Cards

At this time there are four cards that will get the job done for you. Three normal ones, and one meager, pathetic, dated one. Guess which one I chose? That's right, the worst of the lot. I always have to make it hard on myself. So do yourself a favor and get either a WinTV-HD, a HiPix, or a MyHD. If you're a poor bastard and can't afford jack, you can also get a WinTV-D (also from hauppauge), but i really wouldn't recommend it. The WinTV-HD and HiPix retail between $375 and $400 (usd), and the WinTV-D goes for about $250 (usd), though I have seen some deals as low as $50. The WinTV-HD and HiPix will run under Win2000, while WinTV-D only goes on Win98. I would definitely recommend the HiPix because a lot of the stuff is open source for it, which makes it far more flexible. If you HAVE to, you can get the WinTV-D, but be forewarned that it does not output to a TV above 480i (but it will record the HD stream). Finally, the WinTV-D cannot handle the 4 GB barrier, while the other two can. This means at every commercial you must stop the recording and start it again. This is a PAINFUL process. Note that the WinTV-D and WinTV-HD both can act as traditional analogue capture cards, but only the WinTV-HD has S-Video input. Look around the AVSForums and you will find all the information you could ever want on these guys (but mostly on HiPix). As for the MyHD, it's comparable to the HiPix card, with many of the same features. It does have analogue input though, but at a limited resolution (using it's bundled software). The price on the MyHD is much better than the HiPix at the moment, so I would recommend the MyHD over the HiPix.

One brief warning is that you should not get the AccessDTV card. This card encrypts the recordings, so you can record them to disk, but you will be able to do absolutely nothing with them. We want to record an unencrypted transport stream, not one that's encrypted, so keep away from this hardware. Plus it requires a monthly charge I believe, so it's definitely out the window.