SiliconDust To Announce CableCard Product?

[FreshOne]

Mentioned on Engadget:
http://hd.engadget.com/2010/01/04/hd...coming-to-ces/

From this forum post:
http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7873

I would be VERY interested in this (hopefully for use with Sage eventually).....

EDIT -Added link to press release
$249 for 2 tuners
http://www.silicondust.com/press

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by FreshOne

I would be VERY interested in this (hopefully for use with Sage eventually).....

I'm not holding my breath.

[Sparhawk6]

If I'm not mistaken, Sage would still have to pay the exorbitant CableCard licensing fees to use the SiliconDust tuner. I'm not holding my breath either.

This seems so anti-competitive.

[bastafidli]

On related note. popcornhour just announced netflix support. I have read here numbers for how much money netflix requires for this feature. What is your opinion, is popcorn hour smaller or bigger than sage and if smaller how is it that they can provide netflix and sage cant (or keeping my fingers crossed that they will announce it at CES :-)).

[sic0048]

I have netflix capabilities already through SageTV. Why would I want Sage to spend a lot of money to duplicate functionality?

[aflat]

Originally Posted by sic0048

I have netflix capabilities already through SageTV. Why would I want Sage to spend a lot of money to duplicate functionality?

Netflix in HD would be nice. It's watchable as is for sure, and I love it, but better quality wouldn't hurt at all.

[reggie14]

I have a WinXP server right now, and I'd really prefer to avoid updating it to Windows 7. I have a spare copy of Win7 x32/x64 laying around in case that day comes, but I really don't want to do a massive update to my server.

While I agree its unlikely, part of me would like to think there's some chance the SiliconDust device will work with operating systems other than Win7. I don't see why a cable card tuner couldn't supply non-copy-protected channels to any operating system. Since that's likely (in my case, at least) to be everything other than HBO/Showtime/etc., I'd be able to get rid of my firewire tuner, and I wouldn't have to worry about when Comcast shuts off my expanded-basic SD QAM channels. I'd still keep one HD box to use with my HD-PVR, but I'd get rid of my second firewire recording box.

I would almost certainly buy this product if it works in my current server. But, I probably won't if I have to update my server to Win7. At least, not until I build a new server.

Originally Posted by sic0048

I have netflix capabilities already through SageTV. Why would I want Sage to spend a lot of money to duplicate functionality?

Netflix via PlayOn doesn't come even close in quality to streaming HD video to Roku/LG/Samsung/etc. Netflix-ready boxes. I think it would be great to have official support for Netflix on the extenders- I just don't think we'll ever see it due to Sage's limited customer base.

[bastafidli]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I just don't think we'll ever see it due to Sage's limited customer base.

So what this in you opinion means?
1. That Popcorn Hour is much bigger than Sage since they have added this capability?
2. They see it as key differentiator from competition that it is worth the cost?
3. They see it as must have feature without which they wouldn't be considered so it is worth the cost?
4. They somehow manages to lower the cost of entry from Netflix?

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

So what this in you opinion means?
1. That Popcorn Hour is much bigger than Sage since they have added this capability?

I suspect Syabas sells significantly more PCH units than Sage sells HD200s. The media streamer market is much bigger than the PC-DVR market, and the PCH is better known and respected in that niche. Syabas itself is probably bigger than Sage too, although I don't have any information that supports that assertion.

In additon, Syabas has several different models of their streamer. They're coming out with the low-cost $130 unit, they still have the A-110, and the C-200 from last year. I think having low, moderate, and high-end devices helps them sell more units, and they're probably projecting significantly more sales of the Popbox than they had with the A100/110.

Unless Sage comes out with something very unexpected at CES this year, I think it will be tough for Sage to complete with the PCH units on media streamers. That means they won't be able to get their sales high enough to get Netflix's attention.

2. They see it as key differentiator from competition that it is worth the cost?
3. They see it as must have feature without which they wouldn't be considered so it is worth the cost?
4. They somehow manages to lower the cost of entry from Netflix?

I don't think this is a cost issue. I haven't seen cost figures, only some requirement on a minimum number of expected users, but I would be a little surprised if the cost involved was terribly prohibitive. I suspect this is more of a number of users issue.

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by aflat

Netflix in HD would be nice. It's watchable as is for sure, and I love it, but better quality wouldn't hurt at all.

No arguement there.

[mogrinz]

Just read this awesome story over at engadget. Fingers crossed this makes it into our world in the near future:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/07/h...tuner-for-249/

"The dual tuner model in development will require just one CableCARD and one coax input, but will allow you to record two HD shows at once, and all for $249 -- less than the single ATI CableCARD tuner sells for today."

* merged 1 *

[stanger89]

Related topic, when did they release the single tuner HDHR?

[sic0048]

It's been a while.

I'm not real sure why someone would want only 1 tuner, but I guess there was enough demand to produce it.

[bsquarewi]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk6

If I'm not mistaken, Sage would still have to pay the exorbitant CableCard licensing fees to use the SiliconDust tuner. ...

Can anyone confirm this? Wouldn't the cablecard licensing aspect be done by the purchase of the tuner?

[wrems]

Originally Posted by bsquarewi

Can anyone confirm this? Wouldn't the cablecard licensing aspect be done by the purchase of the tuner?

That was my thought, but I really don't know...

[Skirge01]

It's the certification process that costs money... 10's of thousands, in fact. Check out this page's docs. Some of those fees are over $100k.

[drewg]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/07/h...tuner-for-249/

I'm surprised I haven't seen mention of this elsewhere (except buried in the Frey/Sage at CES thread). It will be interesting to see if sagetv could use it natively for non-premium channels, or if it is DRM'ed to the gills and would really be tied to extracting things from 7MC.

Drew

* merged 2 *

Well, I suppose finding your merged post about something is one way to find the thread. I've never even looked in the h/w support topic Anyway, thanks for merging!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by bsquarewi

Can anyone confirm this? Wouldn't the cablecard licensing aspect be done by the purchase of the tuner?

Actually they'd probably "just" have to pay Microsoft to use WMDRM10 that WMC uses. The ATI OCUR devices convert from the cable encryption to WMDRM10 inside the box and feed the WMDRM'd recording to 7MC. WMDRM10 is an approved DRM system by CableLabs so Sage could license that.

The problem is Sage would need to implement it and that's probably one of the big barriers, that would be a lot of rework on their recording and playback architecture to get WM DRM10 support in their PC products, not to mention extenders, Mac and Linux products.

Originally Posted by drewg

Well, I suppose finding your merged post about something is one way to find the thread. I've never even looked in the h/w support topic Anyway, thanks for merging!

Search is your friend.

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by stanger89

The problem is Sage would need to implement it and that's probably one of the big barriers, that would be a lot of rework on their recording and playback architecture to get WM DRM10 support in their PC products, not to mention extenders, Mac and Linux products.

CableCard in the HTPC space has always been Windows-only, so that's not a new limitation. It probably wouldn't be too terribly hard to implement for HD200-only playback, like BD. And that could drive HD200 sales. From a SageTV business perspective, it would just be another option for your customers. There's always the HD PVR if they want to stick with drm-free.

I'm curious what kind of file sizes are we talking about? 15GB/hour? I predict more money spent on upgrading your media storage than spent on the HDHR device.

[SHS]

http://hd.engadget.com/2010/01/07/hd...-to-the-brand/
Bad news if the content is marked as Copy Once your SOL and it will must likely not work out side of WMC.