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thanks paul for only mentioning this 'onerous' limitation after it's removed.

So now I will be able to add a TV Tuner card to my PC without having to worry about that stupid card that Cablevision sticks in their boxes that I can't watch TV without?

FREAKING SWEET!

Four tuners instead of two?!

FREAKING SWEEEEEET!

@gfryesc1 - I beleive that this was discussed quite a bit when MS first began supporting CableCARDs. I am not going to go search for it, but I remember discussing it either here or on Paul's other site.

--tayme

and in full HD, too - about dang time!

The costs of certifying a system previously were outrageous! We passed on it as there was too little demand to justify the hundreds of thousands of dollars it would have taken to "license" the ability.

Word is also - and they are customers of ours - that DISH has a solution that is to become available as well - so anyone may add Media Center to compatible receivers. Again, about time.

@gfryesc1

Paul has alwasy covered the limitation and it was not necessarily placed there by Microsoft - CableCARD, against how most interpret federal law, blocked any effort to bring premium HD content to Media Center.

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Is it me or Media Center didn't receive enough advertising ? Every time that I show it to someone, he want one.

@gfryesc1,

Paul did mention this quite a bit while reviewing Windows Vista.  In fact he wrote an entire section (subsection) on it in his Vista review:

www.winsupersite.com/.../winvista_07.asp

Scroll to the section titled "Media Center CableCARD/HD Restrictions."

Or here:

www.winsupersite.com/.../winvista_05g.asp

Under Windows Media Center.

So, I'm pretty certain he's mentioned this "onerous" limitation before it was removed.

Cro - Right on the money.

my example: A friend of mine brought over a Vista Ultimate laptop for me to look at for some issue (third party wireless networking app) and I showed her WMC. She was floored. "I would LOVE to have something like that..".

I promptly opened up WMC on her laptop and announced she already had it.

The look she gave was amazing..

cro, I agree with that.

There's currently a "switchover" happening in the uk, meaning that all analogue television in in the process of being switched off.

Everyone in the country has had a booklet through the door detailing all the ways of getting digital television, such as sattelite, cable, terrestrial digital etc.

It also goes into some minor detail about the kinds of equipment that can receive digital broadcasts.

Not one mention, however, of Media center.

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Absolutely too cool!

I've been pricing up to buy a TV tuner, because recording with a PC has some great advantages. WMC is definitely Windows "diamond in the rough". When I showed it off to my family, they were pretty impressed with it.

Now I have more of a reason to grab me a TV tuner. Perhaps holiday sales will bring a great deal. I'm keeping my eyes and ears open to try this out.

MS will you f**king now support DVB-C/QAM in your feature-lacking Media Centre? VMC/7MC is great for US people. Unfortunately the MCE team doesn't realize there's a world outside the US.

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Cable companies missed the boat here. In 2005/6 this would have been significant. Today, with Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, Apple iTunes store... it's too late. The distribution of premium shows via cable TV has peaked. The switch to IPTV has already begun.

This is great news...provided it doesn't turn out to be another false start for CableCARD.  This project has a history of disappointments.   But if it's real, Cable/satTV enabled tuners will be a big idea for the PC biz who need some hot upgrade options to lift their business.  And as mentioned previously, it would breathe life into the forsaken WMC.

@lketchum

Sure hope DISH provides an PC tuner option.  That'll drive Cable and DirectTV to do the same.

And if it comes to pass, what does it mean for the TV schemers  at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertinoville?  Your cue, Paul.

About time, but better late than never. My old PC will make an awesome media center PC.

Gents, I told you that Surface would be great for a family media center and home automation. Maybe will see more of it in the home with a cable card so that you just change channels with your coffee table, pull up movies through your media center and listen to music. It's gettin' there baby! And yes, I want it for my family room.

Also, my hospital, Virtua is now listed as a customer in the Microsoft Amalga Hospital Information System 2009. They are writing some crucial software including help with downtime/disaster recovery. Mike, did you tell that Dr. WAM needed them? If so, thank you.

