Floppyhead - Digital Media and Home Theater Computers

I have been hesitant to buy a CableCard-based media center for one reason: switch digital video.  Basically SDV renders CableCards useless.  Tru2way is the next generation of security technology that allows two way communication between a media center and the cable company and will work with SDV.
Not much has been presented about Tru2way and how it will be implemented with a PC.  Most likely, you will need a bi-directional CableCard tuner.  Speculation is that such a tuner will not be implemented in Vista, but rather Windows 7.

One bit of good news though today is that CableLabs will be demonstrating a PC-based Tru2way  at the Cable Show in New Orleans next week.  Hopefully we will get a sense of the timeframe of when such a tuner will be available. From the press release:

Motorola will demonstrate the advanced media mobility capabilities of its tru2way platform including whole home DVR, caller ID, external hard drive support and Time Warner’s music and photo sharing application; a demo of Comcast’s next generation guide experience and our PC-based tru2way application development environment will also be shown.

My hope is that Tru2way will be implemented by this Christmas in Windows Vista.  Highly unlikely, but I can dream.

(via ConnectedHome2Go)

Sound is a crucial aspect of any home theater system. Home theater computers have the potential to be an excellent audio source though hardware and codec issues still exist, hampering the overall experience to this point.

Missing Remote has a good overview of home theater sound for you HTPC. It is definitely worth the read and explains the issues surrounding the HTPC. Basically, the latest lossless codecs, like Dolby’s TrueHD, used in Blu-ray are not currently available to media center computers. This should be changing in the not too distant future though. I think two recent developments show that the perfect audio set-up for HTPC is near:

1. PowerDVD now supports Dolby TrueHD - While hardware does not exist to take care of this feature, Cyberlink has added it anyway. This should bode well for future ovfferings from Asus or Auzentech.
2. Auzentech is scheduled to release an HDMI extension board to support HDMI 1.3a and Dolby TrueHD. This will allow a single pass-through for both audio and video and will provide the hardware support for Cyberlink and Dolby TrueHD.

There should be big changes this summer in store for your HTPC’s ability to play the latest audio standards from Dolby.

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