HD TV tuners questions???

[BigAlOfMD]

1st some facts:
I don't own any HD TVs.
I have Comcast cable but may switch to FIOS.
1 Set top box with On Demand.
2 DTA converters.
I would like to get an HD TV that doesn't need an external tuner, can receive all the channels provided by the set top box.
I would like to add DVR capabilities with no extra monthly fees.
I would like to add a tuner to one of my PCs with the same capabilities. Maybe I can use this as a DVR.

I've done a little research and it looks like:
Some HD TVs have a CableCard slot to recieve scrambled channels but not 2 way for On Demand.
Current PC Tuners are not available with CableCard for purchase except maybe Sony external with ATI card.
There is talk of a new standard coming out later this year (maybe) with two way interactive CableCard ready interface.

What is the reality now and in the near future?

[BamaJack]

1st some facts:
I don't own any HD TVs.
I have Comcast cable but may switch to FIOS.
1 Set top box with On Demand.
2 DTA converters.
I would like to get an HD TV that doesn't need an external tuner, can receive all the channels provided by the set top box.
I would like to add DVR capabilities with no extra monthly fees.
I would like to add a tuner to one of my PCs with the same capabilities. Maybe I can use this as a DVR.

I've done a little research and it looks like:
Some HD TVs have a CableCard slot to recieve scrambled channels but not 2 way for On Demand.
Current PC Tuners are not available with CableCard for purchase except maybe Sony external with ATI card.
There is talk of a new standard coming out later this year (maybe) with two way interactive CableCard ready interface.

What is the reality now and in the near future?

Well, here's what I did:

Two years ago I bought a Panasinoc 50" plasma HDTV. It has it's own tuner... no cable card slot. I bought a $40 antenna from Wallyworld and hooked it up to the TV to see what I could get in my area. I get all the networks except ABC. So far so good.

Then I built a little cube computer, installed Linux and Mythtv and now I have a PVR for the channels I can get on the antenna. Signed up with Schedules Direct for $20 a year to provide the TV Guide.  The tuner I'm using for the computer is a Pinnacle PCHDTV Pro usb stick. I also built a better antenna using coat hangers, some scraps of wire and a piece of shelf board   

I've had Dish Network for about 10 years and it works well and I could add HDTV for about $10 a month... but $65 for what I'm getting from Dish now feels to me like a ripoff, $10 a month more is the straw that yadda yadda....

[BigAlOfMD]

I did a search for your card and got:
Avid is happy to announce that its Pinnacle PCTV product line has been sold to Hauppauge Digital, so that each company can focus on its core strengths
Hauppauge is one of the current leaders I was looking at.
I'm thinking about a network tune card but I'm greedy, I want all the featured that aren't available yet.

MythTV is also available for Windows now.

[BamaJack]

I wasn't aware that Pinnacle sold out. I prefer to run Mythtv on the Linux platform... I like being able to ssh to the cube from any machine on the network and copy, transcode and snip commercials.

If you want a network tuner the HD HomeRun has two tuners and makes itself available on your network. I've been looking at it for some time now but my single tuner is working just fine.

Which tuners have you been looking at?

[Black Pearl's Captain]

Harley Davidson makes TV tuners now?

[Willow]

Harley Davidson makes TV tuners now?

Yes, but the signal tends to leak.   

Sorry.  Got carried away.