Yes, BeyondTV is the best (unless you run linux and can use mythTV which are both great choices for a hassle free dedicated PVR) As I get older, I realize some good things are worth paying for/supporting the developers… Yes uncompressed OTA-HD is huge (record to DIVX or WMV it will look just as good, especially if you don’t have a TV).

I originally considered tossing a tuner (or two) into my HTPC but since I already have a 3 tuner satellite DVR I’m good for recording / not missing shows. Also, I’m not much into archiving most shows I watch and those shows I do want to keep are usually released in mpeg4 and are easy enough to acquire.

Also, Nathan you’ll find that there are some great mpeg4/xvid:ac3 TV rips (usually the ones that are encoded to above DVD resolution and look almost as sharp as OTA-uncompressed, but at a fraction of the size).

As a former Tivo lover (still has the most intuitive UI and has forced all others to innovate/imitate) it has fallen behind the times in the area of HD. It’s far too expensive (in both service and hardware) and then you’re married to either OTA or Cablecard for HD (no more analog/line in)… too little too late.

Good start on a HTPC you’ll be super happy the day you hook that up to your own living room TV. That’s when you’ll sit in your chair, hold the keyboard with both hands and pretend your the kid in flight of the navigator!

I’m starting to consider a media box similar to what Angelo used to use which can playback HD files. If I do I’ll probably get this card too so I can record stuff upstairs. Only thing I don’t like about my sony box is the single tuner. If two things are on at once I’m screwed. Runner-up shows like smallville and one tree hill are reduced to divx downloads with crappy quality.

Anyways, good show!