Hi,
Maybe I can add a few part answers and thus contibute to the whole?
I'm currently running a FloppyDTV S2 card alongside my faithful Hauppauge 500MCE. I'm using VMC with the 2008 TV pack. I'm seeing all the FTA stuff from 4 satellites including BBC HD. That's some 4'200 digital radio and TV programs plus about 40 analogue cable.
The FloppyDTV S2 has a single CAM slot and is a single tuner so to watch one encrypted channel and record a second I'd need 2 Cams and 2 FloppyDTV cards. The card is firewire connected to an internal Firewire header on the motherboard and performs well. You can daisychain the firewire on these internal cards too, using the cable in the box that can either be used to connect internally, externally or daisy-chain, thanks to well-thought out connectors.
I'm now in the process of selecting a CAM that will support both a UK Sky card and a Swiss card. There area few CAMs that accept two cards.
RS
Richard Sargeant, MCSE, MCT