Engadget got them to say that, depending on your order, the four-tuner version of the card will retail somewhere between $US300 and $US600. In comparison, an ATI Digital TV Tuner is $US230, so four of those would bring you up to $US920. And, you would need four separate CableCARDs from your cable service provider. which at $US5 each, runs you an extra $US20 on your bill. And the savings get better when you go to the 6 card version.

The official launch is 2010, so we won’t be seeing these cards for a little while yet, so there’s time for the networks to collaborate to make and air six shows that are worth recording in the same time slot. [Ceton via Engadget]

What it means to you, theoretically, is that you should be able to go out and buy CableCARD tuners and add them to your Windows 7 machines to turn any old machine you have lying around into an HTPC. Also, they’ve raised the limit to four tuners per “tuner type”, so you can have four digital cable channels simultaneously without any kind of special setup.

There is also a new Firmware update for ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuners to mark copy-freely content—the content you can move around your network and portable devices. [Microsoft]

Tweakers have finally bypassed the one thing in the way of getting CableCARD tuners working on any old PC by fiddling with the BIOS and entering in certain product IDs. It’s a good start.

Previously, you could only get a HTPC hooked up to watch digital cable using a CableCARD that was authorised by CableLABS, which only authorised them on systems you buy pre-built from OEMs. Now, if these DIYers can figure out how to enable the hack on many systems beside just ASUS P5Q motherboards, we’d have something going. You still need to buy a standard CableCARD tuner, however, so don’t get your hopes up that you’re saving money on that. [Green Button via Engadget]

Denver, CO – CEDIA EXPO 2008 – September 4 – 7, 2008 – Booth #410 – When you take the best possible options for high definition entertainment and combine them into one seriously powerful media server, you’re going to need a new name for the experience you create. Life|ware™, makers of whole home automation and entertainment solutions, have done just that, unveiling a new “High Density Television™” initiative that brings in more high definition entertainment and distributes it around the home more effectively than ever before.

“High Density TV reinvents how we will move and/or view high definition entertainment around the home,” said Seale Moorer, Life|ware’s Chief Executive Officer. “This is the first solution to provide a whole house entertainment server that provides unparalleled capability in terms of HDTV tuners, HDTV streaming and Digital Media management for consumers.”

Life|media™ 810: 8 TV tuners, 10 Extenders, 12 TB of Storage
Several new Life|media units highlight the effort, headed by the company’s new Life|media LMS-810, which has 8 HDTV CableCARD™ tuners and can support up to 10 Media Centre Extender devices.

“The 810 is a very powerful Media Server,” said Moorer. “It deftly handles the high-definition feeds from eight CableCARD tuners and provides HD streaming to ten extenders over the existing home network.”
The 810 provides an incredible 12 terabytes of RAID 5 storage which provide the disk space for a huge digital library of recorded TV, movies, music, photos and videos.

“The Life|media LMS 810 is the centerpiece of a digital entertainment solution as we all envision it,” said Pat King, senior vice president of Seagate’s Consumer Solution Division. “Seagate’s Pipeline HD hard drives are designed specifically for this type of scenario. With HD video optimization, exceptionally quiet acoustics and power management, Pipeline HD drives enable the LMS 810 to provide a reliable way to enjoy digital entertainment.”

Life|tuner™ provides more video options
Also being unveiled at CEDIA is the Life|tuner series of HDTV CableCARD tuner devices that work with Life|ware’s Life|media media servers, allowing the addition of up to six additional HDTV tuners to the Life|media experience.

“Life|tuner is another product that makes life easier for our dealers,” said Moorer. “Obviously, TV tuners themselves are nothing new, but this product allows the easy addition of two, four or six CableCARD tuners to our Life|media servers.”

Life|media media servers feature two CableCARD TV tuners. By adding the six-tuner Life|tuner unit to a high-end Life|media, a consumer has a remarkable 8-tuner DVR solution.

The question is, are we turning a corner? The AP story below addresses how badly the cable companies are taking this new mandate. One industry spokesman called it a “set-top box tax” with “no benefit to consumers.” A cable-co watchdog countered that cable companies have no problem raising rates anyway, so having a reason shouldn’t make them mad. But what about those third-party products? The sad truth is, a set-top box issued by the cable overlords will still have more functionality than any third-party product, at least until CableCard 2.0 gets here.

Cable firms to raise set-top box rates [AP]

I want to record high def cable TV, at full resolution. So there are only a few choices: TiVo Series 3, a Vista Media Centre PC with Cable cards, or a rental box from the cable company. I realise that this list has a price spread of a few bucks a month to rent the cable company DVR to several thousand dollars to get the PC, but let’s ignore that for a second.

I compared the TiVo and Vista machine with Cable Card this week. And I think you’ll be surprised to know that the Media Centre PC has a better user interface when it comes to recording shows, channel surfing, and watching TV. And playback of music, videos, and photos. The TiVo’s OS just feels aged compared to the slick Vista Media Centre interface. Did that surprise you?

I just wrote that Microsoft’s interface is better than the TiVo’s. Madness, I know.

