S1Digital offers CableCARD-enabled Media Centers
By Donald Melanson 
posted Apr 25th 2007 1:46PM
posted Apr 25th 2007 1:46PM
Those disappointed by the lack of CableCARD support in S1Digital's line-up of Media Centers released earlier this year may want to give the boxes a second look, as the company's now finally decided to join the likes of Niveus and Velocity Micro in the CableCARD game. Both the company's ProLine and Home Series Media Centers will be getting the upgrade early next month, with each able to be equipped with up to two CableCARDs apiece. The systems appear to be otherwise unchanged, however, running on Core 2 Duo or Quad processors, and configurable with up to 1TB of storage, Blu-ray or HD DVD drives, and up to two ATSC and NTSC tuners, among other goodies.
Interesting... Blu-ray...
http://www.steveshickles.tv
Configuration with up to 1TB of storage? I just built a new PC and put in three 500GB drives for less than $400 (for the drives). I had to really hold back in using all six SATA300 hubs, but the price was cheap for those drives. This sounds like another Bosean marketing solution for mucho dinero.
Did you set your three 500 GB drives up in a RAID-5 array? Is your media protected and recoverable, even if an entire drive fails?
Did you purchase a high-quality hardware RAID controller, so you can record up to 4 simultaneous HD streams, at the same time you are streaming 6 simultaneous HD streams out to the Media Center PC itself, along with 5 Media Center Extenders throughout the house?
Did you install HD CableCARD tuners, so you can tune digital HD content from your cable provider? Even if you did, they wouldn't work, as OEM's are the only ones licensed to use them.
Cheap solutions are just that... Cheap... If you want reliability, performance, and out-of-the-box dependability, you're going to have to purchase good quality devices.
I don't have this exact model. I believe it's the model under this one. Sure... It cost some dough... But I will never regret my purchase! I have been totally amazed at the out-of-the-box success of this Media Center PC!
...And the support from S1Digital is phenominal!