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You will not be able to get a normal tuner card to do what the Comcast set top box does. Normal tuner cards can only tune unencrypted QAM channels. Depending on your franchise...you can get any where from local digital channels to all the franchise hd channels. But likely they will only have your local channels as unencrypted.

There are cable card tuners, but they are NOT cheap and hard to come by.

So you can connect the output into the tuner card input and record what ever is on the set top box. Not easy. Further, I dont know if this will work, but there are plugins to control certain set top boxes (I think) - but I think that is for satellite...either way I am NOT familiar with this process so you will have to do some research here.

With my 2250, I tune all my digital unencrypted QAM channels as well as all my analog channels. I only get local channels via digital though. If not being able to TUNE or RECORD encrypted QAM channels is ok, then a tuner card is great. You can record 1 channel and watch another. Or in my case, I can record 2 channels and use the TV tuner to watch another.

Hope all this helps.

Solas

<blockquote data-quote="solas989" data-source="post: 380055" data-attributes="member: 87399">You will not be able to get a normal tuner card to do what the Comcast set top box does.&nbsp; Normal tuner cards can only tune unencrypted QAM channels. Depending on your franchise...you can get any where from local digital channels to all the franchise hd channels. But likely they will only have your local channels as unencrypted.&nbsp; There are cable card tuners, but they are NOT cheap and hard to come by.So you can connect the output into the tuner card input and record what ever is on the set top box. Not easy.&nbsp; Further, I dont know if this will work, but there are plugins to control certain set top boxes (I think) - but I think that is for satellite...either way I am NOT familiar with this process so you will have to do some research here.With my 2250, I tune all my digital unencrypted QAM channels as well as all my analog channels.&nbsp; I only get local channels via digital though.&nbsp; If not being able to TUNE or RECORD encrypted QAM channels is ok, then a tuner card is great. You can record 1 channel and watch another.&nbsp; Or in my case, I can record 2 channels and use the TV tuner to watch another.&nbsp; Hope all this helps.&nbsp; Solas</blockquote>

[QUOTE="solas989, post: 380055, member: 87399"] You will not be able to get a normal tuner card to do what the Comcast set top box does. Normal tuner cards can only tune unencrypted QAM channels. Depending on your franchise...you can get any where from local digital channels to all the franchise hd channels. But likely they will only have your local channels as unencrypted. There are cable card tuners, but they are NOT cheap and hard to come by. So you can connect the output into the tuner card input and record what ever is on the set top box. Not easy. Further, I dont know if this will work, but there are plugins to control certain set top boxes (I think) - but I think that is for satellite...either way I am NOT familiar with this process so you will have to do some research here. With my 2250, I tune all my digital unencrypted QAM channels as well as all my analog channels. I only get local channels via digital though. If not being able to TUNE or RECORD encrypted QAM channels is ok, then a tuner card is great. You can record 1 channel and watch another. Or in my case, I can record 2 channels and use the TV tuner to watch another. Hope all this helps. Solas [/QUOTE]