Some HTPC newb questions

[I4AT]

I have an i5 760 matx tower that I'm thinking about repurposing into an HTPC for my parents. They have three DVR enabled set top boxes on each level of the house that I'd like to be able to consolidate into one unit in the living room, and then just stream live/recorded TV to devices on the upper/lower floors.

I just started looking into tuner options today, and I'm thinking I'll probably get either a 4 or 6 tuner Ceton InfiniTV, but I'm a little surprised to see them in PCI-E x1 and USB options. Do PCI-E x1 and USB 2.0 really provide enough bandwidth to record 4 HD shows simultaneously? If this results in highly compressed/lower quality content are there PCI-E x4 or USB 3.0 options available?

The i5 760 tower already has Windows 7, I just need to throw in a larger hard drive and the tuner. Since it's a fairly sizable tower I'd prefer an internal PCI-E solution, but do the external ethernet tuners make networking/streaming any easier than their PCI-E counterparts, or is it simply a form factor option with the exact same capabilities?

And then for the upstairs/downstairs units all I need are "media center extenders"? They have an Xbox 360 (Jasper 20GB), Playstation 3, and Chromecast already. If I want them to have the same functionality in all rooms as they do now with their 3 DVR box setup, i.e. watching separate channels for live TV, scheduling recordings from any room in the house, and then accessing those recordings from any room in the house, what are the best options as far as MC extenders? Or are the devices they already own capable of doing all of this?

And lastly, does the M-Card cablecard from Comcast (or any other provider I suppose) come with a monthly rental fee, or is it provided for free upon request? Is it still a pain in the ass to get them to play along nowadays as I've read, has anyone that's experienced dealing with Comcast recently when setting up theirs had any issues such as them requiring a technician to be sent to the house, or can I expect to be able to self install everything with only a few minutes spent on the phone to provide host ID's and such?

 

[pkscout]

I don't think the Chomecast will work as a Media Extender, at least not for encrypted shows (which will mostly be anything not on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, and the CW). All the non-network shows will require a CableCard to record, and then the recordings will be encrypted so that you can't play them on other devices (except media extenders). And even then there may be some recordings that have additional restrictions. You should probably check this for more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Control_Information

Given the number of separate locations you have, I would definitely look at the 6 tuners. If you only get four and all three areas decide they want to watch like TV, that'll only leave 1 tuner for recording and could cause stuff to get missed because of conflicts.

 

[pinesol]

As pkscout explained, the Chromecast will not work as a Media Center Extender, though the PS3 also won't work. Ceton makes a pretty cheap extender in the Echo.

Thinking about theoretical throughput, USB 2.0 can do a max of 480 mbps. A quick Google search shows that a 1080 TV stream can be ~19.4 mbps. Multiply that by 4 or 6 and you can see that USB 2.0 should have no problem handling it all at once. PCI-e x1 has more available than USB. No quality loss required.

The internal card actually shows to the computer as a bridged ethernet adapter, so the USB or PCI-e option is purely form factor. The PCI-e version does not require external power, where the USB version does.

My parents have an InfiniTV 4, but they use network tuners on other family member PCs rather than Media Center Extenders, and everything works great for them (even on dual band 802.11n WiFi). They have a CableCard through Verizon, and pay a $5 monthly fee. But you have to remember that this is a great deal less per month than the ~18 you'd otherwise be paying for an HD DVR (or 3).