Those products however, the netbooks included, have relatively weak CPUs and no dedicated video decoder chips. That means no decoding 1080 or likely even 720 h.264 and similarly encoded video.

The beauty of the Sage Theater (HD200 or the older HD100) products is they feature a decently capable Sigma integrated chip which handles AV decoding and things like HDMI output. The products also come in under $200 whereas any DIY solution I could put together would surely cost at least two or three times that (maybe even 4 or 5 times that) and still have the limitations I mentioned up top.

Of course one could use an off-the-shelf retail streamer like the Popcorn Hour, but then you lose the UI and integration with the PVR for things like Live TV and scheduling of recordings.

I should have one of the new Sage Theater HD200 boxes by early next year. I've just unexpectedly come into borrowing a 51" HDTV for at least 3 or 4 months, so it makes sense to try out the HD200 soonish. I won't have a live HD source until later in the spring though (I'll subscribe to Bell sat and install the dishes when it's not so snowy/cold).

I do have the HVR-1600 in my system now which has one ATSC tuner I can probably test out. Unfortunately the snow and cold outside also don't make the best environment to be setting up outdoor antennas. The funny thing about the 1600 is that currently I'm using it for a single channel, Food Network (tuning the clear QAM signal on my cable feed)