Our choice? The Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Plus. We’re not technically done with hardware just yet-our next step is to set up an external TV tuner unit. Even if it did mean having to install nearly all the drivers for the NUC manually. This challenge may only encourage you, of course-but to keep in the theme of a fast, effortless build, we went the path of least resistance.

In the case of the former, it just flat-out refused to recognize our TV tuner despite our best efforts in the case of the latter, its configuration settings are not designed to play nice with Windows 8.

Otherwise, you may end up spending hours, as we did, grappling with free software like NextPVR ( ) or MediaPortal ( ). If you want to keep things speeding along, you’ll have to fork over $100 for the “Pro Pack” that includes Windows Media Center if you’re not running Win 8/8.1 Pro, and $10 for just Windows Media Center if you are. Trust us we tried the Windows 8 route first. Yes, there’s certainly PVR software available for Windows 8, but your options become a lot less easy (or a lot less cheap). But since we want our NUC to function as a DVR, we need to install PVR software, and in Windows 7 that’s as simple as firing up Windows Media Center. Or clinging to an era that’s set to fade soon. For those who’ve come around to Windows 8 and enjoy its additional features such as updated driver stack and the ability to trim SSDs on command, opting for Windows 7 may seem like a step backward.

Nextpvr vs mediaportal