[stomachmonkey]

I prefer OpenELEC, (AKA XBMC now KODI) to Raspbmc.

Nice thing about the builds is you can roll SD cards with different front ends and swap them out to figure what works best for you.

But yeah, you need a tuner card, something to receive the signal.

I'd look at the SiliconDust Homerun box or the Ceton external units.

You run them over USB instead of internal PCI slot.

I have a 4 stream Ceton PCI.

Works well considering most of the open source stuff like Myth and XBMC is well, open source.

You on Optimum or FIOS?

Get a cable card from them for ~$5.00 a month. Typically you'll get everything in your package except PPV's. Limitation of the cable card.

If you are going strictly OTA that's another story.