Ever since I bought my first DVR back in 1999 (Panasonic ReplayTV), I have wanted to do as others have done and hack into it. Off-the-shelf DVR’s traditionally ship with 80GB-ish hard drives and of course, it was only a matter of time before people realized how easy it was to crack open the case and put in a bigger drive. More hard drive space = more hours of recording time = win!

I was never brave enough to try my hand at upgrading my DVR. I just loved it way too much and was afraid my ignorance about computer hardware would lead to some type of critical mistake, leaving me DVR-less. Not to mention I paid a hefty price for being an early adopter ($600 plus) and that was just too much of an investment to take chances with.

But oh how the times change. The DVR died last year, not long before Christmas. I assume the hard drive went bad… I used the poor thing to the point of abuse and am surprised it lasted as long as it did. And let me tell you, just like everything else, they don’t make them like that anymore. I got seven years of service out of that machine and it worked great until the day it just stopped working.

So I found myself shopping for a new quickly. But much to my disappointment, the market is heavily dominated by TiVO. Back in the day, I bought the ReplayTV over the TiVO for one reason — they offered a lifetime subscription to their service for $199 compared to TiVO’s perpetual $5ish per month subscription fee. I finally found a combo DVR/DVD-RW machine with an 80GB hard drive and bought it last December.

About a month ago, the DVR started acting up (couldn’t get any video out to the TV in spit of the on-unit display working fine) so I started searching the web for a possible solution. That’s when I found this article at lifehacker.com and I was off. These units are commonly referred to now as PCHT (PC Home Theatre) units. Custom-sized cases that fit nicely in your home entertainment center are even being sold so you no longer have to find a way to fit a bulky tower somewhere near the TV.

I’ve gotten long-winded so next time I’ll fill you all in on the cool Linux-based GUI’s for homemade DVR’s and other exceptionally cool stuff.