I'm a longtime Knoppmyth user, but an HD newbie...

I want to cancel my old-school analog cable and get something with HD programming. I live in New York, and my choices seem to be Cablevision's "iO Digital Cable", or satellite via DISH Network or DirecTV. But my existing analog cable makes Knoppmyth easy: I just plug the cable straight into my PVR-500, and it works great (I don't even use a cable box, as I don't get any premium channels, and I don't really care to).

Does anybody out there know which service will work best with Knoppmyth? I guess what I want is a service that comes with a box that has firewire out and some kind of control (serial?) to change the channels (but I guess I can just get an IR blaster instead). From what I've read, cable boxes should have firewire out, but the satellite ones do not, right? If that's the case, is everyone just getting (relatively) crappy S-Video out from their satellite boxes into a TV card for KM? If this is the case, I guess I'm going with iO.

One last question: I only really care about the major broadcast networks and a few 'basic cable' channels (Discovery, TLC, USA Network, VH1 (for the wife!), etc). Can one get those channels over-the-air with an HD antenna and an appropriate HD tuner card? Is an HD tuner card only useful for use with an antenna, or are those over-the-air HD channels already broadcast along with my existing analog cable? Receivable some other way?

I poked around the forum, but I guess what I really need is an HD-programming primer, and that's not really Knoppmyth-specific. Still, if any of the helpful and friendly folks around here can answer any of my many questions, I'd appreciate it.

OTA only works for the broadcast channels. So, you won't be able to get TLC, etc. OTA. Given the channels to like, I'd suggest first trying to see what you can obtain OTA. I have "basic" cable and I get my HD (CBS, NBE, Fox, etc.) OTA via an antenna on my patio.

I'm with Cecil. If you build an HD-capable box with 2-3 tuners, you'll have all the TV you want. Living without DiscoveryHD, VH1, isn't so bad. We haven't missed it much. I can get American Chopper at the library.
We've got the major networks OTA here, and that's all we watch. My homebrew Dragon paid for itself in a year. So I know where to get my $$$ to pay for Schedules Direct....

Another option is basic cable, if your OTA reception is so-so. For $8-$10 or so, you can get the local cable channels. And by law, they're required to give the HD versions of those, on unecrypted QAM. Ask for "lifeline cable", which they may not advertise, but are required to offer.

You may be able to find/devise an alternative to VH1 in the streaming media thing (Democracy Player, I think).

I get my HD via a UHF antenna on the roof. Currently, I don't know of a way to get satellite (DISH or DirecTV) HD channels into a MythTV box. So, if your OTA reception is so-so (Check AntennaWeb to see how far you are from the transmitters), I'd go with digital cable and a couple HD-5500 QAM capable cards from Storm Logic / Mythic.tv You should at least get the major networks in HD and maybe more depending on what your cable provider encrypts.

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Mike
My Hardware Profile

You might be able to go digital cable and pickup some (unencrypted) QAM digital stations via an ATSC card. A Kworld 110 will pickup OTA HD and QAM digital, then keep your pvr 500 and split your cable into the 500 too. You'll end up with (unencrypted) analog qam & digital qam (HD where available).

Of course this is all up to what your cable co give you in QAM...