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Turn a PC Into the King of All Media

You don't need to start from scratch to fashion yourself a workable media-savvy PC. If you've recently retired a PC, a few strategic upgrades can have the old beige bomber making like a TiVo in no time. Just beware of creeping costs: If your upgrade estimate passes the $300 or $400 mark, consider starting over (and turning that old faithful into a footstool).

Digital video recording is likely the most intensive processing your updated PC will do, so plan your upgrade around handling this function. I recommend SnapStream's $80 Beyond TV 3 software for DVR duties, as it offers the slickest interface of the three packages I've tested, along with such useful features as the ability to skip easily through commercials. The app does have some strict system requirements, however. Among them: Windows XP or Windows 2000, 128MB of system memory, and a graphics card with a TV tuner.

Choosing the right graphics card is the most important--and most complicated--aspect of upgrading your PC to act like a DVR. Two criteria will affect your graphics card selection: the speed of your CPU, and whether your current card supports DirectX 9, the Microsoft graphics programming interface that Beyond TV 3 requires.

If your current graphics card doesn't support DX9 but your PC's processor runs faster than 1 GHz, choose a board with a TV tuner based on ATI's Radeon 9200 or NVidia's GeForce FX 5200; both support DX 9 (total price $150 to $200). If your current card supports DX9, but your PC has a CPU under 1 GHz, consider a PCI-based TV-tuner card like Hauppauge's WinTV-PVR-250 card ($150), which includes a hardware encoder to offload some processing. Finally, if your current card doesn't support DX9 and your processor runs slower than 1 GHz, you'll need both a new graphics card with DX9 support ($100) and a PCI-based TV-tuner card with hardware encoding.

Beyond TV 3's lowest MPEG-2 video quality setting uses 984MB of storage per hour of programming; its highest setting takes up 3.1GB per hour. Realistically, if your hard drive is smaller than 40GB, you'll find it necessary either to add a second drive or to swap out your existing drive for a larger one. These days, $140 nets a 160GB drive.

Of course, a media-savvy PC should be able to play DVD movies, and doing this requires, at minimum, a DVD drive ($30). If you're interested in creating your own movies, you'll need a drive with DVD burning capabilities, as well (a 4X DVD±RW drive goes for $145). You should be aware, however, that rewritable DVD drives come with their own stiff system requirements.

Finally, older sound cards or integrated audio probably won't give you the high-quality sound you crave. PCI-based cards with multichannel capabilities can be inexpensive ($50) or pricey ($200); but with a good set of speakers, the right card can add immeasurably to your entertainment experience (see "Audio Nirvana: Cards to Speakers").

Tom Mainelli is a Senior Associate Editor for PC World.