Why bother creating an HTPC that can record 11 TV channels? If you're a company that creates PVR software... why not!?
The creators of Beyond TV, SnapStream, have made a few beefy HTPCs in the past, but they've topped them all with their latest effort. It's not the smallest, it's not the quietest, but it sure is powerful, and probably the most featureful HTPC ever, if TV's your thing, anyway.
Using Beyond TV 4, the SnapStream team put together the Godzilla PVR, a system that can record four HDTV channels seven SDTV channels simultaneously. Not bad, eh? So what went into such a system?
That's three dual tuner PCI cards, four USB tuners, and not pictured is a PCIe Theatre 550 based card. They had a bit of trouble getting such a killer system together, however. It was a tight squeeze, and the CPU wasn't too happy with so much transcoding going on (DivX, of course), but a new heatsink fixed that.
Some of you have probably decided to embark on a mission to produce a similar system. But first you might want to consider how much it will set you back. You're looking at over $4000. It's a killer system that can record far more than there is worth recording on the airwaves, though, and for that we takes our hats off to SnapStream.
Check out the SnapStream blog for details on the build.
