Long story short... I want/need the most sensitive ATSC tuner available for recording TV off the air, without the price getting ridiculous. I currently have a Windows XP based USB external unit. It's getting quite old, as is XP.

I'd prefer something linux-based, but if the best solution is with Windows, I might consider. I can go with either standalone or a USB or PCI card and simple software. I do *NOT* want TIVO or MYTH. I should't need no steenkin SQL database just to record an afternoon movie at home while I'm away at work.

My personal fav is HVR-1250 but it is PCI-Express x1. Even better is the HVR-2250 (also PCIex1) for dual tuner. Both include low profile brackets.

I also have a couple of 950Q and I would take the 950Q over the few PCI cards I have (HVR-1600, KWorld PCI-120, Sapphire ATI Theatrix 650)

As I've said before in other threads, my MythTV Linux box has 2 pcHDTV 5500 PCI (http://www.pchdtv.com/) cards, 2 Hauppauge 950Q USB devices, and 1 Hauppauge 950 USB (earlier model). The pcHDTV cards have the highest ATSC sensitivity of all of them, and are more sensitive than the ATSC tuners in my 2 Sony and 1 Samsung HDTVs as well as in my RCA converter box that I use for testing.

There are no Windows drivers for pcHDTV cards though, just Linux. MythTV has full support for them built in.