Right, thinking of building an HTPC to plug into the projector in the lounge.  Ill probably either scavenge a 2400+, 512mb ram and an epox 8RGA+ off dads computer and build him another one (it only gets used for email and internet now anyway), or build one from scratch.

Thing is, Ive got f-all idea about TV cards.  What do DVB-T and all those weird acronyms mean?  And which type of card am I best to go for?  We cant get freeview in our area and dont want to pay a subscription, so were thinking of getting freesat anyway - is it possible to wire this through the HTPC?

And whats the deal with recording one proggy and watching another at the same time?  How would I go about that?

Its definitely possible to do it via freesat, mine can do terestrial, satelite and good old analogue too.

Kustom PCs have a small HTPC build guide.

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Article_HTPC.html

if you have a sat dish and the right card you dony need to pay  (tho i don;t really know anything about it)

to record 1 chanel and watch another with the sat you need a double LMB thing tho (the bit that sticks out at the front of the dish) (the add these for sky plus etc..)

but you can do that as standerd with normal tv