Same Money on Cable and avoid Tivo

Recently I've been looking at getting a solution like TiVo but am put off by it a little by the recurring fee for the service, especially since the service really doesn't get you anymore than a configured computer. The cost of a TiVo box is $99 plus $129/year for the service...this is for the minimum system. For $500 you can get a dynamic system based off of either Myth software or even using Media Center for windows(I'm partial to Linux though which Myth is).

Windows Vista includes media center functionality but because the OS is bloated and will over utilize the RAM and Processing power, you'll have poorer performance on the media center functions.

I haven't put my money where my mouth is yet by purchasing a mob to put mythtv on as I haven't had time. DVR's(Digital Video Recorders) are really cool and will change the way you watch tv. Also with MythTV you'll be able to backup your recordings to watch on different mediums like Ipods and Laptops.