I have been MIA lately. There's been a lot going on here with work, my personal life, and my move. That's right, I moved. With the move, I decided to upgrade my home theater to something a little more... well, a little more. I've already got a nice television, though there are nicer out there. What I did buy was new audio equipment, a PS3, and a TiVo HD. What I want to talk about is the TiVo HD and the setup.

First off, I am in the Boston area. I say this for the benefit of readers who find me with a search engine and are researching this purchase. That said, here's what I learned:

1. Comcast does offer cable cards in the Boston area. A TiVo HD forgoes the traditional use of a cable box in favor of this technology. This has two major effects (in my opinion).
a) Cable cards, obviously, use cable. This means that TiVo HDs kind of freeze out dish users. Sorry.
b) Cable cards are a one-way technology. This means that using a cable card forces you to sacrifice interactive features your cable provider otherwise offers. The most important features lost are the on-screen guide, which TiVo replaces anyway, and On Demand programming. I have also read rumblings that more programming will require two-way communication between your box and the provider later down the road. I have no way of knowing if this is true.

2. Comcast does offer multi-stream cable cards in the Boston area. A multi-stream cable card is a cable card capable of decoding multiple signals. This means you'd only need one cable card instead of two for your TiVo HD to be able to view and record two stations at once. This is a Good Thing(tm).

3. The reason multi-stream cable cards are such a good thing is financial. The first cable card is free from Comcast, so you don't have to pay a rental for the second card. That being said, the rental of a second card is only a few dollars at the time of this writing ($2.50 I believe), so don't be sad if your installer does not have a multi-stream cable card.

4. Your installer may not know what a cable card is or how to install it. Don't worry. The directions that came with the TiVo HD are thorough and good. Remember to ask for a multi-stream cable card. Your installer may not know what that is or if he has them. Mine brought up two multi-stream cards saying they were single stream. If it says M-Card on it, you've got a multi-stream card. When in doubt, your TiVo HD will detect the type of card and tell you what it is when you insert it.

5. Pairing information is important. Your TiVo may sit on a cable card status screen, but you'll actually need the pairing screen.

That's all stuff I had a little trouble finding information about when I was researching. I hope it helps someone down the road. And if not, at least I've got it documented for myself.