Newb Looking for hardware advice

[Saxomophone]

Hi,

I'm a novice with linux, and have never used a tv tuner card before, but have been building systems for years. I recently discovered mythtv, and am very interested in building a mythtv box.

Deciding on a tuner, however, has been very difficult. Right now we just have cable (optimum) without a set top box, although I'm pushing for getting one. We currently do not subscribe to any hdtv channels, but I would like to in the near future.

I'd also like the tuner to have a video encoder. I saw some tuners I liked, this one for example http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16815315001,
but I have no clue if it will work in linux.

What are some tv tuner options? Are there any other hardware considerations I should know about?

[tgm4883]

This is what you need to know
http://www.mythbuntu.org/requirements

If you want a well supported tuner, the PVR-150 (single tuner) or PVR-500 (dual tuner) are well supported with hardware encoders.

If you are looking for HD tuners then you will want something like the pcHDTV 5500 (internal single HD tuner) or the HDHomerun (external via ethernet dual HD tuner).

If you are planning on using a cable box and have an HD cable box and live in the USA, you can use firewire to stream. You will get unencrypted channels.

If you want to get all channels you subscribe to, you can get the new Hauppauge HD PVR. It should be shipping soon and is reportedly to have linux support pretty soon.

[Saxomophone]

So I've gotten an HD cable box, it has a firewire port. Do I need anything to use it with mythbuntu, or do I just run the firewire into a firewire port and watch the magic?