Doth our eyes deceive us? Have we finally happened upon a real life computer with real life CableCARD after all these years? It looks like
PC Mag's finally got that early review up of the
Dell XPS 410 with ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner (and Blu-ray, to boot!), which we've come to find out is, unfortunately, still just a working prototype (read: not hitting the market just yet). That didn't stop them and their dual CableCARD tuners from jacking into some serious HD cable though. Interesting notes:
- Dell claims that the sales rep who takes the order for your CableCARD-equipped Dell box will also schedule an appointment with your local cable company to have the CableCARDs delivered and installed the same day your system comes. (Really? We're skeptical.)
- The initial CableCARD install apparently took three friggin hours to drop in, provision, and get running; one of the two tuners continually didn't work for PC Mag, which caused lingering issues. Both the cable company and Dell eventually had to reflash the tuner and CableCARDs.
- HD (and some SD) video had problems: "stuttering and video artifact issues". Bummer.
- Dell said "the company went with Blu-ray instead of HD-DVD [sic] simply because BD-RE is a writable drive now" -- does that mean when writable HD DVD drives are more commonplace Dell will offer both?
- Streaming live and recorded TV to your Xbox 360 works flawlessly, as expected.
- Blu-ray playback worked well with 3rd party apps, but like HD DVD, it can't yet be done in Media Center (yay DRM)
- The system hit some performance limits when playing back Blu-ray flicks and streaming or recording media. More power!
- We don't agree with PC Mag's assessment that "TV on Vista's MCE interface is still a niche product". Perhaps because many millions of Media Center PCs have been shipped -- but let's not split hairs.
There, are you as stoked as we are for this? Problems and crappy CableLABS DRM and CableCARD issues and all?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Emannikcufesin @ Mar 16th 2007 1:27AM
Who cares? An overpriced computer that will be outdated in 3 years. Woo-Hoo.
Dave @ Mar 16th 2007 2:00AM
Every computer today will be outdated in 3 years.
What is your point? Not to buy computers?
Phatman @ Mar 16th 2007 2:47PM
CABLECard is a stupid standard that was DOA. A Downloadable Conditional Access System (google it) is going to be in place long before the FCC forces the Cable companies to stop shipping proprietary set top boxes. Plus, my local cable company's HD lineup isn't that much better than what I can get OTA (for free no less). The only reasons to bother with HD from Cox for sports (and who wants to time shift sporting events?!?!) or DiscoveryHD. By the time they start offering other non-local HD channels CABLECard will be a long forgotten memory.
walk2k @ Mar 16th 2007 3:43PM
Ugh, 2 external tuner boxes?
Sounds like they have some performance issues to work out also.
Not surprised though - Windows is not a real-time OS.
xjonx @ Mar 16th 2007 3:56PM
Phatman:
I would not say it was stupid. CC is not a bad idea, the problem is the installers are stupid. This Saturday will be the third time I have had comcast out to setup my CC. Who ever buy or designs these these must have starter installers than are around here.
horngreen @ Mar 20th 2007 9:05PM
No VOD, no tv guide(no 2-way cable card)...this will be a door stop before you know it. The only good thing about this dinasour is unlimited storage to record all the HD you want
bigh @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:43PM
What are you talking about, "no tv guide"? Do you even know what MediaCenter is? I suggest you check it out before commenting. Also, I've never watched any VOD, so I couldn't care less about the one directional thing.
As to someone saying this is not going to be an improvement over OTA HD - I've done OTA HD, it's not reliable. It all depends on where you are located, some channels might come in ok, but others don't. Even on channels that do come in, there is always some skipping every once in a while. Also there are way more HD channels on cable than OTA.
As for someone commenting about performance problems when watching a HD movie and streaming/recording HD cable at the same time being Windows' fault, come on. Does that really make any sense to you? Also, if you don't like the two external boxes, get the internal version. But given that the interface for the OCUR is USB either way, I'd personally prefer to have the external version rather than use up expansion slots unnecessarily.