Hey everyone

I currently have a MythTV box that meets all my viewing needs, but I am looking to upgrade my whole system to HDTV. I've been trying to figure a few things out about the setup.

I hear all this talk about encrypted channels, etc. From what I understand this wouldn't affect me at all - I don't use my tuner card for tuning, only for video capture. Tuning is handled by an external IR transmitter hooked up to a serial port. This allows me to use my MythTV setup with my current TV provider, which is a digital cable offering.

Now, were I to switch to an HD setup, I imagine it would be the same situation? My external tuner would handle switching channels for me, and all I would need is some capture card with component or HDMI inputs that is supported by MythTV and I'd be all set?

Any suggestions as to what card I should be looking at? I don't need anything fancy, really it'll be acting as just a capture card, and I won't be doing dual inputs (that would require a second terminal from my cable company, etc, I understand).

Am I on the right track?

You won't find capture cards (cheaply) with component in, and none that I know of with HDMI in. Your best bet is an HD STB with firewire output into your Myth HTPC, but even then you are not guaranteed to get any (much less all) channels over firewire, because the cableCo's pick and choose what they're going to let you have in the clear. Same situation exists with HD QAM tuning (no STB) over cable - you just don't know what you'll get until you try it.

Sucks to hear, don't it? Full HD capability (like you have with SD channels) with Myth is rather bleak at the moment because the content & provider industries have locked it down. I think most folks like myself have resigned themselves to having the locals and maybe a few other channels recordable in HD with cable.

Sorry, but no. There is not currently a consumer-level (aka "affordable") component or HDMI "capture" device that you simply buy and plunk in your PC and away you go. In fact the whole encryption thing of HDCP over HDMI is expressly designed by the content providers to prevent this.

So your options for getting HD into myth include:
1) over-the-air ATSC tuner card - needs antenna of some sort, anything from a bowtie behind the TV to big things on roof. Depends on your location.
2) clear (unencrypted) QAM from cable company - many ATSC cards will also do clear QAM; which channels you get (none, local broadcast, some "basic", some "premium") depends entirely on your cable company.
3) firewire from cable STB - in theory the FCC requires you to get a firewire-equipped box upon request; in practice again, getting one and what channels you can get out of it depends entirely on your cable company.
4) Dishnet/Directv via firewire from "modified" STB from nextcom, etc. - spendy, no mpeg4 Directv support yet, may require intermediate Windows box...not so fun.

Pretty much the conclusion I was coming to... Sad to know that while I can get the box to tune like I want, I have no way to get the HD video into the MythTV box.

I suppose that the HD tuner is better than nothing, but I don't know if I want to be paying for that and an HD subscription for the chance of perhaps getting a dozen HD channels, none of which I get to choose.

Perhaps it's better to keep the non-HD cable going, and upgrade the rest of the system anyway. I still mostly watch DVDs and downloads.

At least I'm used to non HD content on a 53" screen, I don't think it'll bother me any on a 46" widescreen, hopefully.

Any ideas as to where to look to find out who's tried an ATSC/QAM setup with Videotron cable in Quebec, Canada? Don't really feel like buying the card and playing around with it to find out if it's worth settint it up or not.

I have regular analog cable, yet the cable company (Comcast) pumps the local HD stations through. I use a HDHomerun and I love it. The few TV programs that I really enjoy are all provided by the broadcast networks so the encrypted cable channels don't bother me that much. If you like one, two, or more broadcast TV shows, the cost of the HDHomerun box is worth getting to see them in HD.