Ok I currently have a bell dish hooked into my HP media Centre PC running win7 and it works great records and uses the EPG no problems. NO HD though. I now have Shaw Cable running into the basement with a HD box
Rear ouptouputs:
RF cable in/out
HDMI
Component video out (YPbPr)
S-video output
Baseband video and audio out
Optical and coax SPDIF audio out
IR in/out

and am thinking of either buying another HP media pc or a Happauge card(and stick it into one of my PC's) to start using windows media centre on it. I have a couple of questions:
1. Can you record the output from the HD box component or HDMI outs to record HD assuming you have the correct card to accept component or hdmi input?
2. If you just use the RF cable out can you record using a capture card that has the dual tuner capabilities(astc and clear qam).
3. What is the best option to record from a HD box other than a Shaw PVR.?

I would do a bit of research on the internet but here a couple of thoughts.

1. There are some capture cards that have HDMI inputs (I think most tuner cards have outputs only). Again search the internet for the right card or go to an electronics store. With the right card, you should be able to capture HD.

2. The rf out will not work for HD since the cable providers have blocked all of the tv channels so you must subscribe via and HD Set top box. There is a bit of QAM available but its all audio... no video and no hd.

3. Use a PC with a capture card.

Thanks, for the info. Yes I have been going on the net and this site is about the best for info. But combing through hundreds of posts and websites it's still hard to get any definitive answers. I have been looking at the Happaugue colossus card. Which will take the component outputs from the box. I don't neccessarily need to record in High def, but from what I read it seems that output from the box using RF does not provide hd, fair enough, but will it provide the other standard channels? If I buy a card like the Happaugue 1850, with dual input for RF will I be able to record standard def stations? I understand to use dual input I will need two boxes to get all the channels. I am just wondering about one for now.

To record the cable you can purchase a cable card tuner and a cable card, but it is uncertain if Shaw will activate the cable card. There are some reports of success and other that have been refused by Shaw to activate them. This option would allow you to record the digital stream as being sent by Shaw with no re-encode. Failing this, you can use a hauppauge HD PVR. For this you need a HD Cable box with component outputs to connect to the HD PVR. You loose some quality as there is an analog link and you are re-encoding. Early HD PVR's were problematic and easily overheated. I suggest you check The Green Button forums to verify what models work with the fewest problems.
[Link: thegreenbutton.tv]
I do not use Win7 media centre myself, but do use ATSC tuners for capturing digital channels with my TV antenna.
Using a digital tuner card with no cable card will only give you very few, if any, unencrypted TV channels.
[Link: thegreenbutton.tv]
The HD PVR and Colossus seems to still be buggy for media centre.

FYI I am getting CBC Radio 2 on 133.1 and CBC Radio 1 is actually on 133.25, in Scarborough. Everything else seems to be matching up to the list.