Re:How easy? Impossible... (Score 1)

you are not correct anymore (well at least as soon as drivers are made for linux) Take a look at the Hauppauge HD PVR. It allows you to record encrypted HD channels through the cablebox component output and realtime encodes to h.264. I would say by mid or late summer encrypted HD will be recordable http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html