HDTV PC Tuner

I need recommendations and a little education would be nice too. I have Comcast digital cable in the chicagoland area, lombard to be exact. I have the hand full of HD channels they offer and would like to be able to view them on my pc. I keep reading about "amplified HDTV antenna". So i need one of these to view HD content? Doesn't make sense to me. I'm looking at the " ATI 100-715331 PCI Interface TV Wonder 650 - High Definition Personal Video Recorder for PC". You can see it at the link below:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16815294001

Any thoughts and comments are appreciated, thanks.

 

Would be better if you could run the cable connection to a receiver and then a hdmi cable to pc, if that's possible.

 

Well, the cable is all ready running to a receiver, I'm not sure if there are any available HDMI ports. If there are, is there any limit to how long an HDMI cable can be before it starts losing quality?

The problem with this scenario is that this is the cable TV for our home theater. If i were to run an HDMI cable from the receiver, i wouldn't have control over changing the channels, that would all be done in the theater. We'd have to be watching the same thing all the time. That said, getting a separate receiver isn't within my budget. I will be getting another cable box of course. I'm willing to spend about $200 for a tuner card and an antenna if that is in fact needed, maybe a little more. Thanks for the reply.

 

OK, well if that's the case then that card should be ok. Are there any alternatives available within the same(ish) price range?

 

• ATI TV Wonder Elite - Pretty sure this has HD but I haven't been able to find it for sale anywhere. I found out about it from this web page: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2393&p=9
  
• Macro Image Technology MyHD MDP-130 - this card seems well regarded.
  
• Hauppauge - This is a manufacturer that comes up a lot but i need to look into it more.

As I've been looking I've found that many of the cards can only get HD channels using an "amplified HDTV antenna". So you can't get the HD channels you get/pay for through your cable tv provider. Apparently many broadcast stations send out singnals for free but premium channels such as HBO are not. See the webpage below for more details on "Over-the-Air HDTV Reception":

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/worley/263

I beleive there are some cards that allow you to do both, being able to view the HD content you pay for through your cable provider and Over the Air HD. so thats what i'm hunting for now. Honestly if I can just watch the HD I pay for i would be happy, thats all i really want, in terms of HD, I still want to view all the SD channels too, of course.

If anyone knows of an HD Tuner that can play the HD content the my cable provider provides please let me know. I had no idea it would be so hard to narrow down the card i want. I'm so confused. Info on the subject seems to be very spotty and scarce.

Anyone that can shed some light on the subject, Please Help!!!