Someone is going to get kicked out of the beta if they keep leaking this stuff.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

From engadget-hd

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/04/hdpc-20-to-be-used-in-directv-media-center-beta-test/

Not understanding why you would need the ir emitters?

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

Or the tv tuner card for that matter? I would think these things would be everything you needed??

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

They might be checking for compatibility issues between a TV tuner (ATSC and/or NTSC) and the DirecTV tuners.

I think the best news here is that they aren't shipping out entire HTPCs, which might be a reasonable indication that these are stand-alone add-ons to existing HTPCs -- at least that is what I want to buy.

I know people aren't supposed to leak this stuff, but there certainly is an appetite out there for it....

It said may, which means it "may" be something like an ATSC tuner to test D*+ATSC.  As for the IR, you can package three of those up and they equal a remote remote/receiver combo, on a hardware loan agreement they are broken up in to individual pieces.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

That makes since man I wish I was excepted into this beta. Hopefully they will be more reliable than the current OCUR situation.

But then again I use to have directv and Hated the compression on their hd feeds compared to my local cable company.

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

PLUCKYHD:

From engadget-hd

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/04/hdpc-20-to-be-used-in-directv-media-center-beta-test/

Not understanding why you would need the ir emitters?

 

woo beat you to it

PLUCKYHD:

But then again I use to have directv and Hated the compression on their hd feeds compared to my local cable company.

Not anymore it doesn't.    Great quality especially with new MPEG-4 channels.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

PLUCKYHD:

That makes since man I wish I was excepted into this beta. Hopefully they will be more reliable than the current OCUR situation.

But then again I use to have directv and Hated the compression on their hd feeds compared to my local cable company.

DirecTV's HD on the new MPEG4 channels (the majority of their HD) is awesome. Very high quality. You can't compare the DirecTV before September 2007 with where they are now with respect to HD.

I have seen the new mpeg 4 and while i do agree it looks better still not great as all channels are not mpeg 4 yet.

Maybe it will turn me if they are OEM I may sell this expensive dell I bought and build myself another HTPC with what I want in it. That and it will cost me more since Cable gives me good bundle discounts and don't charge for HDTV. Directv on the other hand from what I read is going to be $15 a month for HDTV channels. Only time will tell what I will do.

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

SD channels don't really need the benefit of MPEG-4, and 95% of HD channels are MPEG-4 now.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

I think Chris is trying to get my wife to kick me out by me saying I need another new media center :)

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

BTDT:

I think the best news here is that they aren't shipping out entire HTPCs, which might be a reasonable indication that these are stand-alone add-ons to existing HTPCs -- at least that is what I want to buy.

That's exactly what I said.

Hopefully and I think it will be true, it will have content protection but remember it was cable labs that made the cable cards so strict and sattelite it not held to that.

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Dell xps420 w/ dual ATI cable cards
Hdhomerun for QAM
Panasonic 50" Plasma fed by xbox 360
Panasonic 42" plama fed by xbox 360
5TB in storage and counting

With regard to content protection, my dream is that in addition to allowing you to utilize multiple tuners that they could exist on different boxes as well and share content between them.  This would provide flexibility in multiroom setups.