[geoffstewart]

really depends on the settop box.... I have a Scientific Atlanta 3250HD box for cable and the SVideo out of there is a downconverted version of the hidef channels... I use this to record my "hidef" (in aspect ratio only) so that I can watch the shows in letterbox instead of pan and scan. I find the quality to be pretty good, but obviously nothing near HD.

It will be a very long time, I think, before I'll be recording HD since I don't get OTA channels and my cable company has yet to enable the firewire port (since it's not yet mandated in Canada like it is in the states) let alone leave any of the HD signal un-encrypted.

Geoff