[ClamsTheCat]

I agree with Brett. Pony up and make sure you get an external tuner that does hardware encoding. If you don't you will be dissapointed, and you will end up buying the Hauppauge in the end anyhow.

When tuning a cable box you will need a USB-UIRT or some other IR device to tell it when to change channels. The capture device ends up working as just a capture card and not a tuner. The internal tuner is not in use when you are using an external cable box.

Don't be discouraged; the whole external tuner, IR Blaster set up process is kind of complicated to visualize, but once you have it set up, it works like a charm.