ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner: AMD and Dell Bring CableCARD to PCs
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 3, 2007 11:37 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Installation: Day Two
The second day started off on a new foot. The same Time Warner tech from the day before showed up, but this time his supervisor was with him. The two brought new CableCARDs just in case the ones we tried earlier were somehow too old to work with the tuners. A third Time Warner employee also showed up, this one a regional digital engineer. A fourth Time Warner representative appeared during the course of the day, albeit due to a mistake in scheduling.
Testing levels at the outlet to make sure we had a good enough signal
The Time Warner trio joined us as we got both Microsoft and AMD on the phone trying to get to the bottom of our problems. There was a single OCUR test platform somewhere in the Raleigh area that had been activated and was currently in use on Time Warner's network, so we knew it was a solvable problem; it was just a matter of solving it. While yours truly went to work with AMD on tracing through the setup steps to make sure we didn't miss anything, Gary Lusk was on the phone with Microsoft and Dell making sure there wasn't anything else we could try. The three Time Warner folks also went to work; our peak number of concurrent telephone conversations was about 4 at this point (and that's not counting the one Time Warner rep who had two phones up to his head at once).
Two TWC techs
Two phones, one TWC tech
Everyone is on the phone
The first problem TWC fixed was with regards to our initial CableCARD installation. When a CableCARD is activated on TWC's network, the host id of the CableCARD is married to the device it is activated on. When we switched that CableCARD to one of the OCURs, TWC's system wouldn't let it on the network as it was married to two different devices. [Ed: So polygamy is out of the question?] The system should have automatically deleted the duplicate host id but it had to be manually done on Time Warner's end; after doing that, things started moving a lot smoother.
We were actually able to get some digital cable channels after Time Warner reset the CableCARDs on their end; however, we had trouble tuning to some channels and we'd randomly lose signal. Time Warner suspected that the wiring at our location might be a problem so they went to work on cleaning things up a bit. The cable signal coming in to the location was fed through a surge suppressor and then sent to an amp and two 8-way splitters. The techs removed the surge suppressor and replaced the amp with an amp of their own; this amp had a built in splitter that directly fed the coax inputs on the two TV Wonder DCTs.
Removing the surge suppressor and isolating the coax lines that went directly to the tuners helped a bit, and we could almost watch digital cable normally now. At the end of the entire ordeal, the senior TWC representative that was with us turned to us and asked us what this system could do. We explained, to which he responded with the most priceless of facial expressions. It was an expression that needed no explanation; his reaction asked the question "why on earth would you go through this when you can just rent an HD-DVR from us for $9 a month?"
There were still some lingering issues which we will get to shortly, but as far as Time Warner was concerned, the installation was complete. Dell and TWC left, leaving us to spend some quality time with the system.
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Terrbo40 - Friday, April 17, 2009 - link
On the surface everyone say's, Why not just stay with the DVR from the cable company? Let's take a quick look at that first you have to get the DVR or Card from the Cable company in that way we are still beholden to them especially since BY LAW it's all Digital.Genrally a DVR will only take care of one room (some now will do two rooms) for a Cost of about $10.00 (depending on your provider)
and if you wanted a second one it is approx. $20.00 more a month. So, for two box's you are up to $30.00 a month just for the set top box's and if you are like most people today you have more than two Monitors (TV'S) in your home. And if you out fitted each one with a DVR at a cost of $20.00 each what would that cost you a month?
Now, Take the ATI TV Wonder Digital TV Tuner with one cable card
and put it on the network in your home how many of your Monitor/Tv's would now have DVR capablities not to mention all, the channels that the one or two DVR's you orginally you had all off your network which not only would you be able to watch at home but some of you real tech savey people out there would even be watching from the road.
