The November issue of PC magazine has an interesting article on Windows XP Media Center 2005 and the machines that use it's features. I'm excited about this development because I already love my TiVo and the recorder features in XPMC are even better. You can record more than one TV show at a time (depending upon how many tuner cards are in your system), You can stream video to other devices, like TV's, laptops, handheld devices, even X-Box. But you have to buy a MCX (Media Center Extender, around $300) in some cases like your TV or X-Box, which basically hooks your device up to your LAN either via ethernet or WiFi.
I just received a copy of XP Media Center from Microsoft in my Action Pack update for October. I cant wait to get home to try it out. But the needs of the Navy come first of course.