Yes, this Media Center concept just won’t die! It’s an endless pursuit of perfection, and I may be one step closer.

For Christmas I received an HDHomerun tuner. This thing is pretty sweet. It’s a network-based tuner, so you just plug it into your cable/antenna, then plug it into your network. Then any machine on your network can see it and utilize it as a tuner. Even Media Center treats it as a real tuner! I did some playing around with different setups and currently have the HDHomerun broadcasting ClearQAM stations (which, albeit, is not very many). Still, the concept of having it as a network tuner is awesome.

This tuner brought my attention back to my Media Center. Why, oh why can’t I have HD cable on it? Why am I trapped in STB-World, limited by substandard hardware leased to me by Time Warner Cable? Why must CableLabs be so stingy and only allow OEM/certified machines use of a CableCARD tuner?

These were difficult questions, and required research. Again. I thought perhaps someone else had figured out a way around these things. Or perhaps someone had an alternative method of getting legal HD cable on a Media Center. My research came back empty. It was still the same as it always was: you needed a certified machine, which required a “special” BIOS with specific ACPI tables with vendor-specific information, and a “special” version of Windows Vista, which I learned was just a COA with two product keys–one for Vista and one for the CableLabs activation.

Wait..COA? When I did my initial research last summer, no one said anything about a COA. I never looked there previously.

When I learned of the COA number, I turned off my XPS 420 desktop and checked the COA sticker on the back, positive that this was just another dead end and that I should give up.

That’s when I saw it.

On the far right corner of my COA, there was another 25-digit number. I couldn’t believe it. I had a CableLabs certified PC!

Almost immediately after this discovery, I did some research online, and found the fabled ATi TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner on eBay and bid on it. I then proceeded to do two reinstalls–my XPS became my Media Center (Vista Home Premium x86), and my old Media Center became my desktop (Vista Ultimate x64).

After installing the MCE TV Pack 2008 and any related patches, my Media Center was ready to rock. It now sits connected to my TV, anxiously awaiting for it’s tuner.

This could be my moment to be released from the cable box!

Ironically enough, my cable box died over the weekend, so I had to take the wonderful piece of equipment into the TWC store at Mayfair Mall. The line was non-existent, which made me happy. I walked up to the counter and told them what was wrong, and they gave me a new tuner. Before I left, I told the person behind the desk of my plans to switch to a CableCARD tuner hooked up to my Media Center. I was both shocked and amazed by her response:

Amazed because she seemed to understand what a Media Center was. Either she owned one, or these things are actually starting to take off.

Shocked because TWC is obviously in the nickel-and-dime business. I was told the cost of this endeavor. To get a CableCARD, it requires a truck roll, since they need to activate it. Essentially, for a TWC tech to come out to my apartment, insert a CableCARD in a slot, make a phone call, then walk away, it’ll cost me “around $40.” What was even better was the rental cost of a CableCARD, which comes out to approximately $5/month. Yes, that’s half of the cost of my current rental fee for my cable box, but I figured it’d be a tad better (I read that Comcrap–I mean–Comcast offered these things for $1-2/month).

Alas, this is bad news, but I’m not bothered by it much as I’m still rolling with a machine that’s capable of being a cable-ready Media Center. I’ve got a possible alternative anyway..

The cable box I have now already has a CableCARD. I haven’t read into any of this yet, but I might be able to just remove the CableCARD from my existing cable box and put it in my digital cable tuner. If all goes to plan, I’ll save $40 and have a spare cable box to use as an over-glorified coaster. If all doesn’t go to plan, then I got a chance to test it.

For now, it’s the waiting game. I should have the ATi tuner this week or early next week. And trust me–I’ll be testing this as soon as I receive that unit.

~Jaker