I haven't had cable in... 9 months?
HTPC + Hulu + Netflix = no live events, no sports without big painful crazy stuff, not as good in Canada, but I keep up with all the ABC, NBC, and Fox shows I want.
If CBS had their act together, I'd say Big Bang Theory and HIMYM were also on my entertainment rotation, but they don't, and sometimes even Craig Ferguson isn't worth dealing with their site.
Daily Show? Colbert? Easy to watch online... legally.
I also watch Conan O'Brien on teamcoco - have to re-embiggin it after commercials, but it's a perfectly cromulent way to watch Conan.
And if I really want something premium, there's iTunes (Walking Dead Season Pass ftw!).
I have component to computer "make-your-computer-your-DVR" technology, but I never used it enough when I had cable to get rid of DVR rental.
Cutting the cord is better and if you figure out the cost over a year or more, you could buy something beefy for your HTPC and pay it off or pay off a good portion.
All you need is a good VNC app, a notebook or netbook or iPad, set the HTPC to a static IP on your router, and make sure you've got VNC enabled on it.
Bah-zing.
vnc://10.0.1.2 - enter password - and you can control what's on television... LITERALLY.
Better yet is with dynDNS and most routers, you can make it so you can VNC to your TV when you're away from home.
vnc://first.last.net (for me) gets me 'Enter your username and password' - so from work, I can move the mouse while my wife watches Daily Show and freak her out.
If you're uncertain, buy a Roku (or AppleTV) and test. The Roku, since it does Hulu Plus and gives you a free month of it, has an advantage, but Netflix is signing deals with Disney, for example, to stream Disney/ABC TV shows.
I honestly am hoping in the near future of replacing my HTPC with the AppleTV and having the HTPC be a media server, running headless, because if I VNC to it, it doesn't matter that there's no display connected to it.
Either way, $100 device which you could move to another TV in the future > card which is nearly if not entirely obsolete.
Good luck!