Sony selling the ATI TV Wonder CableCARD tuner all by its lonesome

Although Vista Media Center supports up to four CableCARDs, we haven't actually seen the required ATI TV Wonder breakout box for sale by itself yet -- it usually only comes bundled with a CableLABS-certified Vista Media Center PC. (In fact, from what we hear, OEMs are strictly forbidden from selling them without a PC.) It looks like Sony's ready to bust these things loose, however, because SonyStyle.com is now selling them as the "VAIO Digital TV Tuner" for $299. You'll still need that Vista Media Center PC with the required special firmware to make it work, but those of you itching to add more tuners to your rig -- or just hack away at these things -- might finally be able to make it happen. Just don't blame us of CableLABS's locks prevent you from properly capturing all those delicious high def MPEG-2 streams.

[Thanks, William]

[ieko @ Oct 25th 2007 4:39AM]

MAN! If they had done this last week this would've been PERFECT for me :(

Oh well, it's good to see that this may be easier to obtain now! Perhaps this will break it open for everyone else.

[JohnDoe303 @ Oct 25th 2007 7:07AM]

This is HUGE! Nice find. When I thought there was no hope, my dreams finally came true.

[Patrick @ Oct 25th 2007 8:30AM]

YES! Now for more stores to follow their lead.

[hbbyboy @ Oct 25th 2007 9:09AM]

Wonder what the "special firmware" means.

[Patrick @ Oct 25th 2007 9:17AM]

hbbyboy, they're referring to PCs with a special BIOS (also requires a special Vista install) that these DCTs check for to allow them to work with the PC. MS/OEM's concession to CableLABS.

[Ryan Worrell @ Oct 25th 2007 9:49AM]

Is that "magical" firmware available yet anywhere on the interwebs?

[Ryan Worrell @ Oct 25th 2007 9:52AM]

Do you seriously "have" to have a Intel C2D or CD to run this thing? Or is that Sony advertising forcefully? It would seem really stupid that ATI's product would not be compatible with any AMD CPU's seeing as how they are the same company.

[holycow @ Oct 25th 2007 10:49AM]

its a 'VAIO' Digital Tuner.. and VAIO's use Intel, therefore they have INTEL chips on their site.

[Ryan Worrell @ Oct 25th 2007 11:20AM]

Dude. what are you talking about. Sony is selling it for their VIAO's maybe but it is not a Sony or a VIAO tuner it is a universal cablecard tuner made my ATI (owned by AMD)

[holycow @ Oct 25th 2007 11:29AM]

and hence the VAIO was in quotation marks.

[Tac-Elf @ Oct 25th 2007 8:42PM]

The special firmware in indeed a BIOS which is only available on OEM-supplied mainboards certified by CableLabs. Don't blame MS for this, as TIVO (and all other CableCard using devices) has to have their devices certified by CableLabs as well. The funny thing if you look at something like Velocity Micro is the mainboards are just off-the-shelf units you could buy, just without the magic BIOS. There's nothing special about them, yet CableLabs will not allow mainboard manufacturers to sell them directly with the aforementioned magic BIOS.

[Gabe McGuinness @ Oct 25th 2007 11:43AM]

I'm very excited about this. It's only a matter of time before the "special" version of vista ends up on usenet or torrent sites. I'm still wondering about the "firmare" is it looking for a special bios firmware? wouldn't that be motherboard dependent? Even if it is, given enough time people will come out with some sort of bootstrap installation procedure to get this to work. I'll feel no remorse for hacking my way into some Cable Card goodness, If cable labs is determined to treat us DIY media center system builders as criminals, we might as well act like them...

[mfed3 @ Oct 25th 2007 12:00PM]

amen, fuck cable labs. this all stems from them trying to keep the cable monopoly. cant wait till it falls or iptv slips in and owns everything.

[Chris @ Oct 25th 2007 11:52AM]

Sorry guys, but you will not be able to use this.

I was Velocity Micro's Director of Product Development, and I deployed CableCARDs for them.

1) You need an OEM activation BIOS with the proper OSFR ACPI table not only present, but populated with vendor specific information.

2) You need a special copy of Vista with digital cable tuner activation PID. You will not be able to purchase this unless you are a direct OEM with MS and have signed a DTOS.

3) You need to sign a conformance letter with Cable Labs and they store the information from #1 in this list on central servers, and that information is checked every 90 days to ensure compliance.

4) If at any time it is found that the information has been compromised, Cable Labs need merely to flip a switch and you will cease to receive premium cable content.

