My tivo service is going to expire in may, and I'd like to replace it with the HTPC. It would be great to save that money I'm currently giving to tivo, and also to not have to switch inputs to watch live TV/XBMC content. I really don't even need to record with it, I just want to watch live TV.
I've done some reading and it doesn't look like the XBMC pvr is ready for prime time yet. Does anyone have a reliable setup that they use on their main TV?
I'm switching my family's live TV to XBMC. However, we're happy enough with the "Limited Basic" Comcast package, which is just the local channels being broadcast in Clear QAM. OTA broadcast content works great too, but again it's just the local channels. If you're intent on encrypted HD content (like CableCARD) then I'm not sure how well XBMC will work for you.
My setup is Windows XBMC with Argus TV and a HDHomerun Dual tuner. Took a little while to configure, but now it seems very reliable. However there are some caveats. Scheduling series recordings can't be done (at least not with Argus TV I think). But Argus TV does have a great web interface where you can see the guide and schedule all of your recordings quite easily. It also takes some leg work to have XBMC scrape your recorded TV shows so they appear in the "TV Shows" area. So IMO the XBMC PVR functionality is quite young. It's not nearly as refined as Tivo, but it'll get the job done. Just depends on what your requirements are.