As I have said before on this blog, the main new feature of Windows Vista Media Center is the addition of CableCARD support. Microsoft has a lot riding on the implementation of CableCard by various vendors, including Niveus. The Niveus Digital Cable Receiver has two internal CableCARD receivers, allowing users to tune and/or record two channels simultaneously. It is a very sleek and attractive piece of hardware and looks so much better than the digital receiver offered by ATI.
From the Niveus website:
Optimized for dual HDTV CableCARD recording, the Niveus Digital Cable Receiver enables you to record one high definition channel while simultaneously watching another high definition channel. You’ll never miss a show.
The design of the receiver is phenomenal. So what is the catch? It costs $1500. Think about that. $1500 for a glorified cable box. The $1500 does not get you a computer or any hard drive. It simply is for a place to install two CableCARDs. A Series 3 Tivo can be found forunder $800 now and offers the same functionality and comes with a hard drive to actually record television shows. The Niveus Digital Receiver is insanely expensive and should quite frankly scare Microsoft. If vendors cannot sell Digital receivers for less than $1500, Vista’s Media Center may become pointless.
The Niveus Digital receiver should be available in the next couple of weeks.
March 14th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Normally I’d say that these devices always start out costing too much, and then as early adopters purchase them, companies can ramp up production. The manufacturing costs go down, and so do prices. Eventually they hit reasonable prices. We’re seeing this happen with HDTV sets right now.
But at $1500, I’m not even certain that early adopters are going to shell out the money for this kind of device. That said, Niveus has never been a low-end kind of company. Niveus customers are looking for high end equipment that functions as it should. It’ll be up to other companies, (like ATI) to make CableCard support affordable.
March 14th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
$1500 for essentially a cable box is alot. The problem is that the ATI external reader is really ugly.
Internal card readers make much more sense anyway though you still have to connect via a USB cable from the computer to the internal card.