Super DVD Thing

And per Hubby's request, the "Super DVD Thingie" is also known as Home Theater PC. :P

***

So a couple of days ago our DVD player died. Prior to this one, we own an el cheapo made in China (what's not made a China nowadays? Oh yeah, those that are made in India instead), which died promptly after a year. Okay, afterall, what could one expect out of the cheapest DVD you can find at Fry's? So we bought a $200 LG one, which also promptly died after exactly one year (probably to the exact day after the warranty expired). As a man, Hubby wanted to attempt fixing the broken DVDs (yeah, he still has the dead boy of the el cheapo). As a woman, I kindly informed him that DVD players are obviously disposable now and to just buy another el cheapo one. After all, the blue ray ones will be coming soon. (Coming soon as in affordable customer prices.)

Again, as a man, Hubby still want a solution to the problem. So he is going to build his own Super DVD Thing by hooker up a super computer to the TV!! It'll have your regular DVR function, super capacity (dual 300 GB harddrives which I just bought yesterday! From FRY's!), and best of all, I'll be able to burn programs onto DVD directly! :D Of course, when all is said and done it'll come out to about $1,000, but who's counting? I'll try and track the progress as this SDT is being constructed.

Components so far:

Maxtor 300 GB Harddrives x 2 = $160

For everything else, there's MasterCard.