I see an alternate future reality for high definition. Forget cable! We do not need it. We can use Over-The-Air (OTA) ATSC recording for regular broadcasts, downloads from Amazon Unbox, iTunes or others services, and watch streaming video on-line, such as ABC.com’s posting of full episodes of their TV shows.

I experimented with both Amazon Unbox and iTunes movies this past week. It was not a cake walk but I got it to work using an XP box as a server and my RHFtech HTPC with Vista Ultimate RTM as the the client. This was networked wirelessly using 802.11g. I watched “Little Miss Sunshine” from Amazon rented for $1.99 and “The Guardian”, bought for $12.99 because iTunes does not rent.

I watched both movies full screen on my HDTV attached to the RHFtech HTPC. Video and audio were excellent. This feels much more like the future than hi-def cable.

Cable and CableCARD may be a deadend. They turn off the customer base with additional restrictions and equipment requirements. They are not helping the HTPC market but as I said above I do not think they really matter in the future. An HTPC can do much more than a cable box.

I lost your comment. My server had issues and deleted the first version of this post