Alienware is finally getting around to updating the Hangar 18 with CableCard support. Apparently the first iteration of the Hangar 18 sans CableCard support was a resounding success, which is surprising to me because of its complete lack of HD support.

CE Pro has the scoop:

Soon, Alienware will offer CableCard support for the Hangar 18 through an external OCUR (OpenCable Unidirectional Receiver) box. Here’s the hitch: OCUR will only be available through professional home technology installers/resellers. “We feel that OCUR is a solution that requires the expertise of a reseller and installer to perform an optimal customer experience, which does not warrant direct consumer sales of OCUR-equipped products,” says Marc Diana, product manager for non-mobile products.

Well, this pretty much guarantees that I will not be buying the Hangar 18. Why is CableCard support so difficult for companies to implement into their media centers? No one has really done it right, besides Velocity Micro. Sony is close but the VGX-XL3 really needs 2 digital cable tuners.

1. Two digital cable tuners to record one HD program while watching another
2. A Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive to watch HD movies
3. NVidia 8500/8600 GT video card to optimize performance of HD content

A couple days ago I complained about Alienware’s Hangar 18 lack of CableCard support and Blu-ray/HD-DVD drives. The Hangar 18 has none of these right now, which is kind of surprising. However, they are planning to offer these items in an series of upgrades over the next couple of months.

My main concern though with the Hangar 18 is the chassis, which only has one more available slot for a digital cable tuner. In order to have two tuners, it appears that you will need to use external tuners, which kills the the point of having such a stylish case. To be fair to Alienware, only one vendor offers these three items: Velocity Micro PC. Hopefully this will change soon to drive down prices.

Computershopper.com

A whole lot hasn’t been heard lately from the other married couple of mainstream and performance PCs—Alienware and Dell. But that’s apparently going to change in the next few months. according to two Alienware marketing execs I interviewed over the phone late last week. While they were circumspect about some of the new things they’re working on, they did provide a couple of specifics: the long-awaited Hangar 18 HD Entertainment Center home-theater PC (pictured) will launch this week, and the Area-51 m9750—the first SLI-based laptop using Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs—will be launched later this month.

This sleek looking system is going to be the first computer based on AMD’s Home Cinema reference design and is expected to have the following features:

• HDMI connector
• Up to 4 TV tuners (two analog and two HD/digital TV tuners)
• 1000-watt total capacity amplifier and subwoofer output (5 channels deliver 200 watts peak power output each)
• Slim slot loading DVD/CD/Blu-ray player/burner

No mention of digital cable tuners (DCT) have been made in conjunction with the Hangar 18. I think DCTs are almost a necessity right now for any OEM media center pc. I have my doubts whether such a slim system would be capable of have two internal DCTs.