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Engadget Podcast 169 - 10.31.2009
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- DROID and DROID Eris now cash sentient on Verizon
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- Olympus E-P2 official, patches over E-P1 problems and jacks up the price
- New York attorney general files antitrust lawsuit against Intel
- HTC HD2 officially coming to US, out in Europe and Asia today!
- T-Mobile USA down all over the place? (update: yes)
- AT&T sues Verizon over 'there's a map for that' ads
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- TwitterPeek review
- Verizon's BlackBerry 8530 and LG Chocolate Touch go hands-on
- Dell Adamo XPS coming 'in time for the holidays' for $1799 (unboxing and hands-on video!)
- DROID ERIS hands-on and unboxing!
- BlackBerry Bold 9700 hands-on and impressions
- Apple TV 3.0.1 update prevents data from 'temporarily disappearing'
- HDTV Listings for November 7, 2009
- Comcast lining up more day-and-date HD VOD this month
- Managed Copy hits Blu-ray Discs December 4th, but you still can't use it
- Microsoft emancipates Digital Cable Tuners with second Media Center update today
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike Smith @ May 21st 2007 10:13PM
Same question as Eric. Can you add an ATI DCT to a "non CableLabs Certified" Media Center. Seriously, if you guys have an extra Vista Media Center around, can you plug it in and have it work on a machine other than the Dell XPS 410?
Ryan @ May 22nd 2007 3:48AM
It's in the article. You can't just do that, blame Cable Card. I've been building MCE systems since the first release, and been building OTA HD for over two years. I'm very disappointed that this is the way things have turned out, but I also understand why things have turned out this way.
What works for me right now, is using a SiliconDust HDHomeRun. This let's me get the QAM 256 programming straight from digital cable, but I can't get encrypted digital programming. You need OCUR to do that. I can live with this for now, I have close to 80 digital channels and still use an STB for recording HBO in analog. It'd be nice to have pay channels in HD, but for now I don't care. Unless pay cable channels can learn how to make this easy and resonable, they're going to loose me as a customer.
For my money, hopefully Microsoft improves the QAM story since I feel like I'm still reliving the ATSC beta experience. My setup right now works -- it could be better -- but at least I get HD content for 90% of what I care about, digital for another 9% that isn't available on HD stations, and I'm weening myself from that remaining 1%. After the Sopranano's wraps in 3 weeks, I'm going to have to have a serious heart to heart with my cable provider.
Unless you absolutely need ESPN, Discovery, HBO, or one of the countless other premium HD channels, you may want to consider other alternatives. A QAM tuner with BDA drivers and a remap tool fits my budget and eliminates the DRM crap that comes with OCUR.