Something else that is REALLY REALLY cool (especially if you have an MCE machine) is ORB. http://www.orb.com/

>Victor,
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>>Well you'd need at least the Windows Media Enocoder SDK or an activex to do it...
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>I got from his post that he didn't want to rely on an activex. So the comment is based on the inability of an interpretted language like VFP from dealing with that amount of data transfer in realtime. It's barely possible in C/C++ some of the time. *g* My 3.2 ghz HT box uses about 30% of a CPU while recording or playing back. I think it's about 10% while watching a live feed in real time.
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>>This is a result of Micro$oft doing things to cripple us again. XP MCE records to DVR format (or rather MS-DVR format) and basicly it's a DVR file with their ASF wrapper stuff around it. Reason they did this to us? So that when you record something with it - two evil little things can happen. 1) You can't do it - it just records all black, or 2) If it DOES record - it will only playback on the MCE machine that it was created on. (and oh yeah - if you ever re-install your OS - those recordings are useless). All this has to do with their Digital Rights Management junk (DRM). A good example - try recording something off of HBO sometime and see what happens.
>>There is a lot of other TV tuner software out there that doesn't do all of this to ya. It grabs form the tuner card directly, allows you to record directly to other formats (like mpeg, divx, etc) - doesn't block recording from any specific channels. There are also little boxes that you can get that plug into yer cable line prior to your TV tunner card that will allow you to record all the channels - they cost about 80 bucks but I don't know if their even legal to use or not...
>>FYI - a good place for MCE info is here... http://www.thegreenbutton.com
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>I'll have to check the site out. I don't have any playback issues so far. I've gotten to a mode recently where I play the dvr file back on my notebook across the network using the WMP when I'm not sitting at the desktop.
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>The only gripes I have with the MCE is a kinda clunky interface for some things, and the fact that the scheduler is limited to like 12 entries. And that there was no builtin support to record internet radio. There are a couple of NPR broadcasts that aren't carried by KUT here in Austin but are webcast by both the originating station in NC and by the Texas A&M station that I'd like to just set to series record and let me listen to them when it suits my schedule.
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>I plugged the tuner into my raw cable feed because I didn't want to have to deal with cablebox programming to also record something and the TimeWarner box is even more braindead than MCE is when it comes to setting up to record something.