Situation:

-Cable. Hate the cable company's DVR, keeps freezing/locking up. Got a Tivo...hrs upon hrs of the cable company trying to get the cablecards to work...will not work.

-Dish. Unfortunately I live in a high rise and cannot mount a dish. Otherwise, I would get it in a heartbeat.

Possible Solutions:

-Dish. Call me crazy, but I am considering mounting a dish inside my apt and aiming it out of the window. But this is a last resort option.

-Internet TV??? Is there even such an animal? I want channels like spiketv, discovery, mtv, espn...pretty much the guy basic channels. I have a HTPC running Vista Ultimate.

-Analog with Tivo (the digital part is the one messed up) and then a HD homerun to get the locals in HD. Of course, no cable channels in HD though.

Anyway, I feel like I have probably exhausted everything that is realistic, but maybe there are some better solutions out there? I so hate the cable company!

If they're "failing" to get CableCARDs set up correctly, complain to the FCC. Other than that, I don't know what to tell you. There's no technical reason that CableCARDs should be failing to function - they're using them for all their infrastructure now, because there's an FCC mandate that says they have to.

If they're "failing" to get CableCARDs set up correctly, complain to the FCC. Other than that, I don't know what to tell you. There's no technical reason that CableCARDs should be failing to function - they're using them for all their infrastructure now, because there's an FCC mandate that says they have to.

Regardless, the reality is that they don't work and I have spent way too much time and money trying to get it to work. Out of my control at this point and I don't want to fight that battle anymore.

Since neither the cable company PVR or the Tivo work it appears to be a cable company digital signal strength problem.
I have never heard of being able to use a satellite dish through a window.

Actually, I can get one tuner to work...but the other tuner will not (for digital). For analog, it works as it should.

Not sure if a dish will work through a window either. Not sure if I really want to do that. I will probably just suck it up and live with the crappy cable company DVR...but that is not a real solution to me.

Well if you try the cable company PVR again and have problems get them to replace the unit and/or to check the signal strength going to the PVR and to install an amplifier if required,