On a similar topic, I recently got a Hauppauge HVR-950Q USB2 stick.

This is a *tiny* ATSC tuner (plus an analog NTSC tuner that I completely ignore), which uses the state-of-the-art XC5000 RF Tuner frontend (a DSP chip connected to the coax input), plus a current generation ATSC demodulator chip.

Performance in MythTV is spectacular -- it easily pulls in the distant WNPI-DT station that I've been targetting for over a year now. The HDHomeRun units (old and new) are hopeless there.

The exact same hardware in the 950Q is also available under other brand names (with different USB IDs), including an EyeTV product (the 2008 version only) for OSX.

We had a side-by-side comparison here the other day, with a MacBook+EyeTV connected to the same antenna feed as the MythTV+950Q at the same time.

The 950Q showed a perfect picture, the EyeTV showed some pixelation (this is a *really* weak station here).

So we swapped the EyeTV into the MythTV box, and suddenly it performed as well as the 950Q. Different "microcode" (downloadable DSP code) installed on the two computers, I expect.

So, if anyone in USA/Canada is looking for a *really good* OTA (or CATV) digital TV tuner, this one is a keeper, and doesn't take up any PCI(e) slots.

Cheers