[quote name='msdmoney']I've been doing a lot of research on this too. I would prefer to just get rid of cable altogether but my wife is as insistent on keeping cable as I am with internet. I would also love to stop paying to lease the dvr from the cable company, and their dvr is terrible anyways. Terrible storage, terrible interface, etc. I used to love our tivo, but it just doesn't seem worth the monthly fee. You probably will end up paying more for an htpc though, but it can do a lot more.
It looks like the Ceton card is really the only current cable card you can buy which (as somebody mentioned) will set you back $400. Plus it's not readily available, you can't just walk into a store and buy it, or order off newegg. There is a whole waiting list for them from just a few random sites that sell them.
Read around the avsforum, there is a whole subforum on htpc's using Windows Media Center or other interfaces. I am probably going to build one eventually, I like the flexibility + features like an all-in-one media hub, using a media extender to extend media to another room, blu ray player, etc.[/QUOTE]
They ladies of my home were the same way. They wanted to keep cable also. I had to take a few hours after work for a few days to show them how easy it was to find their shows and the news online in live streams. Once we got that out of the way the rest was just setting up the HTPC with a remote and it's been a non-issue for years now. The amount of money we save is EXTRAORDINARY.
[quote name='BigPopov']Yeah I got rid of cable awile ago and have no problems. TV antenna for all the local sports games + news /major programs, and streaming video for the rest. $10/mo Netflix is also a amazing value though you could just use that on your 360.
You don't need an ultra powerful machine, since the encoding is done by the TV tuner card, and the video rendering can be setup to be done by the video card ($25). Hard drives are also dirt cheap for storage nowadays.
Around here Verizon/Comcast gets away with selling HD DVRs with 80/120GB hard drives with no options for storage. It's absolutely pathetic.
If you can manage to eliminate cable, the cost of the PC ($300 - $400 ish) is nothing.[/QUOTE]
Exactly, with a PC in the $200 to $400 period and Cable bills going from $100 to $300 it's easy to see why going this route is gaining and more and more popularity.
I never messed with DVR tech at all but I am pretty sure - with the exception of some channels - most of the popular shows can be viewed online for free from the channels websites the day or hours after the shows air.
