If there's one thing that tech buffs and TV fanatics can agree on, it's that keeping track of all those beloved TV shows can get downright messy. Enter Sick Beard, a PVR and episode guide that might just become your new best bud in the quest for TV show mastery. Sick Beard is all about making your TV experience smoother, easier, and maybe even a bit more fun. The project, despite being in its alpha release (so, yeah, there might be some bugs lurking around), is already stacked with features. We're talking about automatically fetching new episode torrents or NZB files as soon as they drop, and if you missed some older episodes, it’ll find those lost treasures for you. Managing your media library is a breeze with Sick Beard. It can scan through your existing collection and download any old seasons or episodes you might be missing. Plus, this nifty tool can even upgrade your current episodes to better versions – think upgrading from your old TV recordings to shiny DVD or BluRay qualities. Sweet, right? Let's not forget the goodies devoted to the XBMC lovers out there. Sick Beard can update your XBMC library, download posters and fanart, and generate all the metadata you could ever want. The episode renaming feature is customizable, so your files are going to look crisp and organized just the way you like them. And if you're into notifications, it’s got you covered too, whether you want a heads-up via XBMC, Growl, or even Twitter. Running Sick Beard isn't a hassle either. It's available on any platform and works through a simple HTTP interface. Plus, it’s capable of sending NZBs directly to SABnzbd, managing them like a pro. It also supports specials and double episodes, adding even more gold stars to its already stellar feature set. The guts of Sick Beard are backed by some solid tech like cherrypy, Cheetah, simplejson, and other nifty packages that keep it humming along. To get started from source, you’ll need Python 2.5+ and Cheetah 2.1.0+, but if you grab the binary releases, they're good to go on their own. Sick Beard is a project that aims to simplify and sophisticate the way you manage your TV show collections. It’s a one-stop-shop for all your episode downloading, renaming, and library updating needs. So, if you're tired of manually hunting down episodes or keeping your TV show library neat, give Sick Beard a spin. Just remember, it’s still in the alpha phase, so be patient with the bugs, and if you spot one, be a pal and report it so the developers can swat it down. Check it out on GitHub and start making your TV show binges a whole lot easier.