Now that we're getting down to 6 months on the VISTA schedule it might be good to look at what is on the horizon for Media Center. Specifically, CableCARD capabilities.
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2199/more_concrete_details – this is a good start.
So it looks like we'll be getting CableCARD support in Vista just when the cable companies are abandoning Cable Card 1.0. Great. So now we're stuck in a grey area of support – CableCARD 2.0 should be out, but no guarantees.
And they won't allow home-built or older Media Centers to be upgraded to CableCard with any kind of support. Even better.
HD Beat has a great set of articles – looks at CableCARD 2.0, Vista features and other HD information. http://www.hdbeat.com/search/?q=cablecard
Well, I for one am fed up with the horrid software that cable companies and the set top box makers force on us. My DCT6412 is very bad – I won't detail everything, but I'm glad it at least can record shows and we finally got ESPN2 HD – woot! – that only took about 3 years too long.
Let's hope that CableCARD 2.0 is actually good – something CableCARD 1.0 was NOT.
ps – sorry about the links, I'll try to address that in future posts.
Until next time!