The Media Centre is better my almost all measurements. But for reasons I don’t fully comprehend, I used the TiVo more. It’s mysterious, but maybe I can shed some light on why:

For one thing, TiVo didn’t crash. But it’s more than the issue of stability that pushed me to TiVo (it’s a big issue, for TV recording, I know). Despite the OS being aged, it made me enjoy watching TV. I liked that it would recommend shows based on my viewing habits, and I liked that it didn’t feel like I had too many other things to play with while I had it on. (A benefit to the TiVo sucking at most other things?) The main thing on the TiVo is that all my efforts were funneled towards couch potato non-action. The Media Centre made me want to start using the keyboard, playing with the photos slideshow, and constantly switch between everything. The TiVo wasn’t faster than the media Centre, and it wasn’t slicker, but it was effortless. I don’t know why.

Here’s the breakdown on both:

The Guide and Flipping Channels
Media Centre wins. The Media Centre’s guide is the fastest thing ever. Like Tivo, you can flip through by channel or by page. But scanning is ultra fast, without any refresh display.

Pressing up and down on the d-pad shows a mini onscreen guide, which shows guide detail of current shows, one channel at a time, without changing the channel until you select it. Massively useful.

Although the Tivo’s UI has aged, it’s still brilliant. The guide’s listing is laggy, but it has the neat listing of a particular channel’s shows on the right hand side, show by show, instead of in half hour increments. That way, it fits more on screen at once. They fix that speed issue on the guide, and the sensation of channel flipping would be a lot better.

Both show the current channel through the guide’s transparent background.

Quick Recording
The Media Centre is faster. The Media Centre can record with one click, and record a series of shows with a second click.

TiVo wins for being smart. There’s some lag here, when shows are set to record, but that’s not a big deal, merely an annoyance. TiVo’s season pass just picks up the shows I want, knowing which are dupes, etc. MCE, I haven’t developed that trust that it’ll pick up the right shows.

Searching for shows
Media Centre wins…if you have a keyboard, or not. Searching for shows is faster.
The TiVo’s lag hits every time you click on a new letter, basically so that the TiVo can poll for matching shows as you type.

Photos and Music
Media Centre DESTROYS TiVo. TiVo desktop allows a pc or mac to stream photos and music to the TiVo, but it’s UI can’t match the Media Centre’s handling of each. You can sort and create playlists and slideshows, and even edit photos. It’s all thumbnailed and extremely slick. Using it makes me think about divorcing myself from iTunes, iPhoto, and make a Vista livingroom PC my media server. (See the gallery for more understanding of why I love this system). There’s also a hookup for your online Yahoo!’s photos (not flickr), but MCE has this too (not in the main photo menu, but under online.

Media Centre can basically be loaded up with any codec…and double as a torrent machine.

Remote Scheduling
TiVo wins for ease of use. TiVo has their website, and MCE has an underdocumented MSN plug in that allows it via web. TiVo has a Verizon App. But chances are a phone with a decent web browser can sludge through the MSN site and remote schedule.

Recommendations, Movie Listings, Sports Features and More
TiVo’s recommendation system is amazing. You give shows you’re watching or have recorded between one to three thumbs up or thumbs down signs. And TiVo uses your spare space to get shows it think you might like. Amazing to find new shows this way, even if some people have voiced privacy concerns.

Media Centre has a neat feature that grabs art and metadata for all the movies playing now or soon, and tiles them on a movies page. It’s an easy way to find flicks.

Tivo has a movie rental hook in with Amazon’s Unbox. Last time I checked, Unbox has ~5,000 movies. I’d like to see HD movies here. Movies expire 24 hours after you hit play. MCE has all sorts of hook ins for movie rental from services like Movielink. It’s a PC, after all.

TiVo has weather and traffic maps via Yahoo!, as well as a ticket buying feature via Fandango. I like both.

Expandability
TiVo, continues to release new features, like their Swivel search last week, which let’s you search through a show’s metadata to find similar content. But the Media Centre’s plugin community is pretty extensive. There’s tons of stuff for iTunes, Netflix, Youtube, weather, and more. Chances are, there aren’t many partner features TiVo has that MCE can’t somehow replicate, via plugin or via Windows itself.

Stability and Messes of Cables
It had to be said, but it’s obvious. The Vista Machine is a Windows PC. It crashes, and sometimes the external USB tuner needs to be restarted. The Dell I’m testing lost connection with its ATI external tuner several times, needing to be reboot, and crashed a few times over the week, too. Fantastic machine or not, a DVR has to be alive to record shows. And to match the twin HD tuners of the TiVo, you need 2 external ATI tuners, each using a USB port, powerplug, and a cable coax. Very annoying. (Velocity Micro is shipping internal tuners in their boxes now.)

Mobile Devices
Media Centre can sync to Plays for Sure devices. TiVo can use TiVo to go. I’m sure there are differences here, but it’s pretty much a wash.

Price
A new, Cable Labs certified PC costs $TK, a TiVo Series 3 costs $US600 plus ~$US15 a month, and a crappy DVR from your cable goes for about $US15/month, too. The TiVo and PC in these situations are luxury for the people insane enough to spend a lot of money on gadgets. The TiVo wins, but you already knew that.

I like the idea of the CableCARD PC a lot. So if the prices were closer together, I’d recommend it over the TiVo. But given the undeniable fact that I used TiVo 85% of the time (and I’m not a TiVo fanboy), and that its cheaper, I’d recommend that for couch potatoes, and the PC for ultimate media geeks. I just wish its fans would stop whirring. I feel like this thing uses a lot of juice to run 24/7. – Brian Lam