Wow, those look bad ass.

Anything from Nvidia at CES? I’m a bit surprised that ATI showed this and Nvidia did nothing. To be honest, I got so fed up with ATI’s ridiculously/constantly broken drivers that I have given up on them… It is very encouraging to see this external unit though, hope for us to roll our own PCs!

Jerry,

Nvidia does not have any OCUR based devices. For that matter, no other company has an OCUR based device. ATI/AMD is the first, however, when I spoke to ATI/AMD reps, they said anyone can make them, the spec is available to any company.

Guess we’ll start seeing more…

Danny

Did you see the Niveus setup? Where they using ATI’s? The pics i have seen of it look totally different, but it might just be re-shelled or something. Either way, it sure looks like a new PC is necessary if you want cable-card in the near-term. The Niveus stuff looks nice, but of course, expensive, and probably not terribly DIY upgradeable…
Good in-depth Niveus link:
http://www.cepro.com/news/editorial/16823.html

I’m a little behind the curve with this whole CABLE Card thing.. Are these only valid for Cable (Comcast, and the like) and not Satellite?

I’m a little behind the curve with this whole CABLE Card thing.. Are these only valid for Cable (Comcast, and the like) and not Satellite?

And how does and internal card connect via usb?

Jerry,

The Niveus setup uses the ATI internal OCUR based card. Just like the Sony. I did see the Niveus Digital Cable Tuner at the Microsoft booth.

TV,

Yes, the OCUR tuners are only for digital cable systems that support cablecards (PCMCIA/PC CARD). The internal card with connect via usb headers.

Danny

Good to know…

Thanks!

I wonder if VZ or ATT IPTV offerings will support this?

ATT IPTV will be able to use xbox360… this is just for getting HD and digital cable on your HTPC. Then use a 360 and get it on any TV in your home. :) Can’t wait for these to come out. Will hold me over until IPTV is available in my area.

You are wrong. It does work for Satellite as well.

i work for a cable company and i tried to set one of these up for a customer. i ran into a lot of issues even trying to get it to WORK. i’ve read a lot on these since this install and i think there might be a lot of security issues between different interfaces of cable systems, cable cards, and getting this thing to work. if anyone gets one and successfully gets it to work i’ll check back because hours of tinkering with it all i could get is ati telling me they don’t support it the pc manufacture has to, but wait, no it’s a vista problem, no its the cable company’s problem… GOOD LUCK!

John, you are wrong. CableCards have nothing to do with satellite. This tuner will do nothing for those with satellite. DirecTV claims to be releasing their own media center tuner in the near future however…

I have one of these cards working in my office. I have it connecting via USB 2.0 to my media ready HP d5000t vista home premium PC. I also have an HP smartconnect media extender with an HDMI output to my 47” Vizio LCD. The CableCard is difficult to obtain. We have cablevision and NOBODY other then the service techinicians even know what PCMCIA is. It looks like the card that goes into the side of a laptop. Once I got the card installed (by an onsite technician), it is called an MCard by the way, it was working great.

Now the Problem/Question…

How do I get this thing to RECORD??? Every time I hit record the channel fades out and says there is no signal coming from the cable company. I can view live HD and regular TV but when I record the picture goes away. THAT WAS WHY I PURCHASED THIS THING, if it doesnt do that I am sending it all back and getting a DVR from cablevision for $10 a month.