As some of the forum regulars may know, my latest project is based around a custom home theatre PC system. I decided to stray from the mainstream game computer modification to try and bring this interesting little niche a little further into the public eye. This is my first build of an HTPC and as such I feel I should warn you, I am not the authority on this subject. The premise of this and all future HTPC related reviews is to help those interested understand the features, questions and requirements that are involved in partaking in such a project. I may leave things out, I may state something incorrectly, but I promise I will try and make these reviews as thorough and as accurate as possible.

First let's make sure we're all on the same page as to what an HTPC actually is. HTPC is the acronym used for a Home Theatre Personal Computer. This form of computer differs from those others such as gaming and office in the fact that its sole purpose is to replace as much of the traditional living room home entertainment equipment as possible. So that would mean combining your DVD, MP3, CD, TV, and a few other entertaining acronyms all into one easy to use box. Oh! And this all has to be done while still keeping a nice relaxed living room feel to the whole thing. Nobody wants to come home from a hard days work, plop down in front of the TV and muddle through a windows/linux OS in order to watch their favorite shows. A DOS prompt and a task bar are the absolute last things I want to see when I'm trying to wind down. So apart from the obvious hardware requirements, an HTPC also needs an easy to use front end.

This brings us to the review at hand. Today we'll be looking at the SageTV + PVR-250 Bundle from Frey Technologies. This basic bundle provides those who are entering the HTPC market with the solid base of TV tuning capability of the Hauppauge PVR-250 and ease of use through the SageTV software front end. The addition of this bundle to just about any existing computer will instantly provide you with most of the features necessary for your home theatre. This review will be focused mainly on the SageTV software portion of this bundle.