I came across a cool utility for Home Theater PCs doing TV recording. I have played with several free and open source PVR applications, and while there are various sources to obtain reliable program guide listings, most charge a nominal fee for the service. MC2XML allows you to leverage the guide data servers that Microsoft uses for their Media Center software. It outputs the data in standard XMLTV format, so it can be used by any application that supports XMLTV.

"mc2xml is a small and fast standalone command line program for Windows/Linux/OSX that downloadsmedia center, titantv, or schedules direct tv listings and outputs an XMLTV formatted (xmltv.dtd) .xml file."

Link

1 year and still going strong

It has been more than a year since I last posted. The antenna has been working great! I purchased a tripod and mounted it on the highest peak of our roof. Inside the house, the signal is split three ways to two PC based tuners and the tuner in my TV. The antenna is aimed directly at Buffalo and I use SnapStream BeyondTV to record a regular schedule of TV programming, averaging 6+ hours per day. The system has beem rock solid, and is just as reliable as StarChoice was - seldom missing a recording.

For safety's sake, I installed an 8 foot grounding rod which I tied to the common ground via the water piping. Just before entering the house, I installed a lightning arrestor, which I attached to the grounding rod.