[July 4th]

I'm guessing the time when digital cable will go directly into the PC is a ways off at this point. The digital cable box is an addressable terminal with security, authorizations, etc. I'm guessing it's something the cable company doesn't want circumvented.

What I would see as more of a reality would be some kind of digital-out connector on the cable box to plug into the PC. But right now it's all academic, at least where I live. We have digital cable, but only on the channels not provided by analog cable. All of the analog channels are the ones I watch.

[bonesmccoy]

Actually, I just went to the Hauppage website. They're selling a HDTV receiver that can handle ATSC standards. The card is called WinHDTV. They are also selling a personal video recorder card with some impressive specs.

MPEG 1 record at 1150 Kbps (video CD rate)
MPEG 2 record at 2MBit/Sec fullD1 and halfD1, 4MBit/sec full D1 CBR or VBR
NTSC format at 29.97 fps with FullD1 at 704x576, HalfD1 at 352x576, MPEG 1 at 352x240
video formats are .mpg
audio sampling is 32,44.1,48khz


looks like the card has solid performance with Pioneer, AIWA, JVC, Yamakawa, and Apex DVD drives. Performance with Sony DVPs ok with DVD-RW

Seems like you the ability to use a PC to digitally record HDTV is present, but kludgey.

Sounds like I just need to go buy the card and try it.
$250 at fry's.
I think you're correct about the Digital Cable cards having specific addressing available. I think that is how the cable company can monitor your pay-per-view requests.