Is it worth the effort to add encrypted TV lineup from TW

[Crunch]

For over two years now we have used SageTv. I purchased a HD200 when they came out and life has been good. SageTv is still running 6.5.5198, is stable and I have not played with it for months.

We have only ever watched Basic Cable (Clear) with 2 HDHR units. Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS etc. Hulu while a little slow to load has filled in a lot of time and Roku did what Netflix via the mail box was a bit slow on.
I use a Harmony remote and control everything from that . Even the kids can jump around TV to HULU to Netflix.

Now the kids are older (6 & 8) and have talked the wife into letting them watch more than the 'saddle Club' on PBS. We want 'Waverly Place' etc . Whether they should watch this junk or not is another story.

So my dilemma. I have read around and the more you read the more confused as to where to go. Not too sure how much work it is going to be if I got TW to give us a package.

What is the best way to add a TW cable package to my basic sage setup.

What is the current best equipment out there?

Dare I say it should I just move to a TW DVR. We can't get satellite we have 100 foot trees around whole house as we live in the woods.

Thanks

[sainswor99]

It's an odd time to add a cable package because of all of the pending changes; its tough to predict what will or won't be availble in the next few months.

Probably the only long-term (more than a couple of years) solution is to use a set-top box with either a Hauppauge HD-PVR (for the best quality signal) or an analog card using s-video (can be as much as $100 cheaper). Unless you Sage everything, you'll probably want a dedicated STB at your server (and well away from a TV).

If TW is going to continue supporting unencrypted analog SD for a while, you could get a lot of the kids programming with just an analog card and basic cable; of course, that WILL go away at some point (just don't know when).

HTH,
Stu