Dell XPS 410 with CableCARD and Blu-ray (p)reviewed
By Ryan Block 
posted Mar 15th 2007 9:46PM
posted Mar 15th 2007 9:46PM
- Dell claims that the sales rep who takes the order for your CableCARD-equipped Dell box will also schedule an appointment with your local cable company to have the CableCARDs delivered and installed the same day your system comes. (Really? We're skeptical.)
- The initial CableCARD install apparently took three friggin hours to drop in, provision, and get running; one of the two tuners continually didn't work for PC Mag, which caused lingering issues. Both the cable company and Dell eventually had to reflash the tuner and CableCARDs.
- HD (and some SD) video had problems: "stuttering and video artifact issues". Bummer.
- Dell said "the company went with Blu-ray instead of HD-DVD [sic] simply because BD-RE is a writable drive now" -- does that mean when writable HD DVD drives are more commonplace Dell will offer both?
- Streaming live and recorded TV to your Xbox 360 works flawlessly, as expected.
- Blu-ray playback worked well with 3rd party apps, but like HD DVD, it can't yet be done in Media Center (yay DRM)
- The system hit some performance limits when playing back Blu-ray flicks and streaming or recording media. More power!
- We don't agree with PC Mag's assessment that "TV on Vista's MCE interface is still a niche product". Perhaps because many millions of Media Center PCs have been shipped -- but let's not split hairs.
Like most new cutting edge technologies/gadgets I prefer to wait at least 6 months for them to iron out the bugs before I pour my hard earned cash into it. Sounds like they still have some tweaking to do.
-----
http://www.Technibble.com - A Resource for computer technicians.
It's a Hell. Do you expect it to work?
I moved on when I found out I would have to buy an entirely new PC and couldn't build my own w/CableCard.
You can get the ATI cablecard tuners separately, can't you?
Most problems are probably due to the nightmare Vista build Dell created. I bet if they do a clean install all the problems go away.
Pathetic. I was really hoping to send back my DVR and have an HTPC with all the speed and hard drive space I put in myself. Making you buy a whole new PC is a joke. The fact that it doesn't work flawlessly is an even bigger joke.
Is Blu-Ray Winning?
Yes.
+1 for Conan!!!
The ATI tuner won't be available retail for another year I think.
It's pretty huge, I think I'll wait a year until the internal version comes out (if there will be such a thing).
Glad cable card is getting used at least, the compatibility is horrendous thanks to cable companies being slow about it. Thanks to Tivo and this tuner hopefully it'll get a lot better.
So, other than a unwatchable video and this is AFTER priority PR and VIP tech support of 5 people? Yea, sounds like Dell & MS - as long as it fits in the cardboard box and it hits all the specs we printed in the 400 page booklet, it's good to go - once it's shipped - not our concern.
Does cablecard also work with Dishnetwork/DirecTV?
Unless you are 30 years old, you can not afford it, and unless you are living with your parents why the hack will you watch Hi-Def from you desktop rather than your TV in your living room.
Um, Emre, if youre not retarded you'd know that you can watch HI-Def from an HDTV while having the convenience of a HTPC to record video and also double as a computer to surf the internet, etc. Thats the whole reason they are making HTPCs.
Oh yeah Dave, if you are not retarded you probably won't watch live or pre-recorded TV from your PC either. A noisy monster desktop PC does not belong to a living room next to nice furniture whatever convenience it provides. Unless it is quite and has a cool component look it will never go to next to my TV. That's why HP and (many other small companies) has component style cases for Media Center PCs. Dell keep pushing these ugly beasts but it won't go further that dorms.
Have you heard of media center extenders? You can have your "noisy monster desktop PC" in another room and stream live and recorded TV to an extender. Works flawlessly with the 360. Heck, you can even get multiple extenders and stream to multiple TVs in your house.
"Streaming live and recorded TV to your Xbox 360 works flawlessly, as expected."
Well, the install and quality issues are pretty sad, given the level of support they got. Sounds like its not ready for prime time.
And with no pricing info, no idea when it will be available, not much to go on.
And the external cable card modules are horrifying. If it doesn't install in a drive slot or something, I'm not buying.
And they don't discuss any of the DRM issues. Personally, my MCE box isn't hooked up to a TV, and if I can't export my videos to a Tivo or an iPod, its not much use to me.
Obvious questions they didn't answer:
- Does this system restrict non-cable card recorded content any more than an XP MCE machine does?
- Can you play cable-card recorded content with WMP, or only inside MCE? Would allow you to do other things with your PC while watching, and provide a possible way around the DRM...
- Does it support multi-stream cable cards?
- Will it be upgradable to multi-stream cable cards, or 2-way cable cards, or OCAP?
- Does it have multiple tuners, i.e. HD, QAM, RF, cablecard? If not, can they be added after the fact? How many can be active at once? Does it have an integrated channel guide for all of the above? Can it prioritize recordings on non-DRMed inputs over others?
- Can you export video to the Zune?
Why can't cablecards work just like SIM cards for a cell phone? IOW, you get the card(s) in the mail, stick them into your tuner device of choice, and it just works. These paranoid media companies have to lock it down so hard that it takes techs from 2 companies 3 hours to activate?! This is DRM at its finest!
HTPCs don't stand a chance because the cable companies don't want you to have a HD cable card/tuner without a HD cablebox. Even then the HD signal is downgraded because of cable companies DRM policies for HD tuner cards. Here's the kicker: An HD HTPC requires 2 ugly cable boxes to have Tivo-like DVR capabilities. Does this make sense to you? It's just another example of coroprate legality vs. common technical sense.
Stand up for your cable rights, visit http://www.eff.org.
Tedweb, I think you are confused. HTPCs will require (two) cable-cards -- not "2 ugly cable boxes". It is the same as the Series 3 Tivo (the only other HD-capable PVR supporting cable). And you only need two if you want to record two stations at the same time.
HTPCs will win the battle for the high-end as they provide the best mix of features when compared to the DVR offerings from the cable companies. But average Joe's will choose the cable DVR because it doesn't have the upfront expense or installation difficulties.
Over the long run, HTPCs will win everything because they'll always be ahead of the cable companies proprietary systems (streaming, integration with non-tv-based content, unlimited storage capability...) but it will take another 4-6 years before the market fleshes out.
And also, cablecards do not "downgrade" HD signals. The only time signals are downgrade is when interfaces that don't support the DRM are in use. If you want to output to a non-HDCP device for instance, you can only do so at non-HD levels.
I tend to leave any new technology for 6 months to a year so that eveyone who buys it can test it for me by 6 months the bugs are all ironed out...so I get trouble free use of the product.
http://www.britec.co.uk