I have been trying to figure out how to build a HD pvr using linux. My current thinking is to use the pchdtv card in a low end box with 200G of disk or so. Then it appears I can use the Roku as a network video server that can display the data on the video storage box. I'll probably use the linVDR sw to do the sw. I could not find a video card that looked like a good choice, plus the roku has no fans. So I can put the pc in another room & just network it to the roku.
Has anybody else tried something like this?
Is the video quality of the roku good?
Is there any difference in mpeg decoding for
stream MPEG by different decoders? Apparently there is a difference
between stream MPEG (from a ATSC tuner) and
program MPEG from a DVD. I know there are differences in DVD decoders.
I know, there are easier solutions, but I am a linux zealot. Besides the pchdtv card does not enforce the broadcast flag.

Thanks,
Mike

Although I can be no help at this point, I'm interested in how it turns out.

Please post back here when you find some answers.

Ok, here is the initial I got it hooked up report..

The pchdtv card went in pretty easily. Docs were good from them. I put it on a VIA low power box. (To give you an idea how low, the CPU has no fan) I am using SuSe 9.1 on that machine.

pchdtv provides some simple, but useful tools for optimizing antenna direction, getting the channel list, and recording a stream. The sensitivity of the pcHDTV is a little better than the built in tuner in my HDTV. Note recording HD streams takes alot of disk space. I think it is lik 25G/hr. My box only has a 80GB disk, and only one slot in the shoebox, so I need to do something here.

Next, hooked up the roku to the TV's component inputs. Adjusted the image and looked at some photos just to make sure everthing is good.
Next hooked the roku to my network via 100-base-T ethernet. Pulled the plug on the roku and plugged it back in to reboot. (Note the roku never shuts down when you turn off the power, the CPU keeps running)

After the reboot, the roku grabbed an IP address from the DHCP server. I telnet'ed into the box and followed the instructions to "mount" the pcHDTV linux box. (simple two lines, I'll post it all on my web site later)

I could then browse the mounted filesystem and I tried to play a transport stream. (HDTV file).
It failed, file was too big. I recorded another shorter file. Still failed, but said it was bad data. By chance, I "chopped" the stream file into smaller pieces using the pcHDTV "chopatsc" command. The "chopped" file played. And after that, the "unchopped" file played. Weird...

Finally, I hooked up the roku to the coax in of the 950. For somereason, I am getting hum with the roku in the mix, even without the coax hooked up. The 950 is still connected to the roku thru other cables cross-connected thru the TV/DVD played though. Pulling the plug n the roku stopped the hum. So I need to figure that out.

Conclusion. If you know linux, I think this is going to work. If you don't, I'm not sure I'd do it. The big payoff is the roku is a linux box, so it is quite configurable. Think of it as a linux PC with no fan or disk & a HD/SPDIF output. The other big payoff is that with the pcHDTV card, there will be no broadcast flag restrictions.
I am planning on downloading the newest beta from roku which is supposed to fix the large file size problem.

Sounds like a very cool project, thanks for the good report. As for the hum from the roku, I'd suggest checking where the roku's power cord routes and where its network cable routes in case the power cord is introducing a hum into something or (much less likely) the network cable is picking something up from an adjacent power or speaker cable. These may all be dead-ends and you even have already checked them, but it's worth a try if you haven't already done so.

As gonk suggested (& I had a feeling) the hum was from different things plugged ino different outlets. Between the 2 amps, 2 crossovers, 950, DVD... I ran out of outlets, so I plugged the roku into the outlet the tv was on. Once I moved the roku to the "audio" outlet, hum disappeared. Ground loops really are a hassle.
Anyway all seems to be working now. I "taped" the super bowl & grammys so far. I keep finding MPlayer has the features I like, but "skips" more than the builtin player.

I also put up a prelim PVR web page. It will be growing over time with where I am and +'s, -'s.
I did program the 950 remote to handle the roku. One less remote...
Web page: http://www.stabie-soft.com/ht/roku.html

I mentioned to the guys developing the MPlayer software for the roku about skipping on the audio. They built a new version which has fixed the problem by increasing the buffer size. I guess NFS may be faster than SMB, but I guess the latency can be longer which caused the problem. In any event, I am a happy camper now with my HDTV recorder with the ability to skip, bookmark etc. Very nice. Only caveat is you must be able to receive over the air broadcasts. I am pretty lucky as I get all(6) the stations in town with an indoor antenna.
As an aside, some of the grammy's really had some nice sound. Nice surround balance etc.