Just an open discussion this time.

Ive always fancied the idea of a media centre where there was;

1. Decent screen with good resolution.
2. All photos, home videos, music CD's all saved on one hard drive.
3. Ability to watch TV or DVD's with good audio (surround sound).
4. Games machine.
5. Play music in any room of house wirelessly - even if one room is watching TV.


Is this possible on a budget?

Ive seen PS3's with freeview add ons that can record TV, play home vids and CD's and do games as well as blu ray DVD's. Ive seen music centres with large hard drives that can play different music in dirrefernt rooms. There are 42" 1080p TV's for about £600. But is there something that can be bought that can do all of this in one go (not the TV bit - more the box that would sit underneath)?

I think you answered your own question the PS3 does it all, like you said with the freeview add on.

If you find the HD space too small easy fit a bigger one and its an easy swap.

The only bit you will not be able to do is multi room, but for £600 you could get a cd/radio as well.

YQUSTA

I'm selling a classic crystal xbox modded with XBMC. http://xbmc.org/ for more info.

This model is fitted with a 120gb disk, comes with all the cables inc component HD (720p) and a controller. 55 quid.

The only thing it can't do in your list is record TV but it will let you use BBC iplayer.

If you're on a budget it's a great choice.

I recon the Topfield PVR is your best bet
Wityh a bit of thought, can be multi room linked - can modify pretty much all the software to your requirements as well
No games though
http://www.toppy.org.uk/

XBMC is pretty good, and you can pick up classic XBOX's for peanuts but it doesn't handle full HD resolutions.

The PS3 meets most of your requirements, including gaming. A customised media PC would also be a possibility, but they are expensive and a PITA to set up.

[Edited on 23/11/08 by MikeRJ]

I want to do very much the same as you minus the multi-room audio, for simplicity and budget my plan is that when I upgrade my current pc I simply stick this one under the huge telly downstairs. Wire it into the full sound system, tv, fit a freeview tuner card so it can record tv and stick all our dvds on the ample hard drives. Then just buy some media centre software to run it by remote.

I too was going to do this with a PC, until I found out about the Play TV tuner addon for PS3. I'll use a PS3 now as it can also do decent games and blu-ray and is much simpler than faffing about with a PC. Looks better too.

Liam