hi all i looking to buy a tv card to watch my sky on with the hd function any one know whcih card to buy and im a bit confused with the pvr and all that
You will need a DVI or HDMI input card to capture in digital HD...the ones with the coaxial digital input do not work with cable/satelite/fios tv. There are a few card that will do this; one is here: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/
I can't afford the card, but it seems to be nice enough. I know it does not support HDCP, and I don't know if the sky box has HDCP output. There are lots of other such cards around, some even support HDCP. Just google "HDMI Capture" and browse around. You also might need an IR blaster. {EDIT} Sky does you HDCP; that card will not work. Sorry. I know I saw an HDCP capture card around somewhere, I just can't remember where (I thought it was made by Aurora Multimedia, but I cannot seem to find it on their site) {EDIT2} I did some more research on the subject...it seems that the DMCA has made these cards illigal. It is also now illigal to use a box to remove HDCP from the signal, even if it is just to watch it on your existing tv. Supposedly this is to prevent piracy, but it does nothing to prevent piracy at all (if you have a large bugjet, you can still get around it). All it does is to force people to buy HDCP devices to replace perfectly good equipment, as well as curtailing free speech (it is also illigal to just to discuss methods of removal!), and of course it makes it impossible to use a PC as a media center unless you pay double for a low-quality OEM unit (one way to get around it). {EDIT3} If you don't like being treated so badly, show it with your wallet. I canceled my cable because all the channels (even broadcast) were encoded in HDCP, a week later I canceled my satelite TV service because all the HD channels were encoded with HDCP. Broadcast TV may not have many channels, but it has no HDCP and it is free!
