Best HDTV options this fall?

[null_pointer_us]

CableCARD tuners are coming out this fall in the US. OTA HDTV tuners are already working (somewhat). Finally, some HD cable boxes have firewire connections which can stream to Sage.

Now, what is likely to be the simplest, most ideal configuration?

We're upgrading to a big-screen TV with HDTV service this fall and would like some advice on what to get. Currently, the Sage server just has a PVR-500 in it. It's a P4 2.6C w/ 1 GB of RAM and a Radeon 9250SE (in case that makes a difference).

[dbfresh23]

Well IMHO the best HDTV option will be whatever solution DirecTV comes out with.

From what I hear, the local cable company around here just 5C'd everything, so firewire isn't even an option around here - I'd guess that more cable companies start doing this too. So it may not even be an option soon enough.

OTA always has it's distance restrictions, I'd have to get my signal for HD stuff about 60mi away(NYC). Also you're only getting local HDs.

Cable companies are already talking about replacing cablecard with something else. That combined with the fact that for the next couple of years a lot of your "digital cable" channels are really analog and the fact that you'll need a cable labs certified PC make cable card suck before it's even introduced into PCs.

The big thing will be if DirecTV requires something similar to Cable Labs - where a PC has to stupidly be certified to get the digital signal.

If you're looking at cable card then your current PC specs don't matter, you'll need a whole new system that is Cable Labs Certified anyway.