[geeks] TV tuner Questions

[Lionel Peterson]

I want to build my first mediacenter box, just a Win 7 Enterprise PC  
with a TV tuner for watching non-subscription cable channels (USA  
network, CNN, etc). I have several older tv tuner cards, but none  
decode digital channels. One, however gets the 'new' channels (6.1,  
13.1, etc.), and the analog cards get about a dozen channels in the  
2-23 range, ignoring higher channels.

I'm willing to try a Happauge tuner card (dual tuner, clear Quam/ 
Analog) that's about a $105 card, but only if it will get all  
channels, 2-96 that my free cable company 'free decoder' box gets, but  
if it won't work I guess I'll need an IR blaster and keep the free  
cable box in line. Not terrible, but I'd prefer a simpler solution  
(one with no box)...

Anyone found a way around this? The free cable boxes have to be  
activated, so I'm guessing even non-subscriber channels are  
'protected'...

Lionel