Greetings!

I'm an American currently living (and working) in Belgium right now. I've been thinking of setting up an HTPC for about a year now, and I think I'm about ready to pull the trigger and get some things going. Knoppmyth looks like an awesome way to get started, but I have a few questions.

Are there program guides available for Belgium? I've seen lots of web pages stating that an xmltv grabber is "comnig soon" for Belgium, but some of those pages are over a year old... I've also seen some pages that explain how to make it work in Belgium using python, so I guess there is a way. But does it really work properly, or is it a kludgy hack?

I haven't bought any hardware yet, and I'd like to minimize my investment into "belgium-only" hardware, since I'll be returning to the US in 1.5 years and it would be worthless. So I was going to get a software encoder-based card. Any comments on this idea?

I guess the real question behind all this is simply "will it work OK." I'm a fairly technical guy with a little bit of linux experience (my last project was an LFS install) and some experience building PCs. I don't mind getting into some details; indeed, this is a project for the sake of a project as much as it is a desire for a PVR. However, I don't want to spend a bunch of time and money only to find out that the "infrastructure" just isn't there to make it work properly. Does anyone have a MythTV setup working in Belgium?

Mike