>Would it be possible to buy a 9800 now(I assume they'll work in NA), flash it to the 9800HDD firmware, and add a drive?
You couldn't because the
HD ready version has a bigger power supply to support the HD upgrade.
>BTW, Would it be possible to remove the drive from the receiver and convert the streams to mpeg2 video playable on a PC(maybe with the tools for the PCI DVB receivers)?
Yes you can.
>From the Fortec Star website, it looks like they provide great support. It's reassuring to see a quality site with firmware updates, editing software, etc.
The channel editor is one of the best.