Best HD setup for "long term"?

[Ozymandias]

Ok, I'm coming kind of late to the HD party (obviously! ) With the whole google buyout I figure I better go ahead and just get it all done while I can get it set up for a long term solution to hold me over until the next stage of whatever is going to happen.

I'm picking up my first HD TV today and I'm looking to do the upgrade and all that from v6 to v7 this evening. So at least that will be out of the way.

What my question is, currently I have a Hauppauge PVR250 that I've been using for my capture for years and I know I need to upgrade. What I would like to do is find the best capture card that can do 2 HD receivers from DirecTV. I'm already using an USB-UIRT so that isn't an issue and I'll be calling DirecTV Monday to schedule the upgrade to HD service.

The systems hardware is a Foxconn A78AX-S board with 1 PCI 2.0 x16 and 2 PCI Express x1 slots. It has 4 USB 2.0 ports on the back (3 of which are in use) and I believe the case has 2 on the front that I've connected as well as eSATA IIRC.

I've spent the last couple of days looking over this forum but I'm really not finding a "this has worked perfectly out of the box for DTV HD" kind of thing and since the days of the home rolled PVR seems to be numbered, I don't want to spend a bunch of money on hardware to trial and error. Since I'm buying now with the eye for the long term, I would rather get the most reliable hardware and I've been happy with the Hauppauge, but I saw a lot of issues with both the HD PVR and the Colossus, have those been cleared up? I'm not set on any particular card as long as it just works.

So if you were starting basically from scratch for your HD capture and were going to keep it as vanilla out of the box as you can and "just works", how would you set it up? I currently don't have any client systems (but I kind of wish I had before the store was closed. Are there any of the hardware extenders for sale anywhere? Maybe plans or whatever we can home roll them?) so it's a single TV system currently.

I appreciate any advice you all can provide!

[Fuzzy]

You're only options for getting HD from your DTV boxes is the HD-PVR (usb) or the Colossus (PCIe x1). Each are a single input, so you'd need 2 to handle your two sat boxes. Neither will be as 'rock solid' as your 250, but many have been using, at least the USB version for years. I'd recommend getting a colossus card, and putting it in one of those slots (you can use the 250 via S-Video for the other box.

[SteveD]

I use two usb hd pvrs. I removed the top covers and replaced them with fans and they are connected to a UPS to condition the power. Have been using them since about November without any issues. I use serial tuning on the direct boxes and digital sound. See tag for hardware specs on server. Ask my wife and she will tell you breaks only when I f@#$%&* with it.

Both devices are connected to onboard usb. Pci serial card for serial tuning and two Paterson devices connected to HD receivers and PVRs. 2 usb to serial devices from mono price for directv d12 box and hvr2250. OS Windows xp, had issues with Paterson devices working in Windows 7. OTA on hvr2250