The MythTV project was started in April 2002 by Issac Richards and has finally reached the state of a finely tuned

professional looking piece of software. MythTV is a Unix application (doesn't run on Windows, of course not) that

turns your dedicated Unix PC into a digital network streaming DVR or Home Theater System. This software has all

the features that TiVo has and some of its own. You can pause live TV, schedule recordings, commercial detection

and skipping. It even comes with video editing capabilities. So if you have a spare PC laying around here's your chance

to put it to good use. If not it would be worth it to go buy one. This system would pay for itself in the first year

anyway. The software and license are free! It can be considered an open source alternative to TiVo. The available

list of features and documentation are quite extensive and just too long to list here, so I'll just give you the url and

you can go read it about it for yourself. Goto to MythTV.org.