[sciguy125]

Actually, I was going for HDTV compatability. There weren't many cards out there. I ended up getting the pcHDTV card because it was the most mature and was designed specifically for linux (there's even a disclaimer for the latest model that the windows and mac drivers aren't out yet). Needless to say, it uses software encoding, but it's not as bad as it seems.

Apparently, ATSC (the digital TV format used in the US) is already encoded - makes sense. So, viewing ATSC takes less processing power than NTSC (analog). Recording is also easier because the ATSC stream practially just gets written directly to the disk. I think I'm going to end up dropping the money for a higher end processor, so I'm hoping that NTSC won't give me any problems. It'll only be around for a few more years anyway.

The main goal of building a PVR myself is upgradability. If I ever need an upgrade, I just get some new cards rather than getting a whole new system. As for software, I can make it do what ever I want.

After I thought about it a little, I don't feel so bad about spending so much money on this project. I don't expect to have to make upgrades because the system is obselete, only because I want more functionality. I expect ATSC to be around for a long time and I don't expect the video resolutions to go up any higher than they are now (at least not for a long time). Increasing the resolution or changing ATSC is going to be alot of trouble, both for the industry and for the government. The only future upgrade plan I have at the moment is additional tuners.