now another question:
Does anybody know of a 256-QAM PCI card that is compatible with winXP MCE 2005 ? I'm interested in finding out if such a card can be integrated into the media center to act just as an over-the-air HDTV card ?

Theoretically, that way you would still have the DVR functionality for unencrypted DVB-C and also be able to have a working EPG (supplied by microsoft for channels in canada and us for free over the internet, comes free with a purchase of XP MCE of course). That way you'd have full dvr functionality for unencrypted cable channels.

However, you wouldn't be able to have a CableCard slot, so only unencrypted channels could be viewed through this method ... ever.