ATI announces CableCard tuner for PC & Laptop (1 Viewer)

[sxt173]

Hey guys,

Just saw this tidbit of exciting news ATI just announced at CES that they will be releasing a ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner. It will basically be a CableCard tuner!

It will initially be OEM (for Vista certified computers), so Dell's and stuff, but this means they will start providing it non OEM too.

A little worried that we may have to go to Vista just to be able to install CableCard's and also a bit worried that ATI's aren't the most popular tuners on these sites..

But finally, no more IR blasters, serial cables or only access to analog channels!!! Yes, with the correct video card like the Sapphire x1600 HDMI Pro, you could get full & glorious subscriber HDTV (non of that OTA crap)!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/atis-tv-wonder-digital-cable-tuner-announced/#comments

 

[sxt173]

With pictures people!!! These look sweet.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/pictures-of-atis-tv-wonder-digital-cable-tuner/

 

[Bram]

Does this mean this card can be used for digital and analog TV, at the same time?

 

[sxt173]

yes. I am not sure if CableCard exists outside of US, but the idea is:
Replace the whole set-top digital box that your cable provider gives you with this small card, i.e. it does analog + all the decoding for digital pay channels including HD broadcast.

So, you could in theory put that PCI tuner board in your Media PC and then request a CableCard from your provider. The Cablecard goes in and you have access to all analog + digital channels on your PC without the need for seperate boxes, IR blasters, serial cables, etc...

 

[strontium]

My understanding is it will not be available outside the U.S. Also I believe to begin with these will only be supplied with certified pre-built machines to ensure the content is protected by HDCP at all stages.

"AMD today announced the worlds first CableCard compatible TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner. The AMD TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner is fully certified by CableLabs and compliant with the OCUR, or Open Cable Unidirectional Receiver standard. This product will only be available to OEMs, as Microsoft’s Windows Vista will only support CableCard tuners in pre-built systems."

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5610

 

[Efros]

looks to be DRM rich, and only shipping with Vista drivers pah!