[mythtv-users] QAM vs. Firewire

[jmk]

Hi,

I recently made the switch from DirecTV to cable with the hopes of
viewing/recording HD content. I have found that I can successfully
access the analog channels (<100), several digital and a few HD stations
from the provided STB via firewire. The problem with this is that there
are several digital stations which are not available via firewire that
I'd like to watch. Currently, I'm recording all content from the STB
using a s-video input on an ivtv capture card to get those channels. Of
course, this means no HD, which was the entire reason for switching to
cable. 

I'm looking for advice as to what the best solution to this problem
might be. Here are the options that I can think of:

*Additional STB. I guess I can always rent a second STB and use it
exclusively for HD content.

*Hybrid firewire/analog capture. Having two connections to the STB
(s-video and firewire) and having Myth being able to intelligently
choose which to use seems to me to be the ideal solution. I found some
discussion of this here:  

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/dev/182867

I haven't been able to find any more recent discussions of this and I'm
assuming it was never implemented. Is that correct? I guess I can look
into seeing if making few quick hacks (all I'm good for) would be
sufficient for scheduled recordings. It sounded like Live TV and
multiple back-ends added a lot of the complication and neither of these
significantly affect me.

*QAM

Is it typically possible to pull the same HD channels that are available
via firewire using QAM? Is so, I may just buy a HDHomeRun device. I'm
not sure if this varies from provider to provider. FWIW, I'm using
Charter in WI.

Thanks!
Joe