cable cards?

[Anonymous]

First of all I enjoy this website very much, so thanks to those who make it happen.

I am new to this whole technology, and was recently dissapointed to find out that you need to keep and use the cable/sat. top box for digital subscribers if you are to set up your own PVR. I was doing some research online and came across the CABLE CARDS that apperantly are mandated by the FCC. They are substitution for the digital top boxes and allow you to run the cable directly to the tv.

Question: Does anyone have experience in using one of these CABLE CARDS on an HTPC. I am unsure but it seems like only DIGITAL CABLE READY TV's can use these cards. Are there any capture cards out there that can use these cable cards. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

[rampy]

i wish there was... but as of right now, no there isn't.

There *should* be a PCI card that accepts a CABLECARD to legitimately descramble/decrypt digital cable legally, but I doubt the content creators will be very supportive of such a product (not that they have to be, but I presume that's why there isn't one available... it does give me hope, although not much, that TiVo is supposed to be maybe looking at the cablecard in the future... )

rampy