Dan - Right; let’s wait and see whether I’m wrong and all the people on newsgroups and forums, etc. who say they’re doing it right now are lying.

As for the setup, I’ll let you know how it goes. The box isn’t an issue for me, and I think it should be even less of an issue for you, since you already have a big batch of cables and boxes in your setup. Even without buying a whole new system you could get a smaller case that would take up no more space than your current DVR. You might have to replace some other components if you didn’t have any that run quietly enough, but the point is you could easily replace your current DVR with a Myth system that takes little or no additional space, so I don’t see that as a problem.

So if it works like you say, the card is just going to pick up the HD channels channels 950 and up from TW if you’ve subscribed to them, I’m going to get a dual HD tuner and look into a system.

The problem I still see is the box. Hiding it isn’t a solution because you can’t get the HD to the box without running a very long cable to keep HD and that all depends on max length of an HDMI or DVI cable not being limited to say 15ft. And I really don’t want to buy a small box just because I don’t want to pay the $10 a month for a rental HD box.

Anyways, just post about how it works out and I’ll check it out when I come over.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by “analog line”. The physical cable line that comes to your house brings you both analog and digital content, just like the phone lines can bring you analog voice service and digital data service (DSL). HD is an aspect of that digital content that is delivered.

Second, (as to whether they send digital cable “unencoded”), I covered that above. As I mentioned above, the card I’m getting decodes the 3 major types of cable transmission used in the US. If, by “encoded” you mean encrypted, then no the card itself will not decrypt an encrypted signal. However, (like I also said above) most cable in the US is not encrypted, and it’s actually illegal for them to encrypt the basic channels (the ones you can get OTA).

So you’re not schooling me ;), I doubt the card you bought has cable card support so I’m thinking the only way you’d get HD is through an OTA signal. Unless I’m missing something and TW sends digital cable unencoded or makes a CC unnecessary.

As for the broadcast flag, I don’t really care too much about it

I’m not sure why you think that you can only capture HD via an OTA signal, but that isn’t the case. The card I’m getting supports OTA as well as all three major types of cable transmission (8VSB, QAM64 and QAM256, in case anyone is interested). The cable company *could* also encrypt the content on some channels, but most do not, and they are prohibited (by the FCC) from encrypting the local channels (the ones you would also get OTA) anyway.

I never would have thought I’d be schooling you on HDTV; thought it would be the other way around =)

We may or may not buy an HD set, but even if we don’t right now, I’d rather be prepared for when we do.

You don’t need a huge PC and it doesn’t need to be in your living room either, depending on how you set everything up. Lots of places (like System76) sell boxes that are basically the same size as a Mac mini that you can use for a low profile set top box.

Yes, it will be Time Warner.

Either way I’m interested in your logistics because I’d love to have a box running Myth capturing all of the OTA HD content and downloading the stuff it missed. The problem would be is having a huge and load PC in our living room in order to get a cable to the set.

Who is your cable provider now? TW?