OK, I'm ready to buy an Xbox and mod it for a video control/streaming center. I am thinking of taking an older 950Mhz PC with 512 Memory and installing Linux on it and format the 320GB drives (2) with MS NTFS. (I think I can do this, its been a while though) If I do this I should be able to copy all my Movies across the net and load new ones over to the Linux machine from my current XP PC.
Now I need to post in the XBMC forum to see if that will work.

On the other hand it may be easier to build another PC with the proper processors, memory, OS and video card to achieve the same thing (Video server and console) while outputting a much higher scaled (or pixel mapped) image to the PJ. I could even build a small rack mount type of Processor and still use the above mentioned PC as a file server on the other side of the house using a 100Mbps link. (Which is how I would do the XBMC thingie anyway.

I am stuck with what way to go, has anyone had any similar setups. I really like the skins/dashboards that have been created for the XBMC and it will output 720P and 1080i (Component only), but it will not provide the same quality of a good scalar or HTPC setup. IMHO. What to do?

Does the Linux HTPC have an easy to use GUI, WAF/Child approval.
Here is a link to one of our members screen shots with the XBMC, this is similar to what I would want to do. Thanks for your replies and I hope I haven't offended anyone or posted this in the worng area. Noob.

LINK:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=635294&page=1&pp=30

There is a MythTV theme named Project Greyhem that looks a lot like that one.

Yes, after doing some reading I went to the Mythtv web site. That looks really promising and much more powerful. Supporting multiple ATSC tuners, servers (Backend and front end stuff), a much more powerful program. But the XBMC looks very clean with possibly easier navigation. I can do the Xbox Mod (Frontend) with Hardware for around $150.

I have decided I am going to start that (tongiht) since it will be for the wife/kids and I'm going to setup a HTPC Linux front end for use specifically in the HT room. Small one, 19" rack mountable. I can then let them watch movies and play games on the old 61" Toshiba CRT RPTV in the family room while I watch/dabble in the HT room.

Life will be good. Best of both worlds so to speak.

Hell, the Xbox solution is only $150 and looks pretty darn sweet to boot. Plus I can rip all my DVD's on my current XP machine and just move them over to the Linux backend server. Heck, maybe I can even mount the drive to my XP machine and rip directly to it. I haven't messed with OS's in quite some time, but where there is a will there is a way. I will have new toys to play with. :)

installing Linux on it and format the 320GB drives (2) with MS NTFS. (I think I can do this, its been a while though)

I would recommend against formatting the drives in the Linux PC with NTFS, for the following reasons:

1. It has zero effect on the ability to share files with Windows and other devices
2. Linux itself can't be installed to NTFS partitions
3. The version of NTFS for Linux that actually works well may take some effort to install.

If you are going to have this thing on a UPS, I would recommend a high-performance journaling system like XFS or ReiserFS. Note that, in some cases, XFS or ReiserFS might not get along with certain setups (though I haven't tried either in a while). The Linux default, ext3, will work for sure, but isn't quite as fast as XFS (which is SGI's media-targeted filesystem) or ReiserFS (which is also performance oriented).

I recommend a UPS because of the way high performance filesystems can interact with drive caches - power failures can cause unexpected types of data corruption. My information on this is a bit out of date, however, so if someone can correct me, please do so.