I have been looking at HTPC stuff as of late because Mike’s very sweat TiVO unit. Well unknown to some is the fact that TiVO is Linux powered and any Linux enthusiast can make their own (and include whatever options they want.) Things like xmame for video game playing, DVD ripping/burning, TV-to-DVD burning, web access controls, etc.. are just a Linux box away.
Found a couple good resources for this. HTPC How-to is a great resource; as is mythTV (check out the screen-shots.. if you don’t know what Linux is capable of it will blow your mind.)