best setup for clients

[IKK]

Ok I have been using the Sagetv for a few months now. I have been very happy with it. I have it setup in the bedroom running an Mini-ITX 933 with a fanless 75watt power supply. The system has an old creative DVD player that I had around and a 200gb Maxtor hd, 250pvr card and a quiet exhast fan I modified where the old powersupply was located.

Anyway my question is I plan on moving my system to my office on an old 900 atholon system I have. Is it best to have the directv boxes located all in one area where the Sagetv program recides or have them spread out in the rooms that have a client attached.
I would like to use the mediaMVP (cant beat 99 bucks) but there is noway of controlling the channels on the directv if the reciver where in another room and noway of sending a tv single to the server to record.

[IVB]

I was planning on havin a single a/v server that distributed a video and audio signal to the various TVs in the house, but the cost of decent VGA cable was exhorbitant. I've now opted to build my own cheapo clients for ~$350 each, and run CAT6. The benefit of this approach is that not only can I control channels, I can also pause liveTV if I want without having some complex IR retransmitting solution around the house.

To me, a big benefit of this was also the future flexibility dimension - i can opt to put a TV tuner card in each PC, and have a variety of distributed recorders. As I only spent $350ish on each PC, it wasn't much more than the $99 on the MVP, plus it's not throwaway $$ if I want to do something different.