Of Storage and (not-so) Live TV

I have four kids who love TV.  I have a wife who is fond of a soap or two and various documentaries.  Just over a year ago, we got our first Windows XP Media Center PC and put it in the sitting room, where it chugged along with it’s 320Mb of storage.  Twelve months later, we have a second MCE box in the den for the kids (650Mb of disk), and the sitting room box now has two external USB 2.0 disks, bringing the total storage on that box to (gets out calculator…) 780Mb.  It’s still not enough.

But what is it not enough for?

As the last year has passed, we have set more and more series to record, and watched less and less live TV.  I hadn’t noticed this until I realised recently that I hadn’t seen the news in a week!

The posting below announcing the WD 500Mb drives is nice, but I need lots of them!  I could use a HSAN (home storage area network).  We’re recording TV at a faster rate than we’re watching the stuff.  Last night, at about 11:30, I wasn’t quite ready to go to bed, and wanted to watch something about 30 minutes long, but all I could find were movies (all 2 hours and more), or tons of the kids stuff (Simpsons, Fillmore, etc.).  I ended up watching an episode of Father Ted (one of the best comedies ever).

So what am I saying?  I need loads more storage, and loads more time, or to be more selective in what I record?  No, I want to record everything I might watch.  And stuff I might never watch.  I reckon 4Tb should do for the time being.

Now, anyone have a solution?

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