At my wits end! I need a recommendation.

Do you want to record premium HD channels, like HBO and ESPN and FX?

I would go with WMC / Media Browser. That's what I use and I love it.

Media Browser is a plug-in for WMC. Similar to XMBC but superior IMO.

Most PCI/PCI-E tuner cards will not record premium HD channels like ESPN, FX, AMC, ect. With cable card tuners you should be able to record any channel that you pay for through your cable provider.

I was in the same place as you about a year ago and went to the trouble of building two htpc to connect to my whs and then distribute through the house and I have to say the entire experience was disappointing. While Win7MCE is great you still have to depend on a pc and all the hassles that go with it. What I have decided to do is have a hd tivo at each tv for live/recorded tv. Then I have Sagetv hd extenders that stream dvd's and blu rays from the server as well Hulu through the playon plugin with sagetv.

A lot people are going to disagree with this, this is an htpc forum after all, but it has worked flawlessly for me and the WAF is extremely high.

Tivos aren't going to provide the features the OP is looking for. I've been a long time Tivo user (10 years and counting) and I'll finally be cutting them loose after I get my Ceton cablecard tuner.

Windows 7 Media Center with extenders can do just about everything the OP wants with extenders except for streaming Blu-Ray and DVD rips from his server. For that you're probably going to need a dedicated HTPC at each location. On the plus side there are lots of low-powered and inexpensive options that won't be all that difficult to set up and use. The Dell Zino HD, with CPU and GPU upgrades, is an excellent small profile PC for Home Theater use. Many of the Atom-based PCs fall into the same category.

I'm in the same situation and I just acquired several Linksys DMA2200 media extenders to use with my HTPC. My plan is to replace all of my Tivos and set top boxes with the extenders and the Ceton InfiniTV 4 cablecard tuner. This will allow me to access all of my media and share the TV tuners remotely while also cutting my monthly rental fees for STBs, Tivo service, and extra cablecards for the Tivos.

A media extender is perfect for the bedroom where my wife watches her TV as she doesn't care about streaming Blu-Rays and DVDs. I tested the extender using one of the ATSC tuners connected to my main HTPC and an HD broadcast of an Orioles game looked quite good. SDTV looked pixelated so I'm still evaluating the use of extenders. I may end up using several small form factor HTPCs in place of the extenders and go with the SiliconDust Prime cablecard tuner when it gets released. Hopefully, this will allow me to share the tuners with multiple HTPCs in different areas of the house and give me full access to the movies on my server.

If streaming Blu-Rays and DVDs is a must, then dedicated HTPCs are about your only option. It sounds like you can do this with the SageTV extenders, but I don't have any experience using SageTV or the extenders. I do know that SageTV won't support the new cablecard tuners.

I can't speak for Win 7, but I believe the xBox360 should work as an extender IIRC. I use SageTV (going on 4 yrs) and it has worked great for me. I have at times had as many as 3 clients on the system, but I currently don't use any (kids have moved out). SageTV currently has pre-built extenders that work really great and cost less than building a client PC. The reason I am recommending Sage is that it allows you to stream from a server very well. I have a library of hundreds of DVDs ripped in folder format and they play with no issues at all. You will also have directories for photos, recorded TV, etc. I know Sage works with with the ATI Cable Card tuners, there aree lots of discussions in the forums. I have not checked to see where they stand with the Ceton though. However, they typically do their best to get new hardware compatible as quickly as possible.

Hope this helps.

BT

EDIT: Clarification - SageTV works with Cable Card, but it is a tedious workaround. Sorry for the mis-information.

None of the WMC media extenders support either Blu-Ray or DVD playback when streamed from a server or host PC.

Yes. I edited my previous post in reference to Cable Card recording, make sure to read it again. I use Sage for ATSC and Clear QAM recording and I can view these videos on any Sage client in my home network as well as my DVD library. For watching live TV, you will be limited by how many tuners you have. Example, 4 tuners allows you to watch 4 live TV programs on different devices at the same time AS LONG AS NONE ARE BUSY RECORDING another channel. Once shows have been recorded, there is no limit since you are only viewing files.

BT