April 4th, 2008
Windows Media Center meets cable TV in HD
Six months ago, after years of waiting, I finally had a chance to switch my Media Center setup over to a fully digital, cable-compatible, high-definition configuration. How has it worked out? Let’s just say you’d have to pry the Media Center remote from my cold dead fingers.
My previous Media Center system was a small form factor Dell C521 that I profiled last summer. It served its purpose well, but it suffered from one crucial weakness: it couldn’t record high-definition programming over premium channels like HBO and ESPN. As a result, I had to keep the DVR I leased from DirecTV and switch between the two systems depending on what I wanted to watch or listen to. Not elegant.
So last fall, I talked to a contact at Dell and arranged to purchase a custom-built system that would work with CableCARD technology and permit me to consolidate everything in one box. In this post and the accompanying image gallery, I’ll show you this system has evolved over the past six months.
See the full Media Center/CableCARD image gallery
I’ll also show you how well the system is working today. Yesterday, I tried to push the system to the max to see how it held up. Using the two digital cable tuners and one over-the-air ATSC tuner, I began recording three high-definition broadcasts simultaneously: a college basketball game on the local CBS affiliate (over the air), an episode of MTV Unplugged (with the Black Crowes) on MusicHD, a premium cable channel, and NBC Nightly News, on the cable company’s feed of our local NBC affiliate.
With all three signals being recorded simultaneously, I tuned in the basketball game on a 24-inch 1080p monitor in my office, went to the living room and began watching the news on the big-screen 1080i Sony TV over a Media Center extender, and went to the bedroom to tune into the Black Crowes on a 42-inch 1080p TV. Everything worked perfectly, with no audio or video glitches in any of the programs. You can see the real-time performance here:
In fact, it’s rare that we push the system to that extent, and its reliability has been superb once we got past some initial glitches. (When I checked earlier this week, its Reliability rating was a perfect 10.)
Page 2: How this system evolved –>
Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 04/04/08