[Ryan P @ Oct 25th 2007 12:12PM]

Why is cable card such a miserable experience? I can get OTA HD and no one cares, but as soon as I want something on cable I'm committing a heist.

This had a lot of potential.

[Ryan Worrell @ Oct 25th 2007 12:49PM]

Roger that. CableLABS ruins everything for the rest of us. As the cost of fiber implementation comes down more and more I believe we will see a big shift. Companies like Verizon will start to take over. It's faster, better, more affordable, and not a monopoly like cable. Sadly, at the moment Verizon is about 5 years ahead of the time.

[Jon Tate @ Dec 27th 2007 7:42PM]

Hi Chris,

I'm just a bonehead consumer but if you have just a second, I sure would apreciate your advice. My cable company stinks so I signed up with DirectTV when I bought a new Sony XBR4 (1080P) Television (Circuit City gave me $300 off on the TV).

I also just bought a new HP M9000T media PC. The PC came with the ATI TV WONDER Digital Cable Tuner. When I talked to the guys at HP, I told them I wanted to be able to record HD content on my new BlueRay R/W that came with the machine. They told me I needed to buy this particular TV tuner because it had to be configured at the factory with Vista tweaks and internal card etc.

Can I use the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner with Direct TV to view and record HD content from Windows Vista Home Premium ("tweaked by HP")?

[Chris @ Dec 27th 2007 7:51PM]

Hi Jon...

You will not be able to record DirecTV HD content with an OCUR system. You can only watch premium cable content, not satellite. The rumor mill is alive with speculation about satellite support, but if it's true you're looking at a ways out in my opinion.

Sounds like your reps at HP just don't understand the technology and gave you bad info.

You also will not be able to burn "playable" Blu-ray disks with digital cable content on them. You can back up the data files, but you cannot create a Blu-ray movie, so to speak.

[Xavier Lauwaert - Sony @ Oct 25th 2007 1:50PM]

All,

I am the Product Manager for Sony's VAIO line of Digital Home products so please allow me to correct some comments made above:
- @ Chris, thank you for detailed and very correct comment on CableCARD usage with PCs.
- you are absolutely correct, only selected models qualify for usage with this TV Tuner
- as everyone can see, we posted the following cautionary note: "Compatible Models: Units already shipping with ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner"
- this is a secondary/optional CableCARD tuner for VAIO models that already ship with one such tuner.
- by offering this secondary tuner we wanted to enable our end users (who bought a VAIO model shipping with one tuner) to view and record simultaneously premium TV content (especially HD channels)
- the applicable units are selected models of the XL, AR and LT series shipping with one tuner already
- This is an ATi Digital Cable TV Tuner and is not rebranded VAIO. we just used the VGP-ANK1 naming for our internal purposes

In the hope this clarifies matters,

Xavier @ Sony

[Jon Tate @ Dec 27th 2007 7:44PM]

Hi Xavier, I would like to hear your comments on the question I posed to Chris as well:

I'm just a bonehead consumer but if you have just a second, I sure would apreciate your advice. My cable company stinks so I signed up with DirectTV when I bought a new Sony XBR4 (1080P) Television (Circuit City gave me $300 off on the TV).

I also just bought a new HP M9000T media PC. The PC came with the ATI TV WONDER Digital Cable Tuner. When I talked to the guys at HP, I told them I wanted to be able to record HD content on my new BlueRay R/W that came with the machine. They told me I needed to buy this particular TV tuner because it had to be configured at the factory with Vista tweaks and internal card etc.

Can I use the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner with Direct TV to view and record HD content from Windows Vista Home Premium ("tweaked by HP")?

[Peter Dampier - MS @ Oct 25th 2007 3:54PM]

These tuners will work on any digital cable capable PC that shipped with Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. The machine must have the dual Certificate of Authenticity sticker on it - The sticker has both the Vista PID key and a Digital Cable Tuner PID key on it. Per Chris's comments this tuner won't just work with any Vista PC but it will work as an addition if you need an additional digital cable tuner with your current digital cable machine.

[Stumpy25 @ Oct 25th 2007 6:04PM]

I already have a dual cablecard system from velocity micro. Can I just add this to make it 3? Has this been confirmed or is it just a theory?

[Peter Dampier - MS @ Oct 25th 2007 6:54PM]

Stumpy - Its not a supported scenario but is possible to make work via registry changes per the recent CEDIA announcements. You can also add up to two ATSC tuners.

[palehorse @ Oct 26th 2007 2:46PM]

Fvck CableLabs. seriously.