HD, HTPC, and video capture?

[mwin]

I was looking through the FAQs for this, but couldn't find what I was looking for.

I was thinking about building HTPCs for my high-def TVs. Right now I'm running two seperate set-top boxes, high-definition, with DVR. What I really wanted to do was build HTPCs to replace the set-tops, which would save me some money every month on the cable bill. I could then store my recordings on seperate network storage, and access them from either tv, or any of the other computers on the network.

From the little bit of knowledge I've been able to glean from my research, it doesn't look like that's going to work. Is there a tuner out there that can access all the HD content that Comcast pipes down? Can a capture card record it? Is there a method that I can utilize to be able to record programs from the set-tops onto computers?

 

[farscapesg1]

First, there are no tuners that can record all the HDTV channels put out by the cable companies. Unfortunately, they encrypt many (and in some cases all) channels. Usually, they will leave your local channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc.) unencrypted, and those could be tuned with a QAM tuner like the HDHomeRun by Silicon Dust.

CableCard is supposed to help with this, but at the moment it looks like they will only be available with prebuilt OEM systems.

I am not familiar with the whole "recording from the STB" area, but my wife is really wanting to get digital cable so we can get Noggin and some other channels for our baby so I'm going to be in the same situation soon. My understanding is that some STBs can output via S-Video, which a tuner could theoretically then record. It definately wouldn't be HD quality though I've heard some people could record via Firewire (if the STB has the port and it is active), but I think that happens more with the Satellite STBs.