(image courtesy of Lifehacker)

There are so many set-top boxes out there and every cable or satellite company offers their own DVR (Digital Video Recorder), so you may ask why you should bother rolling your own DVR for any reason. Frankly, other than the ability to have complete control over what you watch, when you watch it, and what you save from your TV and how long you keep it (all of which excellent reasons to roll your own DVR,) it’s an opportunity to build the best DVR for you and get your hands a little dirty, instead of just trusting your cable company to give you something good – which is inevitably going to prove out to be misplaced trust.

So that DIY DVR is going to wind up being essentially a HTPC (Home Theater PC), not just a DVR, most likely, but to get your TV stream to hit the PC so you can record your favorite shows when you’re at work or out of the house, you’ll want to pick the best TV tuner for the job. That’s where Lifehacker comes in, with this excellent glossary of terms you’ll need if you’re going to understand all of the features of the TV tuners you’ll see on the market, and some pointers on exactly what your TV tuner will allow you to do and what it won’t allow you to do.

Best of all, the article rounds out with some good old fashioned hardware suggestions so you can get your DIY HTPC or DVR off the ground when you start to build it.

[ Lifehacker :: How to Pick the Right TV Tuner for Your DIY DVR ]