[mythtv-users] Hardware Suggestion for under $1,000

[Brian Wood]

On Thursday, December 16, 2010 08:47:16 am jedi wrote:

>     Your single biggest expense is likely to be tuners. For HD cable,
> you will probably need to use the HD-PVR. These go for about $200 a
> pop, can only record one show at a time, and need to be each paired
> with their own cable set-top-box.
> 
>    There are other video capture possibilities like Firewire and
> CableCard but the HD-PVR is the one that will work regardless of how
> cooperative your local cable company is.


True, today. 

But if Hollywood is successful in getting selective output controls 
implemented the HD-PVR will become of more limited use, since it takes 
advantage of the analog hole.

If this happens you could still use the HD-PVR, but you would also need 
something like the HD Fury to convert HDMI/DVI to component signals.

They claim they only want SOC for "recently released movies", but once 
the camel's nose in in the tent...

Clear QAM HD can be recorded with many options, the best of which is 
probably the HDHR, but there are cheaper answers like the 
pcHDTV-3000/5500, or one of the many USB-based ATSC/QAM tuners.

But you are not likely to get much clear QAM, it will probably be about 
the same as an OTA antenna can receive (though in NYC OTA reception is 
iffy, multipath being the most common problem, if you are LOS to Empire 
you should be OK).