The best way to go is HP if you want cablecard. Wait for their 400 off coupon. You will have to buy a second digital tuner from someplace else (like canon pc,which offers internal digital tuners). HP is ATX-based so you can drop the whole thing in an attractive case if you want.

Uh...it was $7,000 at release. Completely overpriced. It was probably the best cablecard solution in terms of features but the price was ridiculous. Not surprising that it died. The niveus price is silly too. Two digital cable tuners for $1200? Insane.

Why are all the cablecard machines outside of HP and dell so expensive?

Ben,

Earlier this week HP had a $400 off coupon for that model, making it even more attractive. The problem with HP is that they had only offered 1 DCT. Now Sony makes it alittle more attractive.

Kevin

Brad does great stuff over at TV Squad. You should, however, link to the original article at Brent Evan's website.

How will it handle switched digital video? Isn't that the big question?

Ben,

I also meant to say that your CableCard 2.0 posts have been great. There really is nothing else out there explaining CableCard 2.0 right now.

Wow, this is actually brillianty devious. All of the cable co's are rolling out switched video to increase HD bandwidth. For SDV you need CableCard 2.0 (i.e. for more HD channels you need it). CableCard 2.0 basically kills Tivo and Media Center through OCAP. So the Cable Co's meet the FCC regs and can gain complete control again. Brilliant.

I would be shocked if the FCC steps in. No one actually cares about the consumer. It does open satellite to be a potential nerd haven though.

The only problem is that it does not appear to support digital cable tuners and does not offer a blu-ray or hd-dvd drive. This product is DOA without these things. What are you paying over $2,000 for?

Here are a couple of questions for you:
1) Can you record TV to an external hard drive or NAS?
2) If you have two DCTs, are you limited to two separate channels to your xbox? Can I watch Lost live downstairs while my wife watches Medium live upstairs while recording the NBA play-offs?

Microsoft's release of Vista should be an interesting experiment with media center and CableCards. If a DVR is just a computer, why not give it the flexibility of a computer? In 2-3 years, a quality home theater computer that can store every movie you own, all your music, and can replace your cable box, will cost less than $750.