Originally posted by: puppyfriend
I've had plenty of these cards and HTPCs. That was until I got the lava hot ReplayTV deal. Since then, I only turn on my HTPC to watch HDTV. Here's some advance. Skip on this card and put the money toward a Replay or Tivo. You'll be much happier.
Yeah, & continue to either pay monthly fees or a large 1-time fee. And, if you want to archive your shows to DVD or some other format, pay even more (for a large harddrive & the hardwareconnections/software to do that). Or spend instead your money on software like BeyondTV, Sage, or MythTV & those other components like the hardware-encoder card + the harddrive, you're already setup for that (plus the additional software continual tweaks like BeyondTV's abilty schedule shows over the Internet which isn't universally support by both TIVO & Replay, they each have their advantages).
For those that aren't computer literate (both software & hardware), likely the setup box format & ease of convenience is best (but you'll also pay for that convenience like anything else in life). But unless another deal/mixup like the ReplayTV from November comes along again, you're paying substantially more.