Many systems now can boot from a USB device as well, so a QBD can be created on a USB drive.   Naw floppies are still dead.  I remember some of the early systems, seeing an IBM 4341 that had an 8 inch floppy drive.  Then playing with micro-computers including a Northstar Horizon that had a hard sectored 5 1.4" floppy, then the 3.5" even had a zip drive in one computer.....  If the optical and hard drives both quit at the same time, I think I would toss the whole computer out the window into the snow. 

In this particular case though, a PVR, you probably wouldn't bother with a floppy drive, a bootable CD/DVD drive is probably sufficuent, bigger question would be DVD or BluRay?  2 years ago, when I built the computer I am typing this on, BR was too expensive, I don't know if that is still the case or not.

Not sure if this is strictly on topic here, if not my apollogies in advance.

I see, looking at the big shops like Futureshop that they have lots of cable/sattelite  compatable PVR's but none that seem to be Over-the-air compatable.  Anyone know (preferable recommend) a few models that are OTA compatable, and who sells them?

Something like this? :

[Link: digitalconnection.com]

comparable in cost to a Media PC/HTPC.

actually there are two models, the 6620N and 6640N, which I suspect is newer.

Yes now where can you buy it for Canadian dollars without needing to pay international shipping, customs and brokerage fees?

If I wanted it bad enough, I say to hell with it, the two 130s arrived when the price was closer to MSRP in '05,
with shipping[UPS] had to pay PST,GST but no broker fees, it depends on category, computer related stuff
should pass through.
Google/Yahoo/Bing is your friend:

The manufacturer's website. Though they are owned by Divco, the maker of the Fusion7HDTV pci/pcie cards.

[Link: tvix.co.kr]
from their site;
[Link: tvix.co.kr]
leading to these guys;
[Link: onlybestrated.com]
but I'd keep searching, these guys are hoity-toity and are likely to gouge, I'd stick with Digital Connection, they're US but along with the user groups you'll never get better support. Exchange will never be better than now, better than when I got my two MDP-130s from DC. People should be comparing our dollar to the Pound Sterling and the Euro, in that regard we are still low in value.

At this point I should ask you to help me find a job...my money is running out and here I'm doing your work for you!
:-)

I think I will stick with the idea of building a media PC with a tuner card,

You could install Windoze Media Edition. double the size of the RAM and HD while getting half as much for you to use and raise the cost to about $900. 

OK, cheaper if you buy a refurb to upgrade.

Oh! hell no, MCE is a dog of an OS!, I'd stick with XP Home, or W2kP as I'm using now or as the guys in the user group have said, W7 using the XP SP2 compatibility choice...as I like the 130s interface...[not the VM mode though] :-)

Like I said, probably use on of the Linux based systems and Myth.  This computer runs Ubuntu 9.10 right now, and no problems so that would be a choice, have it automatically log in as a special user that runs MythTV full screen as part of the startup.

Have you read my public profile here on RC?... in addition I'm heavily into emulation.
I announced here last year that the last of my PIIIs died, that was my multiboot machine.
Win '98, 2000Pro and Atari and Mac under an open source emulator[and I hate those commercials...pandering to the ignorant] plus an upgraded Mandrake 6.0 Linux on its own drive, though I may try Ubuntu in the future.
I've been neglecting my Falcon but keep it if I ever get back to music.
That's the only drawback to emulation, no MIDI....so you still need a real Atari with its' ports. PCs and Macs have always had timing troubles that Atari's upgraded C/PM language never had.....ask any musician of the '90s or '80s.
Contemporary mobos only support 2000 or later, hence i didn't rebuild the multi.
I actually like 2000Pro, no activation nonsense, better support of legacy software, among a list of other things.

  On a PVR I would disable a lot of stuff, that wasn't needed for that function.  Probably not put in networking, so security updates would not be needed.  There are Myth based versions, so maybe put on one of those.

|  On a PVR I would disable a lot of stuff, that wasn't needed for that function.  Probably not put in networking, so security updates would not be needed.  There are Myth based versions, so maybe put on one of those.

Yep, in that sense I'm an old dog learning new tricks, for a faster booting machine I'm learning how to use nLite, an acquaintance of mine says I can get 2000 down to 93 Mb, rather than the 4-8gigs it usually takes up,slightly more for XP, just by removing unneeded services. I just never did that before as one machine serves as a backup for the other so I don't lose internet access. Then there's vLite for Vista and W7. The point is if you can afford to make each machine single purpose, then you can strip alot off and just keep what's essential to run the tuner(s) and recording/timeshifting apps.
That way if the power goes out while you're not at home, it'll reboot itself more dependably or if during a recording session away you might only lose 30,20 or maybe even just 10 seconds of material, depending how fast the app relaunches and reads it's recording schedule, part of which should be already in the registry before the reboot.
Right now I can lose up to two minutes because of the upgrades make both bloated.
I hear Myth works great with the HD Homerun, though keep the RJ45 jack active, because you may want to connect once a week for the Program Guide[s]...Zaptoit or Schedules Direct and sync your clock with the NIST time servers. That's the only reason I like the Motorola portable modem....looks like a pie slice sitting on its wider edge.

Which would be an option, as for power glitches, there are some cheap UPS units on the market now, so plugging it into one of those would be an option.  

then a 550VA outlet type is probably going to give you 15 minutes.  Which is longer then the typical power failure.  |

 
Only in Industrialized countries , in the rest of the world power typically fails for several hours. Oh Havana!!! lol.