Hi Guys,

I'm setting up my new family room, I will have a 42" plasma TV mounted above my fireplace, a StarChoice HD receiver and a HTPC. I also want multiple speakers, possibly surround sound. Right now the only component I have of the HTPC is the WinTV HVR 1600, which says it can record in HD.

What I'm wondering is, what is the simplest way I can do this, I want HD on my tv, but I don't care if the HTPC records in HD or SD, SD might actually be better so that I can store more video at once.

I was thinking HDMI from Satellite box to TV, but then the TV has no output to go to the TV tuner of the PC?!? The WinTV HVR doesn't have HDMI-In, however I'm sure I could get a DVI->HDMI on the OUT from the video card of the HTPC, correct?

Does anyone have a setup like this, or any suggestions for what I should do?

I think I may have posted this in the wrong forum...is there a way to move it?

Unfortunately the board you indicated *will not* do what you're asking. The WinTV HVR 1600 board records from ATSC or unencrypted QAM sources (i.e., OTA digital or digital cable in-the-clear). You won't be able to use this board with a digital satellite receiver box - digital satellite does not use either ATSC or QAM, and neither does HDMI (it's a high-bandwidth uncompressed digital video transport).

Pretty much your only option there would be to get the Hauppauge component video capture board - this unit (http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html) specifically. However, it has the disadvantage of redigitizing from component, then re-encoding as MPEG-4 AVC - this will mean at least some level of quality loss. Otherwise you could get some sort of SD capture board, which there are several of out there.

Also, a DVI to HDMI adapter won't do you any good - HDCP will prevent you from being able to just capture the video from there (and the bandwidth is very high - I don't know if there's anything on the market that can actually capture the raw digital signal off DVI anyway).

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/hd_pvr.html

You should also check out the HTPC (Home Theater PC) forum.