Doc

If DISH provides a TV tuner, it'll apply to Bell, so I'll be happy.

I dunno whose technology Rogers uses, but they usually use Motorola cable tuner boxes.  Any US cable providers do the same?

In any case, if TV tuners aren't allowed to record off of HDMI (or get the same fidelity by "recording" directly from the data stream), there is no hope for this market, and TV providers will continue to offer their own HD PVR platforms as the only option.

We could always just boycott TV and go and watch good old wholesome YouTube videos like this one:

www.youtube.com/watch

Disclaimer: the age verification check is there for a reason.  Otherwise, grow up fast, boys and girls!

But Wae, I thought that the HD PVR, can be anywhere in the house, so it does not need to be with the media center. It can be on TV #2 and played on any of the homes TV, correct?

" I thought that the HD PVR, can be anywhere in the house, so it does not need to be with the media center. It can be on TV #2 and played on any of the homes TV, correct?"

Depends on the HD PVR.  Bell [Canada] is using a DISH 92xx box, which is a wired box that has 2 HD tuners built in, but you can wire up a second SDTV to it with a long coax cable and use the 2nd tuner for that TV.  I haven't seen any wireless HD PVR's in Canada yet, but I think I saw some commercial where Verizon FiOS has a 6-TV wireless PVR tuner or something.  I have no idea about the details on that though.  I know that for Canada, every HDTV has to have a separate box, and the PVR only works on the TV it's directly hooked up to.

Wireless HDMI may change some of the options in the future, but so far I haven't seen anything capable of streaming HD PVR video wirelessly to a TV, while allowing you to control the tuner box remotely, without some kind of receiver box hooked up to that TV first.

Anyway, whether the box hooked up to the TV is a full tuner or not, you still need a box there.  We have 2 TV's in our home, one is an SDTV, the other HDTV, and both have dedicated tuners, and only the HDTV tuner box has a PVR, so whatever.  The only reason I'd want to use a Media Center PC to record it is to give me extra flexibility to make TV shows portable for my Zune or PSP or something, and content providers probably won't allow that with their DRM, so it's a moot point.  IPTV is about the only thing that will allow that kind of flexibility, but that ship has long since sailed away.  I don't see the market improving much in the foreseeable future.  Instead, it'll be relegated to buying video stuff from the very limited library on iTunes, not being able to convert from HD to SD quickly, easily, or without extra cost, so as to have it on a portable device, and not having any broadcast or local television incorporated into the same system.  IPTV was going to offer that, but providers didn't want to give up their already-heavy investments in their existing dead-end money-grab technologies that are just evolutionary advances on 30-year old technology.

When they have a system in place where you can take anything from broadcast TV, save it instantly even if you missed some of it, convert it to a portable device format instantly, play it on a computer, and move it to different TV's around the house, wake me.

I din't think of the portable media player. I don't know how the HD PVR boxes for Comcast transmit wirelessly because I had Tec-ports in every room with 2 coax and 2 Cat5 wires, so I have a spare coax out of the HD box that goes back to the service box [Tec-port box or something, not outside], then to coax #2. On two Tv's I have an A-B coax switch, but Comcast sells a box that can handle it. But I think that you are correct that it's not wireless. But I'm wondering if the HD-PVR box uses the homes with a single coax, bidirectionally as I cannot figure out any other way to do it. and the web site info no longer has an easy link to find.

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Great new, and unlike Microsoft's offerings, truthful ad:

movies.apple.com/.../apple-mvp-pc_innovation_lab-us-20090910_480x272.mov

The funny part is that there is no such thing a PC Innovations.

Media Center is finally getting to the point where it is a really compelling option. The fact is Media Center crushes any other DVR solution, TiVo included.

Personally, I'm already speccing out a PC that will be my future Media Center box.

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