Myth) - basically s-video capture and an IR controller to change channel.
You will have a problem with HDTV.
Be aware that you can only watch one channel at once. However we haven't watched liveTV (or an advert) for about 2 years now and you can stream different shows on each screen without any problems.

I also run freesat capture of the OTA mpeg stream for some channels (not sky). I can't get freeview here (trees) but that's similar and easy too.

I run a huge (2.2m across) screen on standard def and it's great - has to be seen to be believed. The joist thing is pretty minor - I've got (well, will have) mine hidden behind the coving.

The main thing that's hard to hide is the projector - I wouldn't bother with motorising it unless you can afford several thousand pounds.

Oh, MisterHouse

I'm in Reading if you want to come see... but I guess if you have that much land you're not down south

It is *all* linux though - the only windows PC we allow in the house is the work laptop! It does mean that I am not subject to buying licenses to upgrade my PCs or paying extra to run diskless or ... but it can be daunting for newbies unless you know people who know linux - and that's getting less of a problem nowadays.


58 acres eh? Got a spare one for a friendly neighbour with similar tastes in hi-tec