My parents are looking to invest in a media centre PC and have come to me for advice. They do not currently have Sky but are looking to purchase a Samsung 50" 1080i Plasma or 46" LCD as well as a 32" or so LCD verys soon.

I am thinking they should replace their aging Celeron PC with a reasonable Dell PC with Vista Home Premium, throw a couple of TV cards in it and use an Xbox 360 as an extender in the 2 rooms they want to have the TV's.

Being that DVB-T is coming early next year I would want TV card(s) that can decode Freeview DVB-T as well as an analogue tuner that will take care of things until DVB-T arrives, and for Prime once it does.

Are there any DVB-T cards available that are compatible with Freeview in NZ and Vista Media Centre? We would want to be able to pick up HDTV with the system.

Also, what recommendations would you make for the PC itself, being that it will be used as a PC as well? It would only be used for basic things like Email, spreadsheets, web browsing, photos etc.

Also, how many channels can you record at one time with a DVB-T card? I have read that with DVB-S you can record more than once channel at the same time from the same transponder (Ie. with 2 cards you can watch/record all of the channels). Will something similar be available with DVB-T or will I need one card for each channel we want to watch/record?