if you havent completely decided against the linux route, any distro + mythtv is awesome. lircd will work if you have a remote, google says that hercules cards work fine with v4lin, and myth has such great functionality its awesome, obviouly tv, web browser, weather, use mplayer to play any media you have on your computer, use with multiple tuners if you get another one, and much more. of all the media setups ive had, id say i love my linux+myth+mysql+lirc the best.