Tech Nerd Help Needed: TV Tuner, VCR, DVR?

I need some advice. I have bad luck with built-in tv tuners. They're constantly going bad on me. Here's my problem:

I get 100 channels for "free" through the cable feeding my cable modem. As in I pay $45/mo for cable internet and just watch the ~100 channels of analog TV that's also on the line for free. So no satellite or digital cable box doing the tuning, only my TV (or some kind of pre-tuner) doing the tuning.

My main TV tuner does NOT produce sound from RF input, but has no problem if the sound comes from the RCA/SVid input. So I was using an old VCR (I know, super lame) in line on the RF. VCR switched the channels fine, and RCA input to TV still allowed the TV remote to adjust volume (VCR remote could not adjust volume). Well the transformer down the street blew and the resulting surge had no trouble surging through my SURGE PROTECTOR and frying the VCR. So now I had another VCR I picked up off the curb a while back. Turns out it's remote sensor doesn't work! I wonder why I found it on the street. So now I have to choose between changing channels by getting up off the couch and clicking through one at a time on the front of the VCR or get the convenience of remote channel changes coupled with zero sound. Obviously I need to fix this.

I figured I'd just get one of those new digital converter boxes for $50 - $40 coupon = $10 and my problems would be solved, but unfortunately that would limit me to only the OTA broadcast channels, as those boxes do NOT tune the analog signal still running (indefinitely) through my cable line. At best they just allow the analog to pass-through. I do have some sweet credit card looking coupons though. Maybe I'll put them on ebay!

So I'm wondering what my options are:

1. Buy a new TV with a working analog tuner (boo!)
2. Buy a new/used VCR with working tuner and remote (~$20 on CL)
3. Buy a fancy pants DVR with built in tuner? Amazon Link (pricey)
4. Another cheaper/better option I don't even know about?

I have a couple universal remotes, so as long as the stuff isn't ancient I should be able to get it all to work from just one. I don't mind a little finger dance to adjust sound/channel on multiple devices on the same remote.

Upgrading to any monthly service (satellite/digicable), even one that comes with its own tuner box, is NOT an option as I get every single channel I want except SPEED for FREE already, so the other options become infinitely more expensive the first month. I'm a huge torrent geek, so I watch all my movies, HBO series, etc on the TV through my hacked xbox.

But the xbox is getting old and tired, so I'd consider dropping some bucks into some kind of multi-AV device with some combination of the following:

• Analog TV tuner (with remote)
• DVR capability/storage
• Networked video playback

Am I describing about a slingbox? Media PC? What would GRM tech nerds do?

Minimum cashola is ideal, but I'd spend a little for some good new tech.

stop stealing cable, lol. and don't pay for lamo speed. I have a laptop that has a dual digital tuner, so with media center I have a dvr and tv guide through the computer plus a remote. a 2 or 3 year old laptop with media center wouold probably work as long as you have a tuner.

and you can watch it on a tv, doesn't need to be a laptop either, ehh just a thought.

I have a Hauppage WinTV tuner card and it has a horrible high-frequency noise, along with a yucky fuzzy/snowy video output. Definitely wouldn't want to use it as my main TV. Are the newer tuners way better?

Well I wouldn't lay out too much cash on whatever you end up doing, because it's destined to be a short term solution. As in, until the cable co. figures out what you're doing and slaps a filter on your line. You might want to get one of those digital converter boxes just in case you get booted back into the land of over the air television only. A few years ago back in St. Louis I also had cable internet only, the installer came while I was at work (my neighbor let him in), and the guy actually ran cables both to my computer and the television without me or my neighbor asking for anything like that. So I left it like that instead of calling the cable company and potentially getting the installer in trouble or something. I enjoyed the free cable for 6 months or so, and then one day it stopped working. Next time I went out to the car I noticed the "updates" to the cable wiring on the side of the building :).

the hp dual tuner was like watching regular tv really nice as far as i could tell. though the buffer was annoying, but that was part of the dvr.

The newer Hauppauge HD cards work much better. Of course the cabling you use can make a difference. Adding more tuner cars allows you to do picture in picture, recording more than one program at once, etc.

With a decent video card you shouldn't have any problems driving a decent display/TV. ATI makes a nice bunch of HD cards that will output HD audio as well as video. Saves having to deal with special sound cards, etc.

For a few bucks you can build a decent media center PC (whether running Microsoft's Media Center or Team Media-Portal is up to you) If you're a Linux head you can run MythTV. When building the PC, just focus on making the storage system as large and as fast as possible (big, fast drives setup in a RAID array) to cut down on laggy DVR response time.

Now here's the cool part about using a PC as a generic TV tuner, DVR, TiVo solution: Media Center and Media Portal will also manage your photos, music and movie files as well as allow you to play games (old school as in MAME or new school like Half-Life, WoW, etc) If you buy a tuner card, get one with a remote (the Media Center remote will work with both Microsoft's Media Center and Team Media Portal's solution) and you can program the remote to control the amplifier/stereo or just use the PC as the amplifier.

At home recently we had a T-day brunch, so for light entertainment, I had Media Portal setup to play an internet radio station with Holiday music then just had it cycle through our pictures from the past year displayed on the big-screen. Nice and subtle and after brunch we switched over and watched some Top Gear (across the network) and Iron Man (via DVD)