[vasyapupkin]

What HW media player/recorder should I buy ? Requirements: Ethernet (UPNP), HDD support (I already have a spare HDD, so would prefer to buy one without the disk), HDMI input, support for all major formats and video input (for recording). And an option to run bittorent on it would be great too.

Does not have to be a brand name, some Chinese noname is OK, as long as it does the job

Egreat is very similar to what I need, except that I could not find a model with recording capability

[next010]

Recording capability's are not common given the fact these are media players not TV/PVR set top boxes.

Tvix media players can take an internal HD and some have optional add-on DVB-T tuners with recording support.

[vasyapupkin]

I found a few on ebay, but they all are 100% no-names which I'm reluctant to buy without recommendations.

BTW, I'm not talking about DVB-T recording, but rather recording from (analog) RCA input. Timeshifting, etc...

[vasyapupkin]

Tvix PVR is close to what I need, but
1. It's a bit expensive for $400
2. No bittorent support (and closed firmware)

Sigma designs have been selling MPEG encoding chips for ages, I thought that I would find a lot of PVR models...

[vasyapupkin]

Looks like I'm mostly talking to myself, but anyway - apparently even Twix does not have the one that will answer my requirements. R-3300 is almost it, but it does not support h.264 and mkv. And their new models do not hava analog (RCA or S-video) recording capability that R-3300.

Am I asking too much ?

[next010]

Sigma designs do make chips with such features even the new WDTV Live uses a sigma chip intended for TV set top boxes but recording features are seen as part of Tivo style PVR territory so its just not done in media players.

I dont know of any with analogue recording support.

If you mean completely open source firmwares some are at least partial but the areas around the codecs tend not to be.

If you drop the recording requirement there are plenty of options, like AC Ryan PlayOn HD takes a HD and has bitorrent or PopcornHour C-200 which also does the same.

But it sounds like you may be better off with a HTPC doing exactly what you want.

[vasyapupkin]

HTPC is an option, but (mostly fro theological reasons ) I believe that PVR should not be x86 based.

I don't understand the logic behind it. Take, for instance, Tvix. They had in the past media player with PVR capability, so their software supports it. The chips support it as well, so why they heck they are not making such a product !?

[vasyapupkin]

Looks like A.C. Ryan has a DVR model. Interesting. Thanks fro the tip. It is unclear where one can be it though.

There are no specs on their web site, but apparently it does not support mkv.