I searched the forums for quite a while so my apologies if I am to dense to find anything on this topic. How do HTPC guides work? In other words if I get a cable card how does it know what programs are on when?
Many countries (where do you live) have their TV guides on the internet. Various Media players (inc. Windows Media Center) have an automatic download service which downloads the next 14 days listings for you automatically, for free.
well for a TV guide you can always go to TV.com But as Nexxo said, you generally have a Media Center that you can plug your address into and what type of service you are running and itll find you whats online. As you have Cable Windows Media Center is a difficult thing, I believe that only Vista Media Center has support for Cable (via the CableCard system) however there are ways arround it.
I enjoy being able to record shows by name(anytime x show is on it records). What I'm understanding is vista media center is the only decent option for me to use. Essentially can any OS, component etc know what is on my tv at any given time? I used to use the boxes from the actual cable company(which are trash). Did I misunderstand the capabilities of the HTPC to be able to perform functions such as the one above?