Good card for capturing Video from Cable

[Mephiston]

Is it possible to save the TS files from digital cable directly to PC with a card.

And if so, can someone recomend a good card to do it ?

[GaveUp]

Is it possible? Short answer: Yes. Long Answer: maybe.

It is possible to record the transport streams off digital cable if your cable company doesn't encrypt the thing. For all the "premium" channels you're almost guaranteed that this is the case. For the local/network channels it's another story. At anyrate it's a get the card and try it sort of deal, no guarantees it'll work, though. The only card currently available that can handle QAM is the Fusion III QAM card.

Another option that may be a possibility is recording off the firewire ports of the HD box. Again, this is a try and see sort of thing as some but definatly not all cable companies have these ports enabled, though, if I remember correctly there was an FCC ruling in the US that said all boxes must have the firewire turned on by a given date that has already come and gone. Someone feel free to correct me on this if I'm wrong.

Also, you could try checking the avsforum boards and see if they have any mention of your cable provider and whether or not they encrypt things or have firewire enabled. So far, it's the best place I've seen for that sort of information.