One of the best purchases I have made in the last couple of years was a HDHomeRun* from Silicon Dust.
It is a small device that has two tuners, and supports various digital TV standards. It costs about $170. In the US it supports ClearQAM (unencrypted digital cable) and ATSC (over-the-air broadcast digital), including HD. Lost looks amazing!
It now supports a variety of other digital TV standards as well, including NZ’s newly introduced Freeview.
It works extremely well with the Windows 7 Media Center running on the office box. They also support Linux and Mac OSX and a variety of software PVR solutions.
They are regularly updating the software that supports the unit.
A really great feature that SiliconDust introduced recently is the ability to allow multiple machines to pool tuners. This means that my notebook and office machines share tuners, over the network. The upshot? Keri can record Desperate Housewives and I can watch NASA TV at the same time.
*It’s an associates link to buy one on
Amazon