ATTIC TV

Video cassettes are becoming a thing of the past as movie buffs move to DVDs or hard disk recorders. Even these recent technologies pose space and convenience issues, so a do-it-yourself video server offers a handy alternative. Using the MythTV media center software, a TV card, and a decommissioned PC, you can quickly build a video server that serves up digital video in your home.

The system is based on a standard Linux PC, which will become a digital video recorder under the aegis of MythTV. The software uses the internal TV card to scan TV channels and store them on the internal hard disk. In contrast to hard disk recorders, the hard disk capacity is almost unlimited; if you start running out of space, you can add a disk or replace an existing one with a bigger model.