Technology, video, phone & computer questions

[Angrboda]

I have a Raspberry Pi running RaspBMC, it's cheap, it plays 99% of the stuff i throw at it and it's VERY power efficient. My current setup is an old laptop with a 3TB USB external HD attached. The laptop runs Ubuntu minimal server with SabNZB, Sickbeard, Couchpotato and few other services like FTP/HTTP. All in not including the laptop that would go to scrap (keyboard on it is fubar) it cost me about £150.

I don't have all the extras for mine, like case and power supply. I suspect the Pi will work as a stopgap measure, but a) I want to be able to record shows off the air, and b) I had planned to use it in a different application. So, at best, it would be a fill-in. And, Though the P4 system isn't powerful enough for transcoding (which includes during video capture of TV signals), it might run XBMC just fine.

(I'm essentially flat broke until March. Christmas presents suck all the air out of this month's budget, which means February will be spent on things I needed but didn't buy in January.)