I have seen USB dongles attached to laptops & they can be difficult.
Sometimes the USB conflicts with other devices & does not work. The included TV antenna is rubbish. The laptop screen is small & is not viewable in daylight.
I am installing a digital TV card in a desktop computer that I hope to run LinuxMCE or MythTV, as well as a few other things (webserver, remote access, blue-ray drive, etc).
The first time I tried this under Windows, the TV could not cope with the computer resolution. Great on the computer monitor, but TV output sucked. So I would suggest, that you ensure the video card you are using will work properly with your TV set.
OldOne has been doing TV recording for a long period of time & I am just getting into this. He might have some more comments.