As a sidenote, you might want to take a brief look at
http://www.mythtv.org -- it's an open-source Linux-based TiVo-clone-like-thingy. It also plays DVDs, rips DVDs, transcodes most files into DivX, and has plugins for all kinds of stuff like playing MP3s, weather reports, etc.
As soon as I have the money/time, I'm building me a MythTV box :-D