ATI CableCard tuner review over at Anandtech

[sunray]

There's a review of the ATI Digital Cable (CableCard) tuner and the Dell PC it comes with on Anandtech. From all the trouble they had with the tuner even with getting special assistance from Dell, ATI and the cable company (Time-Warner), this thing isnt really ready for prime time. And the chance of getting support for Sage or even a home built machine running Vista MCE looks to be slim.

[SHS]

hahaha that way to funny

[Fluffdaddy]

Damn, I was really hoping for a (CableCard) HTPC tuner solution

[GTwannabe]

Stupid cable companies and their overzealous content protection schemes! I don't see CableCard MCE boxes taking off anytime soon. Cable companies would much rather make the $15/month extra they charge you for their proprietary DVR add-on.

[CanadianEh]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

Stupid cable companies and their overzealous content protection schemes! I don't see CableCard MCE boxes taking off anytime soon. Cable companies would much rather make the $15/month extra they charge you for their proprietary DVR add-on.

I believe that is their intention....

Hey, not to hijack this thread, but I read somewhere that beginning in July, cable companies have to allow customers to bring their own cable box. I wonder if such a thing would potentially 'open' up something for us... kind of similar to the R5000 or firewire methods some individuals currently use...

[travisbell]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

Stupid cable companies and their overzealous content protection schemes! I don't see CableCard MCE boxes taking off anytime soon. Cable companies would much rather make the $15/month extra they charge you for their proprietary DVR add-on.

Ha! Atleast you live in an area where you can rent them. Shaw up until just 6 months or so ago was purchase only. Even now, we can't truly "rent" the boxes... the just have a split the cost into 24 equal payments for 2 years.

In regards to the CableCard, yea, I am not surprised they had so much trouble. Cable companies have resisted this for years and honestly, I am at the point where I'm thinking why are they even bothering with them.

[SHS]

CanadianEh currently July 2007 Cable companies are currently lobbying for a third extension of that new deadline

[oddjob]

Can someone explain the big deal about the cablecard?
I was under the impression any recordings would be limited to the computer.
You could'nt burn it to DVD or convert it to ipod.

Am I wrong?

[mohanman]

Yeah I dont know. I think cablecard is the dumbest idea. You cant watch the shows on other computers unless you have an extender. And we all know extenders dont work good (not talking about the sage ones) unless you have a wired connection only. You get like what 12 channels in HD? Whoopie!!

In addition, you have to buy a whole new pc just for cablecard?? That is also plain old dumb. It seems that microsoft (who I do love, so it is hard to say this) has propriety format and software once again, couldnt they be sued over this as they have been in the past?? I am converting my whole house to sagetv from media center (just waiting for the usb ir thingy) as I was getting sick of sharing tv shows in dvr-ms format which are large files and dont stream well from pc to pc unless you have a strong wired connection. Lastly, I am really hoping that xbox 360 IPTV takes off, because that may be the answer to all my problems.

Lates!
Mo!

[CanadianEh]

I think the motion picture industry, along with the recording industry needs a reality check. The additional restrictions they are imposing on their content will eventually cause the average consumer to hate DRM as well. Honestly, I am, and the vast majority of us, are not trying to pirate their content. If I subscribe to cable television service, and my service provider provides me with access to HBO-HD, I want the ability to timeshift on my own terms. This means with my own hardware. They fought and eventually lost to the VCR, I think the same thing will come around again eventually.

It's really sad that we have to resort to things like the R5000, or hoping to grab a few channels here or there over firewire or QAM. I just want to watch what I pay for

/rant mode off

[Brent]

Regardless of whether you think Cablecard with all of its restrictions are really worth it, I wonder if CableCard will ever be accessible by SageTV, BeyondTV or any other HTPC software program. I did a little research on the topic and then talked about it on my blog
http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2007/...-come-for.html

In summary, I don't see how Sage or Snapstream etc. will be able to pull it off. Read the long (probably to long) post linked above if you are interested as I'd be interested in everyones opinion on this. Some day I really want to be able to use my HTPC to tune all channels I pay for without worrying about a cable box. The HDHomerun gets me part of the way there, but I want more