My set up in 2010

So, Here's the basics of my setup, just to refresh

HARDWARE:
Basically it is a older Mac Mini (intel) with a DVI-HDMI Adapter. The Mac sees our TV as if it were a computer monitor, except once you are in Front Row (OS X's default media center app) it looks like a media center. I have external computer speakers as well (i ditched the receiver). We only use the mac remote, having ditched the harmony remote we used to use. I also have a firewire drive hooked up to the mac. currently i have double drive bay which has a one drive currently, giving me of 1.5TB's of space.

SOFTWARE:
I Just shifted over to Transmission from vuze and i think i love it. It is easy remote control from another computers web browser, it's simple, processor light, and just powerful enough for me now.

eztv, Showrss, and a paid program called automatic all work together to automate the process of downloading my favorite shows. REalistically automatic should do it alone, I just haven't had the time to streamline it yet.

Hazel is pretty amazing too, just for keeping things organized and moving things automatically. And then some flavor of remotely controlling the mac, but that is a longer list and post (basically remote desktop or screen sharing on another mac, I am still playing around with free ipad apps.

MactheRipper and Handbrake are useful for movie ripping too. I also use DVDpedia for my movies, though it is a labor intensive process. The nice thing is it has a Front Row Plugin. As does Understudy, a handy little plug in for youtube and netflix (it's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.

But basically the key to the whole system is Front Row, I've tried the rest and for me, front row is the perfect combo of simple yet powerful.

I'll go into each of these things another post, but for my own brain, I wanted to lay out exactly how everything is set up.