For network shows, ATSC over the air works great in a lot of areas, and probably has less compression than what you'd get with cable anyway.
Not to mention the ability to archive discs somewhere on the network and play them back at will without digging out a disc. Or being able to play any other type of media you have in the living room environment.
I'm fairly happy with an indoor antennae combined with an HDHomeRun for a couple of OTA tuners + a 2 tuner SD card for picking up the occasional non-HD show. I've also got a Comcast DVR if I really need to record something digital off of cable that isn't available with either QAM or ATSC.
Would I like a cable card setup? Sure, but I'm not paying for a pre-built machine that I can't set up how I really want. If the satellite Windows 7 Media center combo works out to be usable for us custom builders, I'll probably gladly ditch Comcast, though.
"What good is a HTPC without CableCards?" You can get the HD content without CableCard (and without CableCards restrictions) with the Hauppauge HD-PVR. So I would say it's a lot of good for me at least.
Isn't DirecTV developing an add-on hardware solution for the PC to turn it into an HD DVR a la HTPC? Also, HTPC is not limited to cable/satellite/OTA, but can easily playback Blu-ray content.
In fact, DirecTV just (as reported on dbstalk) released DirecTV2PC, which allows you to stream HD DVR content across the home network to a PC.
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What good is a HTPC without CableCards?
For network shows, ATSC over the air works great in a lot of areas, and probably has less compression than what you'd get with cable anyway.
Not to mention the ability to archive discs somewhere on the network and play them back at will without digging out a disc. Or being able to play any other type of media you have in the living room environment.
I'm fairly happy with an indoor antennae combined with an HDHomeRun for a couple of OTA tuners + a 2 tuner SD card for picking up the occasional non-HD show. I've also got a Comcast DVR if I really need to record something digital off of cable that isn't available with either QAM or ATSC.
Would I like a cable card setup? Sure, but I'm not paying for a pre-built machine that I can't set up how I really want. If the satellite Windows 7 Media center combo works out to be usable for us custom builders, I'll probably gladly ditch Comcast, though.
@Andy S:
What "satellite Windows 7 Media center combo" are you referring to? I think I might have missed something in all the Win7 coverage...
"What good is a HTPC without CableCards?"
You can get the HD content without CableCard (and without CableCards restrictions) with the Hauppauge HD-PVR. So I would say it's a lot of good for me at least.
Isn't DirecTV developing an add-on hardware solution for the PC to turn it into an HD DVR a la HTPC? Also, HTPC is not limited to cable/satellite/OTA, but can easily playback Blu-ray content.
In fact, DirecTV just (as reported on dbstalk) released DirecTV2PC, which allows you to stream HD DVR content across the home network to a PC.