Thanks for your replies.

I will check with my friends who have DVB-S cards how fast the switch is and how to mitigate it.

The power consumption is not that bad if taking into account shutting down and booting up the system when needed. Now, with more information and having read the forums, I am decided for Ubuntu + MythTV.

I respect Dreambox Multimedia for their work, however, I would rather expect the system to be more open, tuned, stable, and way more powerful. The performance of the CPU, memory and solid-state disk isn't something I would jump on. The heating problem is really discouraging, especially if you have little children. If I am to pay big bucks for the product, I want to have it perfect and yet open to extensions. Something like Asus routers (e.g. WL-500g Premium).

I would welcome a ready-made appliance packaged with a good processor, memory and solid-state disk running MythTV with Dreambox extensions. This would be my dream, working out-of-the-box.

Best regards,
Seff

Suprise, suprise there is no response. If you censor it, fine, I will go with MythTV and DVB-S card. Piece of cake...

I am considering DMM 800 PVR, but reading all about the hardware/software issues is disappointing.

Now I would like to know if I purchase a good quality PC with MythTV and a good DVB-S card, what is the pros and cons?

DM 800 PVR:
No wifi
No DVD drive
No internal HDD
Only two USB ports
All-in-one but limited processor power and memory
Hiigh definition
Software and hardware bugs?

MythTV + DVB-S:
Full-blown and powerful PC
Complete play-back for DivX, MPEG, etc.
DVD/BR
High definition?
[MODERATOR]Violating Boardrules![/MODERATOR]
Need a good compatible DVB-S card
Need a good compatible video card
Open source

Thank you very much for inputs, opinions, recommendations, warnings,
Seff