HD Analog Capture for HTPC DVR (Hauppage, Slingbox)

Hi All


I'm currently working on a distributed HTPC setup for TV watching.


Right now we are using a Tivo Premiere Q and Tivo Preview (Tivo streaming client that has 1 tuner of its own for live TV but streams recording from PQ). This will probably stay running in parallel for the forseeable future due to WAF.


I have an HDHomerun Prime with three tuners.


I am not really satisfied with any of the Media Center Extender options and would like to be able to use something like XBMC for my client or even another Windows PC.


The only channel I have for which my cable provider only sets content flags is HBO. Since I don't watch a ton of it, I only need something that would be used sparingly.


What I would like to do is set up some sort of analog capture device to control the Tivo Preview and record the occasional HBO show or movie. I could presumably schedule it to only record at times someone wouldn't be trying to use the Tivo Preview.


1. What are people's experiences using the various WMC-Compatible HD tuners (Hauppage, Slingbox)? Are the drivers stable? Does the IR work reliably? Any others that I should be aware of?


2. When the Slingbox is used as a WMC tuner, how exactly is channel changing accomplished? Does Media Center send a channel change command to the Slingbox through the driver (which controls the box) or does the Slingbox


3. Any other issues that I should consider (troublesome file formats, poor video quality). I know that there will be a bit of a hit in video quality with the extra D/A conversion and decoding/encoding step.


Thanks in advance for any comments or advice.