Where are VISTA Cable Card HTPCs?

Velocity Micro is the only place I have seen one

Dell, Niveus, Velocity Micro, and Vidabox are all set to ship in March.

Chris

Chris, Any info on what these companies will be shipping? All ultra-high end systems?

I just hope someone releases a USB based one that will work with a mac. I doubt it but one can hope. I also read about some satelite based ones as well. This is what I am hoping for so I can time shift DirecTV without being tied to a DVR and limited capacity.

Niveus will ship all of these PC's with the option. Older PC's can be sent back to Niveus and be upgraded. They have a separate STB dual CableCARD tuner that fits in nicely with the rest of there stuff, retails for.....$1,500.

The only thing Dell has released is that they will sell an XPS 410 bundle that includes OCUR(s). No word yet on seperate deals, but I would expect a system like the XPS 410 to have an option for CableCARD at some point.

VidaBox is supposed to offer a whole line, I'm sure it will make it into most of their machines.

HP, Gateway, etc have not said anything yet, but I also expect them to start shipping at some point, likely Q2.

Chris

Vista Media Center is the only OS currently approved by CableLabs as what they call a "Home Media Server". Considering no Mac's even have HDCP, I would consider CableCARD or even D* support to be very far away. Online content is what Apple seems to be putting all of there apples in (pun intended).

Chris

Now, if only they would figure out to stick it in something that looks like an entertainment device and not a PC.

Niveus, Velocity Micro, and Vidabox all do just that. Of the people said to ship CableCARD boxes next month, only one will ship exclusively in a Desktop PC platform, that being Dell.

I'm sure HP's first machines with CableCARD support will be their DEC, which are also true HTPC design cases. Gateway had one of the first true HTPC cases from a big OEM, not sure if they will bring that back.

Chris

We are set to ship systems with the Digital Cable tuners in late March to early April. All our models, except for our small ROOMMATE model, will have Digital Cable tuner options. Maximum of two tuners just like everyone else.

Sergio
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