al74:

DavidinCT:

Are you saying I'm a fool because of this ?

If you have the money and willing to take the risk that it gos down the drain then no, you are not a fool.
If you are spending your hard earned money under the assumption that MSFT will take care of you then yes. Considering MSFT's decisions in the last couple of months, I don't see how you can expect that any updates or solutions be available to existing users. I believe that the solution for SDV, if comes in time, will be available to new machines only.

No one wants to dump money, there is no question my mind about that. Spend $1500 ? Nah, You can get into Cable Card ready machines, when the promos are running for under $800 with a single tuner (look at the HP deals, and it's shown up 2 times in the last 3 months).

My machine needs to be overhauled, no way upgrade it any more besides replace, I could spend $600-650 on a dual core setup that I could build, or dump in $800 to go the cable card route. Would you save $150 on  a new machine and not have access to a ton of HD content that you can currently access?

Microsoft states they are working on the Tuning adapter for Media Center(see above), I feel it's reasonable to see this adapter given from your cable company, in time, will work with existing cable card setups.

As for True SDV/Tru2way (or what ever its's going to be called), to access all on-demand, etc, I don't think we will see that till Windows 7 (same with the HDPC-20/Directv) and that will require you to go out and spend $300 on a new CD/DVD to reinstall the OS. I don't forsee the cable card setup to need to be replaced, due to the protected path that is needed and it's already there.

If you need a new PC for this, I think it would be a major problem here, there are too many people who spend big $$$ on a custom machine to do cable cards and it would cause a crash in the market. I don't think Microsoft is that dumb but, they did it with past extenders but, that is for another discusson.

As for the TV pack thing, if you have installed it, you would know that it's a totaly new setup, it wipes away all your settings, scheduled recordings, and everything else. I can understand why they release it as a OEM thing. If they put it on Windows Update, people would be really upset about losing everything. Not that I agree with it but, I understand.

Microsoft, or someone, please correct me if I am wrong here....

---

-Dave

MCP, MCSA, MCSE 2003
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Technologists
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Sales professionals

Home theater specialist (10+ years)

DavidinCT:

al74:

DavidinCT:

Are you saying I'm a fool because of this ?

If you have the money and willing to take the risk that it gos down the drain then no, you are not a fool.
If you are spending your hard earned money under the assumption that MSFT will take care of you then yes. Considering MSFT's decisions in the last couple of months, I don't see how you can expect that any updates or solutions be available to existing users. I believe that the solution for SDV, if comes in time, will be available to new machines only.

No one wants to dump money, there is no question my mind about that. Spend $1500 ? Nah, You can get into Cable Card ready machines, when the promos are running for under $800 with a single tuner (look at the HP deals, and it's shown up 2 times in the last 3 months).

My machine needs to be overhauled, no way upgrade it any more besides replace, I could spend $600-650 on a dual core setup that I could build, or dump in $800 to go the cable card route. Would you save $150 on  a new machine and not have access to a ton of HD content that you can currently access?

Microsoft states they are working on the Tuning adapter for Media Center(see above), I feel it's reasonable to see this adapter given from your cable company, in time, will work with existing cable card setups.

As for True SDV/Tru2way (or what ever its's going to be called), to access all on-demand, etc, I don't think we will see that till Windows 7 (same with the HDPC-20/Directv) and that will require you to go out and spend $300 on a new CD/DVD to reinstall the OS. I don't forsee the cable card setup to need to be replaced, due to the protected path that is needed and it's already there.

If you need a new PC for this, I think it would be a major problem here, there are too many people who spend big $$$ on a custom machine to do cable cards and it would cause a crash in the market. I don't think Microsoft is that dumb but, they did it with past extenders but, that is for another discusson.

As for the TV pack thing, if you have installed it, you would know that it's a totaly new setup, it wipes away all your settings, scheduled recordings, and everything else. I can understand why they release it as a OEM thing. If they put it on Windows Update, people would be really upset about losing everything. Not that I agree with it but, I understand.

Microsoft, or someone, please correct me if I am wrong here....

Your call. If you are going to spend the money on a new machine anyways and the question is whether to add $150 for a single tuner then I can understand this decision as this is only a $150 risk. I can only hope that your cable company will be slow in adopting the new technology.

"SDV systems are now being rolled out in some areas of the country, with deployment in select cities.  Microsoft recognizes the impact of this technology on our customers and partners.  We are working to enable support for the CableLabs SDV Tuning Adaptor for Windows Media Center Digital Cable Tuners, ensuring that Windows Media Center users will be able to access switched content."

 

This is great news. Hopefully they get this in place soon.

It's November, and here in Minneapolis/St Paul we've been told we're lucky enough to be a test market for SDV. I'm not sure if they've started yet or not...

Still no adaptor. No Tru2Way. No way to use my Hauppauge 2250 to pull in a direct coax signal in addition to an svideo IR-blaster signal from the STB at the same time...

At least TotalMedia Theatre will play back BluRay from 'inside' Media Center. Aside from that, it gets difficult to convince people to stick with Media Center when they can get a good deal on one of those dual CableCARD TiVo boxes. SDV will hoze them over as well.

As far as SDV and TiVo, check the facts...

http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport/technicalsupport/compatibilityhelp/Switched_Video_Cable_Details.html

I find a good compromise is to use a TiVo HD with a single Multi-Stream CC (free from Comcast) for encrypted programing, and Vista Media Center with a HDHomeRun for my "network" programming. (NO TV Pack here!)