Is there a way to watch tv (with cable tv input) on a desk top pc?  Is there some hardware or software that can do this?  Any info would be appreciated.

i do it all the time.  you need a tv tuner card.  that usually comes with software to make it go.  my laptop has a tuner card and media center edition.  it even came with a remote control.  i can use the laptop as a tivo.  pause, record, ect all for free.

what is a good make/model tv tuner card and how hard is it to install?

This works for me.

www.slingmedia.com/

Use a tv that has a PC input

google.. think there is a site called tvcards.com or similar. i have a 50 dollar card. leadtek i think. picture is not as good as tv. i am also interested in an HDTV card.

is sad beacuse in europe you can buy cards that turn your PC into a set top box, recorder. over here you have to have the setop box.

video cards that have built in tv input are not as good as dedicated tv cards. look for a dedicated card.

I used a Leadtek TV2000XP for a long time. The thing just works very well if all you want to do is watch TV. It's not that great for recording though since it has a software encoder instead of hardware.

I now have a VisionTek VTK-THMCE550P which is just an ATI theater 550 rebranded. It has a 10 bit hardware encoder so I get much better recordings.

It also works perfectly with Windows MCE and gives me a Tivo style ability to schedule recordings, pause live TV, etc.

I have an ATI all-in-wonder.  It sucks for this purpose.  the ATI driver team sucks balls.

Sage TV

I use that tuner card and software.  SageTV not only lets you watch TV on your pc, you can set it up like a TiVo to record/pause live tv.  You can then watch your recorded shows later and skip commercials etc.  It also has dvd library features, photo library features, music library etc.  I have a pc dedicated to this and use the TV out function of my video card for running my main tv.  I have two tuner cards so I can record one thing while watching another.

Note, this setup doesn't work with digital cable very well.  Most tuner cards cannot descramble or tune digital cable and you need to change the channel on the box manually or with additional hardware for the pc.

is it possible to record video on your PC HD then burn it to a DVD?

Sounds like a good way to archive all the cool shows

Quoted: is it possible to record video on your PC HD then burn it to a DVD? Sounds like a good way to archive all the cool shows

Yes.

Where do you think all the TV shows you can download through Bitorrent come from?