So, I say why would I not want this tech in my home where in the long run ( short run as well ) it will save me a ton of money that I won't have to be paying to the cable company. Yes, There would be some set up cost in the begining but I figure that I would get that back with in the first year. well that's my two cent's worth thanks for taken the time. I'm sure if you look at it you will find more reasons if you wanted to to go with it as well.
verndewd - Friday, April 6, 2007 - link
Bugs or not its a killer idea. They will work it out and everyone will want one.I want one.Araemo - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
I just saw http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070405-cabl...">this article go up at Ars Technica. AMD has announced that they have discovered a bug with a specific Scientific Atlanta cablecard is causing issues with their OCUR device. Maybe Anandtech's problems are rooted there?PAPutzback - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
I just read a review the other day on the Niveus systems. These look a heck of a lot better than this system reviewed here and the channel changing was quick and flawless.http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/excl...">http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-enterta...quipped-...
Perhaps Anandtech can get one of these systems for a review
DigitalFreak - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/05/ati-stops-shipp...">Linkhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/05/ati-stops-shipp...phil2cool - Thursday, April 5, 2007 - link
Any of you guys take the card out of the box and stick it in a PCIe slot?? Would be interesting to see what the system would do.TrueWisdom - Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - link
I have to say, this review was excellently written, but it dashed all the dreams I had about running a media server. I had envisioned having one PC hooked up to my cable, recording QAM broadcasts, and then distributing them on the fly to any networked device in my house. (I was actually considering purchasing an Xbox 360 for just this purpose--well, that and Gears of War.) But this sounds absolutely ridiculous--any content I try to record or stream is locked down in every conceivable way. Why are they so goddamned concerned with what I do with my media? If it's broadcast OTA, and I paid for it, just let it go. Don't try and control it after it gets to my house, too.I was really excited about using Vista Ultimate's Media Center to stream video and whatnot; it really looked like a simple, attractive interface. Now it looks like it's back to Kubuntu and XBMC.
Can Vista's Media Center stream downloaded material to an Xbox 360? For example, if I were to download episodes of a publicly available program (say Prison Break, for example) in HD, could I then stream it to the X360?
Tujan - Wednesday, April 11, 2007 - link
I tend to agree with this. The problem with configuration of these type of components is you have separate proprietary parties controlling them. OTA broadcast,or Cable in the anolog areana,did not personify 'illegal distribution'. The VCR what it is and was,being nothing more than a recording.To the person making it.With DMCA,these parties become 'liable'in no ending concerns.Via closed off agreements pertaining to the systems volitility.Something RIAA,and MPAA continue to exploit- the reach of communicative systems,and thus their control in continuation of them,on their terms.
I had looked into a Radio Shack catalog one time,and you could for example,take your analog signal,through the RCA connector,and have the whole homes systems receive the video.And sound.
But with the digital stuff,the whole that makes up the parts,is something of a legal partition in consideration of whatever reach a device can be conductive too.Nevermind the usefullness of them.That would be in the terms and agreements.
_________________
I had at first wanted to note that of the problems people are going to have since of course they are going to want to upgrade their processors.Here we are not in technical terms.But yet again going to what legal terms make up their composition. When the leverage is on the proprietary nature,rather than the usefulness of the technology.
Dominoes in missing identity.
vailr - Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - link
Why USB 2.0 instead of firewire?I believe firewire would have been a better choice for an HD TV tuner. Firewire 800 doesn't seem too common right now (firewire 400 being more common). Since Dell has total control of their PC design: why not include 2 firewire 800 ports. And use those instead of USB 2.0 ports for the external AMD TV tuner. Making for less bottleneck when using a USB mouse & keyboard. Not to mention external USB 2.0 hard drives, etc.
tagej - Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - link
As usual Anand did a great job with this review.The more I read about this stuff, the more I realize the combination of the content industry and MS are shooting themselves in the foot with all the restrictions. This platform will never go anywhere if people have to jump through all sorts of hoops and end up having all sorts of issues and restrictions. They'll just get the HD DVR from their cable company and be done with it.
The only reason to go with an HTPC over a regular cable-company HD DVR is to add flexibility -- and all the DRM restrictions have pretty much nixed the flexibility aspect already. For example, you can't burn something and take it over to a buddy's house for viewing. So how is this better than the regular DVR? It's a little shinier in terms of the interface, but otherwise is the same (except it doesn't work as well).
Nope, this thing is dead in the water, MS will not own the living room anytime soon....