After years of stringing Microsoft’s Media Center users along from XP Media Center to Vista Media Center to the much-less-then-expected Fiji, we’ve been promised a CableCARD-like DirecTV tuner. Fast forward to Ed Bott’s DirecTV HDPC-20 USB tuner driver discovery within a pre-release of Windows 7. This doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a HDPC20 device at the moment, but the driver’s presence and earlier announcement of H.264 support certainly improves the odds that we’ll see such a product once Windows 7 is released… in 2009 or 2010. If these arrive and deliver as hoped, it’ll make an immediate impact on the HTPC world. Still, if you’re more about getting satellite (or digital cable) programming on your HTPC in the here and now – check out the Hauppauge HD-PVR along with SageTV, BeyondTV or GBPVR.
Check out more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media at Geek Tonic.
Beyond wondering when (if) we’ll see the DirecTV dual tuner for Windows 7 Media Center the other questions are:
How much will it cost?
Will it be OEM only or available to all?
Will it be like CableCard and have to be pre-installed?
What kind of DRM restrictions will it put on the content?
I think those are the biggest unanswered questions…
Argh! We just added a second TV to our house and I was thinking cheap PC running media center instead of another DirecTV STB. I know that cable cards are required by law and that the cable companies resisted the legislation. But wow I’m literally astonished at the foot dragging on making usable products out of the more or less proven technology.
These companies are going to put themselves out of business. We will all end up getting the content over the internet to put on our enormous screens.
Windows 7 — that is going to be 3 more years.