[mythtv-users] Tuner opinions?

[Dan Armbrust]

I'm looking to build a MythTV box... and I'm looking at tuner
choices... Sigh.  There are _way_ to many options out there.

I need to be able to record ATSC from my antenna.
I need to be able to record NTSC from my cable connection (I have no
cable box, just analog cable - this is NTSC, right?)

One of my desires in the ATSC tuner is the best tuner possible.  My
current (in TV) tuner isn't the greatest at picking up my channels
(urban environment)

 - The WinTV-HVR-2250 looks to be a good option for picking up my
digital signal.  It can record two digital signals at the same time -
it appears that the only downside at the moment is that even though it
has two NTSC tuners, the linux drivers don't yet support them?  Is
this still true?

- The HDHomeRun also looks interesting - basically the same pricepoint
for getting two digital tuners.

Votes between these two?
Others that are great digital tuners - or better yet, can do digital
and analog, with Linux driver support?

If I go with either of those, I would also need an analog tuner to
hook up to my cable connection.

Suggestions?
I'm looking at cards like:

HD-5500 - only one connection, though....
wintv-hvr-1600 - two connections - nice - and it appears that the
linux drivers support digital and analog?

It would be nice to find something cheaper, though, just for the analog side.


I also have a question about MythTV.  A lot of the guides and such I
see always talk about using 3rd party channel guides... but none are
available for free anymore.
Personally, I don't much care about the channel guide.  Without having
a guide service, will I be able to use MythTV like a digital VCR?

Can I build up a master channel list, which crosses over all 3 tuners
(some with the same channels available, some with different channels
available)?

AKA, can I do this:
Record digital channel 20 from 7-9 pm
Record digital channel 11 from 6-8 pm
Record analog channel 15 from 7 to 8 pm

And have MythTV figure out the details of which tuner it should use for what?

Thanks,

Dan