Tuning to multiple channels with digital cable

[flipz]

Ok so I'm getting ready to make the jump to sage. Currently I use vista media center, however everything I do is just streaming dvds/blurays that I have copied to my harddrive. I am just now going to get in to using it as my DVR also.

Here's my problem... my time warner box is capable of dvr'ing 2 things at once and watching a 3rd thats pre-recorded. I understand that I can do this with multiple capture cards too, and that using an IR blaster I am capable of watching any channel I want through sage. My problem that I just realized though is that when I'm physically watching something, I can obviously only do that one at a time.

Does that mean that for each channel that I want to watch/record at once I need a separate box, with a separate ir blaster and tuner? Would I be capable of having 1 tuner that kicks on if someone switches to a digital channel, and another one someone is just watching standard def?

Basically my scenario is if I'm upstairs watching something on live tv (through sage), and my girlfriend is in the office watching something on live tv (through sage), and we have digital cable... how would that even be possible?

Thanks.

[Opus4]

You need a separate tuner for each separate simultaneous recording. If you need a box to tune the channels you want, then you would need as many STBs as channels you want to record at the same time. (Live TV is the same as a recording; you are just watching it as it records.)

You can use the USB-UIRT to control multiple boxes at once. Or, if the box is capable of it, you could look into serial or firewire channel changing.

- Andy