For anyone who's complained about nVidia drivers missing features (like TV specific ones, for example), take note of the freshly released 174 drivers. It only officially supports the GeForce 9600, of course, but look for a more global release soon, or get the modded drivers from Guru3D if you're feeling ambitious. New features sound great--though I haven't tried these out myself:

 

What’s New in Release 174

• Added the following pages to the NVIDIA Control Panel:

• Manage Custom Resolutions

• Adjust Television Color Settings

• Adjust Screen Size and Position

• Move CRT Position

• Added the following new Pure Video HD features for the GeForce 9600 GT:

• Dynamic Contrast Enhancement

• Dynamic Blue, Green & Skin Tone Enhancements

• Per‐display controls for the video settings in the NVIDIA Control Panel

• Dual‐Stream Decode Acceleration.

 

Also interesting is what's noted as permanently dropped:

DVD/MPEG Extensions (such as was provided with Windows Media Center Edition)

• Audio Extensions (such as was provided with Windows Media Center Edition)

• Microsoft Windows Vista Aero display mode compatibility for Blu‐ray & HD DVD playback

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Software--Dual Boot: Vista TV Pack / 7 Build 7100
Hardware--Intel DG31PR mobo, Core 2 Duo E6700, 2GB DDR2 RAM, Asus nVidia 8500 GT, Hauppauge Win-TV-HVR-1800, integrated audio, Antec Fusion 430 case

very cool, good to see their focus on MCE continue. Hopefully they branch it out to more cards as well (sooner than later)

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Mike Garcen
TGB Moderator | MissingRemote Editor/Reviewer| Microsoft MVP - Media Center
My MCE Setup

I'll have to check out Guru3D, if a driver is that good, they will hack the inf file to include all current cards, I still have a 7600GS 512mb card in my HTPC (still have AGP in my machine).

Will upgrade soon but, really waiting for this Cable card/DTV thing to be sorted out, to figure out of I am going to buy a new machine or build a new one....

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-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)

I think cablecard is as sorted out as it's going to get for awhile..

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