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.