Niveus ships first Vista HTPC with CableCARD support -- we think
It's been a busy week for CableCARD HTPCs. First we caught the Dell XPS 410 preview prior to spotting an unofficial announcement in the AVS Forum that Velocity Micro would be shipping their CableCARD HTPC this week. Now we struck gold (we think) with the first official CableCard-ready Vista HTPCs now shipping from Niveus. As of today, both the Niveus Summit Series ($3,199 Rainier and $7,999 Denali) and Pro Series ($7,999 n7 and $15,999 n9) ship with HD DVD options and hot-blooded HD CableCARD-support. Keyword: "support," meaning you still have to spring an additional $1,499 to get the separate Digital Cable Receiver box with 2x CableCARD receivers like we saw at CES. You'll also have to track down a local dealer to bring home the Pro or Denali models but at least the Rainier is available online and shipping in 2-3 weeks. As always with CableCARD, there's still a piece that's unclear: the CableCARD receiver still shows a "mid-March" ship date. Pffff.
[Via Chris Lanier's Blog]
Read -- Niveus Rainier
Read -- Niveus Digital Cable Receiver
