Free HDTV signals on cable tv are transmitted over Clear QAM. To receive the free HDTV signal you must have a QAM tuner, period. No other way around it. I tried.

Windows Media Center (for Vista and XP), as of January, 2008, does NOT support QAM, period. It may in the future, but for now, it doesn’t.

Yes, I know, they say Windows Media Center supports QAM, but it doesn’t. At least not with any PC tuner you can buy off the shelf. I tried.

To get the QAM signal your PC tuner must trick WMC into displaying the signal by transmogrifying it. HD Homerun does just that. Brilliant.

So, after building an WMC PC, putting two HDTV tuners in it (ordered two by mistake), and ordering basic digital cable (no extras), plugging all this in and setting up WMC, I find out that WMC does not support QAM tuners without transmogrification, or paying the toll tax.

So what now? Buy an HDHomerun or just use the set top box that comes from the cable provider. The set top box works ok with WMC, but it’s kludgy at best.

I’ll run with the set top for now, since another $169 for the HD Homerun is just not feasable right now with things changing so fast.