I've now installed my new Hauppauge Nova-T PCI DVB card. It was recognised immediately by Kaffeine and I was able to scan for channels. I was actually quite impressed that I got a good signal despite using a passive aerial splitter to also feed the main TV. Watching TV is generally fine, but does get the odd glitch. This may be due to processor load rather than the signal. Kaffeine has the option to schedule recordings from the EPG. I need to test this more as for one programme it did not record all of it. I did manage to record part of Once Upon a Time in Mexico and it played back totally smoothly. It's also possible to pause live TV and continue watching from that point. Video eats about 2GB per hour.

I do have some issues with Kaffeine. It doesn't seem to allow for sorting the channels and you have to leave it running for scheduled recordings. This can cause clashes with other software that uses sound, but that's a general Linux issue for me. I did get the remote control that comes with the card to work, but need to work out what Kaffeine functions should be used for most of the buttons.

I may look at other DVB software. ZapDvb looks interesting. It looks like it might handle recording better by prioritising scheduled recordings that are run using cron. It also allows for recording radio channels to Ogg so I could copy directly to my Palm for mobile listening.

At some stage I will look at archiving recordings to DVD. This requires looking into editing and converting the files to the appropriate format. Meanwhile it gives an extra option for watching Freeview channels that may prevent squabbles.