🚀 go-pugleaf

Arny Krueger wrote:
> "J. Clarke" <jclarke.usenet@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:uKv$YLAPIHA.4272@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl
>> Arny Krueger wrote:
>>> "Romeo Rondeau" <eveyone@ease.com> wrote in message
>>> news:FAn7j.77129$YL5.8985@newssvr29.news.prodigy.net
>>>> Arny Krueger wrote:
>>>>> "David B." <brooks.dj@nomail.com> wrote in message
>>>>> news:uO0Gx22OIHA.4912@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl
>>>>>> Do you even know what Media Center is/does?
>>>>>> It's been around for 5 years and is used by many
>>>>>> people as a PVR/cable box replacement, does a great
>>>>>> job, it's also available in Vista.
>>>>>
>>>>> Compared to running any of the PVR software packages
>>>>> that are sold with video tuner and capture cards, it
>>>>> really doesn't seem to do anything that is terribly
>>>>> unique.
>>>
>>>> It does look cool on an HDTV, and that's what it was
>>>> designed to do :-)
>>>
>>> Yes, but the PVR software/hardware does the same stuff.
>>> If you're in the market, ADS cards come with what seems
>>> to be the best software. I picked up a pretty functional
>>> HDTV package for XP by ADS from Amazon for about $60.
>>>
>>> If you want to expunge what the PVR software does to
>>> your system from
>>> your system, you just uninstall it. So far I haven't
>>> found that it creates any big black holes while
>>> installed, other than creating a lot of I/O when you are
>>> recording or playing video, or when you are
>>> time-shifting.
>>>
>>> One other thing is that the third party software that
>>> comes with the TV tuner and video capture cards seems to
>>> have a fair amount of cross-vendor compatibility. For
>>> example, I've inter-operated PVR software and cards from
>>> ADS and ATI.
>
>>> If you run Windows MCE your tuner/capture card needs to
>>> provide special software for running with Windows MCE.
>>> I've run cards that came with MCE drivers with other
>>> vendor's PVR software. So MCE reduces your options.
>
>> However if MCE came bundled with the machine then why pay
>> extra for a third party package?
>
> The third party package doesn't cost squat. I picked up an ADS
> HDTV/video capture card on Amazon for like $60-70.  I think it was
> cheaper than the cheapest HDTV card that I could find that would 
> work
> with MCE, and not by just a little.

Which ADS HDTV product doesn't support MCE?

>> MCE was never sold as a consumer product, the only way
>> you could get it was with a machine or as an OEM System
>> Builder product, so there's no scenario of going out and
>> buying MCE to get PVR functionality.
>
> Yes, there's no retail version of Windows MCE. Thus MS forces people
> to learn how to spell Torrent if they want to build their own
> hardware.

Good luck activating it.  If you wanted the System Builder product all 
you had to do was shell out 150 bucks or so to newegg, but it wasn't 
something you'd find on the shelf at CompUSA--you had to go out and 
look for it.

>> And none of those third party packages let you view the
>> secured HD content on cable--for that Vista is the only
>> game in town.
>
> On Comcast, AFAIK the only way to watch secured HD content is to 
> have
> one of their boxes, or a device that takes one of their cards. I 
> know
> of no PC accessories that take a card.

The technology is called "Cable Card" and several companies are making 
PCs that support it, all using ATI tuners and running Vista.  The 
catch is that you have to buy the tuner and the PC together and they 
have to be certified by Cable Labs as a unit.

You can also access the content from a PC using a networked HDTivo.

> I've heard about secured HD content, but I know of no providers who
> are actually delivering it nationwide today.

I know of no cable company that is _not_ doing so.  Local stations and 
a few other channels are generally unscrambled QAM, but all the 
premium channels are scrambled in one manner or another.  In some 
cases they'll show the first ten minutes on one frequency and then 
switch to another, in others the signal can't be deciphered by QAM 
hardware at all.

-- 
-- 
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)