Ok, so the latest update on this project.

I added the HDHomeRun, which allows 2 simultanious programs to record in HD using the cable line (note - NOT the cable box). The HDHomerun actually has a network port, so it can send the recordings over your network to your media center PC - but my living room isn't wired (we live in an apt) so I used a cross-over cable and connected it to my PC directly (good idea, right?)

I gotta say, it works like a champ. HD Recordings are HUGE (almost 9 GB/hr) and I've got a total of 3 tuners (2 in the HDHomerun for ABC, NBC, CBS, etc in HD, 1 in the PC for recording from the cable box via S-Video). So I was rapidly running out of hard drive space, because my wife likes to save things. So I added an old 160GB IDE drive I had, and the software nicely added 18 hours of HD recording to my estimated allowance. (Note, I formatted the 160GB HD in 64K clusters, as recommended by some people online).

Everything's working well, although I am sure I am consuming a lot of power. My total investment into this project is ... probably over $400, but there are no monthly fees, we can keep/transfer to ipods/do whatever with our recordings. But it's been great, we watch a lot of stuff through the Media Center PC and it looks awesome, and I'll probably get a couple more years use out of it. After that, I'll get an inexpensive PC (core 2 duo for a couple hundred bucks?) and set that up instead. Who knows.