It's not that they are no longer selling ATI tuners, you do not have to buy them when you order a system, so if you want to order them when you build your system, you can. I was on there today looking over deals to see if the prices are any better....

I wish HP would do this as well, I was looking at their machine, and I would like to get a system with out the cable card tuners for now but, be ready for it (waiting for my local Comcrap to get some more HD channels), you have no choice with HP, if you want it cable card ready, you need to buy at least one tuner...

---

-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:

It's not that they are no longer selling ATI tuners, you do not have to buy them when you order a system, so if you want to order them when you build your system, you can. I was on there today looking over deals to see if the prices are any better....

I wish HP would do this as well, I was looking at their machine, and I would like to get a system with out the cable card tuners for now but, be ready for it (waiting for my local Comcrap to get some more HD channels), you have no choice with HP, if you want it cable card ready, you need to buy at least one tuner...

Maybe I wasn't clear.  There is currently no option to include the tuners anymore when ordering an XPS (just double checked).  It may be a temporary thing, but I found it interesting enough to pass along.

---

I just tried to build a XPS 420 system and the ATI Digital tuners are not an option for me either.  I'm so close to shipping my 420 back (got one week left) and tell Dell to shoove it!

As a side note, I was told I would NOT be charged for the tuners until they shipped (the tuners are a seperate order from the 420).  Just checked and sure enough they charged the entire 420 with tuner already.  I'm pretty sure thats illegal atleast in my state. 

Mine shipped and billed separately.  Funny thing was the cost they put down for the tuners on the separate order ($139/each)

Quantity	Item Number	Description	Unit Price
2	A1210307	TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner for Sale with XPS 420***ONLY****	$139.32

Did you get two order numbers associated with your purchase ID?

---

Yeah, I got one Dell PurchaseID with three Order Numbers under it (I bought a 5 port Gigabit switch with the XPS420 System).

Looing at my order, my tuners were only 136.26 each.

Quantity	Item Number	Description	Unit Price
2	A1210307	TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner for Sale with XPS 420***ONLY****	$136.26

 

boxerboys:

I would love to know what is going on with Dell/ATI.  Is it:
1) ATI can't keep up with the demand?
2) ATI is going in another direction with CableCards? (perhaps internal?)
3) Any other suggestions?

Hopefully I can answer a few of your questions --

1) I've had a few ATI digital cable tuners, since they FIRST came out about a year ago and recently got another set factory fresh from Dell about a week ago.  It was really strange, the memory chips on the new and old (still one samsung on bottom, one micron on top) have the same manufacture dates 646 for samsung and 0646 for micron.  If they are still using memory from this particular week of manufacture, these units must be VERY low production.

2) Internal and External tuners are about the same.  For example, I am currently running one internal digital cable tuner inside my XPS and one external.  I am debating if I want to void my warranty and move the other tuner inside.  After all, it saves power because you are using your PSU inside the XPS420, so it has higher efficency.  It has an 80mm fan that keeps the tuners fairly cool.  Lastly, it takes up MUCH less space, LESS cables and more free outlets :)

3) Most likely senario is that sales are doing better than expected.  Also, I would think that ATI/Dell may be questioning their move to sell people 400-500 dollar tuners when cable co's are moving to M cards and Switched video.  On top of this, a company like Dell has a really tough time giving customer service for such a unique product.  While the idea is cool in concept, sadly I dont think we will be ready for mass adoption unil BOCUR (tru2way or whatever).


Hope this helps!

Not sure what the deal is, but I just checked and once again the ATI DCT is an option on the Dell XPS 420 at the low price of $199 for one or $379 for two.

---

Ben
How good can it be, if it isn't HD?
Engadget HD

bjdraw:

Not sure what the deal is, but I just checked and once again the ATI DCT is an option on the Dell XPS 420 at the low price of $199 for one or $379 for two.

sounds like Dell is confused *shrug*

Tuner Shipment Finally!  Ordered on 3/30/2008 and my tunners shipped on 4/28/08.  Its way better than the 5/21/08 projected date for shipping, but a frustrating month to wait. 

I thought I would give an update on my installation of my XPS 420 + Dual ATI DCT Cards.

Received both tuners.  Connected them one at a time, upgraded the firmware to 1.17 and verified they worked w/out the cable cards.  I only had one Cable Card, so after verifying both tuners worked, I pluged in the CC to one of them (left the other uplugged) and went through setup. 

Called Comcast and paired the card with the ATI host. Didn't have any issues and was recording non-premimum HD content pretty easily.  So far so good.

Went by Comcast the next day and picked up a second S-Card.  Spent 8 hours trying to get the second card/tuner to work.  Both tuners showed up in Network, but I couldn't get Media Center to see the second tuner. In all my things I tried, I also un-installed Trend, turned off windows firewall and everything else.  Finally I got VMC to see the second tuner.  However, it wouldn't tune anything.   I finally gave up assuming the card was bad.

Went by Comcast again today, swapped the S-Card for a new one and picked up an M-Card as well. Got home, tried the M-Card and all non-premium channels worked.  I think we messed up the pairing on this for the premium channels.  Unpaired the M-Card and paired the S-Card. Same results as the second S-Card, where nothing would tune.

Called Comcast back and changed the pairing back to the M-Card (non-premium channles are better than none and since all the HD channels were working, fine). However, after pairing the M-Card and waiting about 5 mins, all channels are now working on both tuners. 

 I've got four OTA HD tuners and two DCT Tuners saving recorded tv to a striped pair of 500GB HDs. I've recorded a ton of stuff so far and no issues.  Lets hope the 1.17 firmware fixes all the reported issues. Besides the PITA second tunner not showing up in VMC, everything else was pretty straight forward.

Went on there just checking it out, the tuners are listed when setting up for a new XPS 420 at $199 each or $379 for a pair....I still feel these tuners should be around $100 each but, that's just me...

---

-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)

No support from Dell on canceling my backorder.  Wasted more time than I wish to admit.  Dell has now joined Linksys & Seagate on my list of companies to avoid doing business with due to poor customer service (I have advised my clients, family, friends, and fellow bloggers)...

---

1 - Dell XPS 420 (Q6600, 4GB, 6TB, w/256MB 2400 XT).
2 - ATI OCUR Digital CableCard Tuners
2 - Linksys DMA2100 (for sale; $200 each)
2 - Microsoft Xbox 360 Arcade
2 - Microsoft Xbox 360 Core
1 - Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite